Thoughts from
San Diego on Law, Politics, and Culture

 
Davis's Fire 2
By Tom Smith

Here is the site for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. It is showing the national fire alert level at 2. A couple of summers ago, when forest fires were burning in Western states, but far fewer homes were threatened, and fewer acres actually burning, the alert level was at 5. This is messed up. My older brother, a volunteer fireman and lawyer, tells me it is only because Sacramento did not request federal assistance that federal resources stayed on the ground and the alert level remained at only 2. He says he thinks it has to do with rivalry between the California Department of Forestry and national agencies. So San Diegans have to watch houses burn to satisfy bureaucratic egos. This is not the time for recriminations and finger pointing. But the time is coming for that, and it is yet another mess Arnie should sort out. Perhaps a good start would be firing the people at the top of CDF. They should have told Davis they needed help in time to stop the fire's march in San Diego suburbs, which the right aircraft may well have don.
posted by thomas at 10/27/2003 10:30:00 PM