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[ajjohnsonsoxfan]

Originally Posted by gregndodgers

As with any catastrophe which has a multitude of factors / causes all coming together simultaneously, a lack of funding appears to be one of the many problems. As I said in my post, "money was an issue." Never said it was the only one.

Money wasn't the issue. If you dig deeper the LAFD actually got an increase in budget like they have in previous years. Initially the proposed budget was a decrease but we do know the final budget gave LAFD an overall increase compared to the prior fiscal year.

The real culprit for this once in a generation catastrophe is a confluence of zero rain fall (It's been over 75 years since Los Angeles has had less rain during this period) and hurricane force Santa Ana winds that blow the opposite way of normal wind currents west to east from the ocean. When the high winds downed any air support on Tuesday night, there's no amount of increased budget that would prevent what took place. You also have to remember how spread out Los Angeles is and with 4+ fires starting within 48 hours of one another stretched resources thin. And logistically it takes 2+ days to get personnel and resources from outside the county, state and country to get to the affected areas. Right now there are water planes from Mexico and Canada in the fight as well as firefighters from many neighboring states.