Residents in the burn area of the Palisades Fire have been queuing in a parking lot off Pacific Coast Highway to obtain access passes to see what’s left of their homes. Unhoused residents are now starting a long ordeal to return to normalcy.
At a public meeting on Sunday, some residents were furious over officials’ initial response to the disaster, citing the lack of fire trucks in their neighborhood.
“We deployed everything that we knew to be prepared for the moment that was before us,” Palisades-area LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath tells KCRW. “And we've also heard from our fire chief, [Anthony] Marrone, that even if we had every single firefighter, every single truck in the United States of America, we wouldn't have been able to stop the fire that happened.”
Could the county have mitigated losses if more fire trucks were sent out, and the nearby reservoir was full? Horvath responds, “I think people have a lot of questions that deserve answers. Which is why Supervisor [Kathryn] Barger and I brought forward a motion calling for an after-action on the alert system, on our water infrastructure, on our response as a whole.”
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The LA Times also recently revealed that the county knew in 2013 that new water tanks, pumps, and other infrastructure were needed in Topanga and Malibu to achieve “critical goals,” including “fire flow needs.” Construction was expected to take seven years and cost $57 million, but it never started.
Horvath notes that the 2013 report happened before she joined the Board of Supervisors, but since she started her position, water resiliency has been a priority.
“When I became chair, the very first day, we authorized the county's water plan to talk about what we need for a water-resilient future; the facilities that we want to bring online that we have — and I personally have — aggressively pursued state and federal funding for. And we are working with all of our regional partners on how we want to enhance water systems going forward.”
She adds, “We need to build out our water facilities to ensure that we have a water-resilient future, not only for fighting fires, but also to have safe, clean drinking water and [a] water resource that's affordable.”
Horvath points out that year after year, the county has increased its fire budget; and in 2024, residents passed Measure E, the parcel tax that goes toward the county fire department, which would help upgrade infrastructure, vehicles, and equipment. Plus, after the Woolsey Fire, the third district launched a Community Brigade in partnership with LA County Fire so trained civilians can support firefighting efforts.
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Educating residents is key too, she says. “I've been doing emergency preparedness training with my communities throughout the third district, which is the most disaster-prone district of any county in the entire country. … And so making sure that our residents know well in advance of an emergency — where they can go to get information, how response will happen, what they should be prepared for, how they communicate with their neighbors, what to do in the event of power being shut off. We train our residents on that throughout the year.”
As for cleanup, the EPA-led Phase One has been sped up from a projected three-month timeline to 30 days, Horvath says. Plus, “We heard from the colonel and the Army Corps that what they originally projected to be at 18 months… if everyone signs up for their service quickly, he said 80 to 90% could be done in under a year.”
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However, if cleanup crews move quickly, would they sacrifice safety, given all the hazardous materials in the soil, air, and water? There are already concerns from residents in areas where debris will be moved.
Horvath says that the hazardous nature of the debris is why the U.S. EPA is leading this effort, and why private property owners are not allowed to do Phase One cleanup on their own. “It must be done by the EPA to ensure that we are doing this with all best practices in mind, and that it's done by professionals who are trained to do so.”
As for rebuilding, the county has approved a 20-page motion to “drastically reduce regulatory hurdles in the rebuilding process,” according to Supervisor Kathryn Barger at a press conference this morning.
Going forward though, buildings in fire zones must be more fireproof, which will require lots of money. So how will homeowners be able to afford that?
Horvath says she asked her staff that yesterday: “What are the incentives that already exist to … make sure that [homeowners] are adopting as many of those 21st century home-hardening and fire-hardening practices into their rebuilds as possible? And what else do they need from us, as legislators, to push for more incentives and more support for our homeowners?”
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