Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said he supports an “independent commission review” of the wildfires that have burned much of Los Angeles.
Schiff appeared on ABC's “This Week” on Sunday to discuss the devastation in his region and among his constituents, noting that the Los Angeles area looked like a war zone.
“In the years that I've been in Congress, Southern California has had a steady stream of fires,” said Schiff, a former congressman. “It was often very idiosyncratic. You can see here one house is missing, but the other houses around it are fine, although some of them remain here as well. , there are also entire regions that have disappeared.”
“We've never seen anything like this before, even in Southern California,” he added. “That's why heartbreak is really unbearable.”
Schiff said California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is calling for an independent review of water shortages in places like the Pacific Palisades and water pressure problems in the Altadena area.
“I support that independent review. I think we should go further and, frankly, have an independent panel review of all of this,” Schiff said. “What was right about our response? What was wrong about it?”
Schiff said he was “deeply concerned” about the false evacuation warnings.
“If people can't trust when they're told they need to evacuate, and they actually need to evacuate, it not only has a serious impact on the whole operation, but people will ignore warnings and put themselves at risk.” It exposes firefighters to danger and puts them between the fire and civilians,” the senator said.
Schiff argued that the state needs to rebuild with a “sense of urgency.” He said cleanup efforts should begin immediately after the flames are extinguished.
“But the most urgent thing now is to just put out this blaze. There will be further strong winds over the next few days,” he said. “So for now, let's focus on putting out these fires, saving lives, saving property. And let's do a thorough analysis of what went wrong.”
