LA Fire Marshall muzzled: Feds on the way down to cover their asses

[Nikki Stone1]

Earlier this week, the LA Fire Marshall angrily blamed the US Forest Service for repeatedly ignoring pleas from local authorities (including the fire marshall) to clear brush from around the area where the big Angeles fire started. This is that monster fire that has been chewing up 100s of 1000s of acres.

KNX radio in LA is now reporting that the Fire Marshall has been forbidden to talk to the press and that the public relations person will now take over. This means that we will never get the real story. In the meantime, Feds are coming down from Sacramento, probably to do damage control, as the PR person for the Forest Service is saying that the Forest Service covered all the targeted burns that they were allocated money for.

For more:

http://podcast.knx1070.com/knx/1932806.mp3

KNX Exclusive: Fire Marshal Says Feds are Increasing Fire Danger

[ananda]

1. Wow.

I hope it gets wider coverage.

[FrenchieCat]

2. It's all over Yahoo via AP...so yes, the Feds have the finger pointed at them......

[Nikki Stone1]

4. Here's the link to the AP story, but it doesn't include the Fire Marshall quote

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_wildfires_prescribed_burns;_ylt=ApcjQxc0cNx6RR3Q_znDpzJH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2ZmZpaHJqBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN5bi1yLWItbGVmdARzbGsDLWZlZHNkaWRuJ3Rj

Feds didn't clear brush in wildfire area

LOS ANGELES – Federal authorities failed to follow through on plans earlier this year to burn away highly flammable brush in a forest on the edge of Los Angeles to avoid the very kind of wildfire now raging there, The Associated Press has learned.

Months before the huge blaze erupted, the U.S. Forest Service obtained permits to burn away the undergrowth and brush on more than 1,700 acres of the Angeles National Forest. But just 193 acres had been cleared by the time the fire broke out, Forest Service resource officer Steve Bear said...

[SomeGuyInEagan]

3. I wondered where Brownie landed ... heckava job!

[jwirr]

11. That is what I was thinking. A failure to listen to local authorities about

the need for safety is common in both cases.

[itsrobert]

5. This doesn't help health care

The righties are going to say you cannot rely on the government.

[mike_c]

6. in fairness, burn decisions are made based on weather and fuels conditions...

...and not on the basis of permitting, i.e. the forest supervisor obtains the permits but no one lights fires unless it's judged safe to do so. It has been a warm summer, although I'm not sure what conditions on the Angeles were like earlier this year, but summer is generally NOT a good time to do prescribed burns. Ckearly, as current events indicate, the fuels situation was dicey at best.

[Nikki Stone1]

7. I gathered this from the Forest Service at the press conference today

Apparently, this brush has needed to be cleared for a couple of years.

[babylonsister]

8. Didn't I hear this was arson? nt

[Nikki Stone1]

9. Not arson. Just "human caused" because it was not caused by lightning

Human causes can be anything that is not lightning: an electrical wire, a car spark, etc. It doesn't have to be arson to have a human cause and apparently 90% of all fires have some kind of human cause.

[Mike Nelson]

10. I think that was George W. Bush's job...

... he was always "clearing brush". Didn't he clear enough? I read it a lot.

[Nikki Stone1]

12. LOL!!!

:D

[AngryAmish]

13. Way to go, Bush!