LA Mayor Bass rejects FDNY’s offer to help — despite not having enough firefighters to battle blazes still raging: sources
LA Mayor Bass rejects FDNY’s offer to help — despite not having enough firefighters to battle blazes still raging: sources
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Craig McCarthy and
Published Jan. 10, 2025, 5:01 p.m. ET127 Comments
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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass rebuffed an offer by the FDNY to help try to contain the area’s deadly fires — even though California officials have said they don’t have enough firefighters themselves, The Post has learned.
New York City fire Commissioner Robert Tucker made the helpful overture to the embattled Bass in recent days, as five blazes rage around Los Angeles and its suburbs, killing at least 10 people and destroying thousands of homes and businesses, sources said Friday.
JetBlue even offered to pay for the city smoke-eaters’ flights across the country from the Big Apple to Los Angeles, sources said.
But the offers apparently fell on deaf ears, as no orders have been issued to send New York City crews out West, sources said.
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Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom accepted help from Mexico, thanking its president, Claudia Shein, on Friday for the assist, while extra firefighters from Colorado, New Mexico and Utah flocked to the state to help Thursday.
A source speculated that Bass may have balked at taking Bravest help because fighting wildfires is “a whole different beast” that requires special training, as opposed to putting out blazes in buildings, which is typical fare for the FDNY.
But the apparent refusal still stunned some department observers — given how Los Angeles Fire Chief Anthony Marrone acknowledged Wednesday that his forces were fighting a losing battle when it came to enough staffing to thwart the blazes.
“LA County and all 29 fire departments in our county are not prepared for this kind of widespread disaster,’’ Marrone said.
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“There are not enough firefighters in LA County to address four separate fires of this magnitude,” he said at a time there were four blazes raging.127
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“The LA County fire department was prepared for one or two major brush fires, but not four, especially given these sustained winds and low humidities,” Marrone said.
The city also acknowledged in the middle of the week that it ran out of water from its hydrants while fighting the horrific Palisades Fire that day, thanks to reported mismanagement of its supply and operational issues.
Bass, who was in Ghana when the blazes erupted, has been blasted for cutting funding to the fire department by $18 million months earlier.
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- S Rank47 minutes agoIt is incredibly SAD to watch our fellow citizens lose their homes, livelihoods and memories with the California wildfires. (Let us not forget those still suffering in the aftermath of the storm Helene either.) Perhaps it is time for folks to remember how important it is to financially support, a…See moreReply32Share
