On Thursday's episode of “CNN This Morning,” retired Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mike Lopez praised California's mutual aid system, saying recent fires are difficult to fight even with more firefighters. He said budget cuts are causing staffing problems.
host Casey Hunt asked. [relevant exchange begins around 5:40] “We're already seeing some political discussions going on around this, about what to do because these fires are obviously getting more intense and more dramatic. I'm interested in the views of frontline firefighters. What do firefighters need? Is it more training? What kind of funding do we need? We know that fighting a wildfire in the bush is different from fighting a wildfire in the city. What do you want from our leaders going forward?”
Mr. Lopez replied: “Well, fire departments across the government, in California and across the country, are trying to retain and hire as many firefighters as possible. But because of budget cuts along those lines, all of this time, throughout this country, especially California, There are a lot of problems. But fires are put out by firefighters. That's one of the problems that contributes greatly to this problem. California has the best mutual aid system in the world, allowing resources to be moved around the state, so the governor sent more than 100 fire trucks to Southern California before the first fires broke out. Pre-deployed. So we have a good system in place now for pre-determining and making resources available. So they have CAL. They're using FIRE. They're using federal resources. So the firefighters moved in.”
He continued: “And the question is, is that always enough or is it enough? And you can send an additional 500 engines in there initially. But if the winds are 40, 50, 60 miles per hour, When you blow all at once and there's a fire behind you, firefighters are trying to rescue, save lives, and extinguish the fire all at once. So it becomes very difficult.”
Lopez also said it's really unfair to blame anyone for water issues.
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