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A WOMAN FROM the fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles has offered to “fill up the hydrants myself” as she confronted California Governor Gavin Newsom over his response to the disaster.
Rachel Darvish, a lawyer who has lived in the Palisades all her life, was forced to flee her home along with many thousands of others because of the devastating flames.
Out-of-control wildfires are continuing to rip across parts of Los Angeles, leading to at least 10 deaths and the destruction of over 10,000 structures, as well as evacuation orders for nearly 180,000 residents across the city.
Despite the efforts of over 1,400 firefighters, the biggest blazes remain totally uncontained – with weather conditions and the underlying impact of climate change expected to continue fanning the flames for days to come.
'Can I hear your call to the President, because I don't believe it.'
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 9, 2025
This is the moment a woman in LA confronted the California Governor Gavin Newsom over the wildfires. https://t.co/g1yZAnHJkc
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/rMLDGfkRo4
In the video, LA-based mother Darvish approached Newsom, saying that her daughter’s school had burned down due to wildfires.
She demanded to know what action Newsom was taking in the battle against the blaze, and asked to join the phone call to President Biden that the governor was trying to make at the time.
Darvish questioned why fire hydrants in the Palisades ran out of water while firefighters were tackling the huge blazes. She told the governor that she would “fill up hydrants myself” and asked Newsom if he would do the same. “I would do whatever I can,” Newsom replied.
A spokesperson for Newsom has since told US media that the governor got through to Biden after speaking to the affected Darvish, with the US president announcing that the federal government would cover 100% of costs for the response to the Los Angeles wildfires for at least 6 months.
The spokesperson also told reporters that they later spoke with Darvish to connect her with recovery services and other information.
Governor Gavin Newsom has addressed the public several times in recent days, saying that the state and national government are “throwing everything at our disposal” to tackle the wildfires.
Newsom has also overseen the deployment of the National Guard service members in affected areas “to protect communities in the days to come”.
Los Angeles officials and Newsom continue to receive criticism from local residents and political figures such as President-elect Donald Trump over the preparation and response to the wildfires.
In a social media post yesterday, Trump took aim at Los Angeles Mayor Bass and Gavin Newsom – both Democrats – for what he described as “gross incompetence” in dealing with the fires.
“One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!,” he wrote, misspelling the governor’s name in an apparent jab.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has also faced questions about her leadership during the ongoing wildfires, which are still spread across Los Angeles.
Bass was away from the city on a planned diplomatic trip to Ghana when the Palisades Fire first erupted on Monday, and has been hit by critics for her leadership during the disaster.
Rick Carusoa, a Republican mayoral opponent to Bass in the 2022 elections, has accused her of “abandoning her post” in an interview with Politico.
The mayor, who did post a warning about the windstorm on social media Monday, declined to respond to a reporter earlier this week when why she did not return to the city “fast enough”.
On her return two days ago, Bass was confronted at the airport by a Sky News reporter, who asked if she owed Angelenos an apology for her absence during the fires.
Bass refused to answer as the reporter followed her down the gangway.
At a press conference yesterday, Bass stated that her “number one focus” was to “save lives and save homes”.
“When that is done, when lives have been saved and homes have been saved, we will absolutely do an evaluation to look at what worked, and what didn’t work, and to correct or to hold accountable any body, department, individual, etc.,” Bass said.
“But my focus right now is on the lives and on the homes.”
According to US media, it is unclear when Bass was informed about the fires and decided to return to California.
Bass had left Los Angeles City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson as mayor pro tempore in her absence.
At a news conference Wednesday morning, Harris-Dawson acknowledged the work of the first responders doing “heroic work in the face of grave danger.”
“Last night was one of the most devastating and terrifying nights that we’ve seen in any part of our city, at any part of our history,” he said.
On Wednesday night, Bass told reporters she had been in “constant contact” with local, federal, and county officials marshaling the response to the fires as she made her way back to the United States.
“I took the fastest route back which included being on a military plane which facilitated our communications. So, I was able to be on the phone the entire time of the flight,” Bass said, adding she also had phone access during her commercial flight “like most people do.”
“I was on the phone on the plane almost every hour of the flight. So, although I was not physically here, I was in contact with many of the individuals that are standing here throughout the entire time when my flight landed, immediately went to the fire zone and saw what happened in Pacific Palisades.”
L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna announced several measures yesterday to ramp up security in areas that have been evacuated because of devastating fires in the area.
More than 20 arrests have been made on suspicion of looting over the last few days.
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has officially requested the support of the California National Guard for both fires,” Luna said. “They will be assisting us with traffic control and critical infrastructure protection.
“Having additional resources, having the National Guard with us,” he added, “will help send a stronger message, keep people out of the impacted areas, so we don’t continuously victimize the people who have already been victimized.”
The sheriff also said the agency was working to implement a curfew that would run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. “within the specific impacted areas around the two fire areas,” he said, referring to the Palisades fire in Pacific Palisades and the Eaton fire, the worst of the five blazes impacting the city.
He said he hoped to have it in place by this evening.
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger emphasized that the curfew was not to punish residents but to keep the area safe.
Newsom also spoke out strongly against those taking advantage of affected areas.
“And to those who would seek to take advantage of evacuated communities, let me be clear: looting will not be tolerated,” the state governor said.
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President-elect Donald Trump is preparing to use executive action to force California to funnel more water to the southern part of the state, after a water shortage helped fuel devastating fires in Los Angeles.
The city is enduring intense and destructive wildfires fanned by high winds and worsened by the state’s fire mitigation and water distribution policies. As of Friday morning, at least 10 people are dead, and thousands of structures have been destroyed.
Mr. Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, said he plans to do something about it immediately, suggesting he would reimplement his first administration’s water distribution plan for the state’s federally operated Central Valley Project.
@thomas molloy: between this and stopping the war in Ukraine in one day…the ginger man has a lot to achieve…
@Tony Skillington: you haven’t heard the latest. He’s now revised his thinking and he’ll end the war in Ukraine within his first 100 days of being president
@thomas molloy: all talkie no walkie….again!!!!…. How’s that wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for going?!?!…. I hear Canada is going to be the 51st state and Greenland the 52nd
@thomas molloy: You should see and look up the woke identity gobs&ites that run the fire/dept and services of LA and California, all you need to know why the hydrants had no water.
@Pelagius Asturias: Yes everything is Wokes fault. Woke woke woke. There you go. Dumb inbred Trumptards favourite term
@thomas molloy: so for abortion dump says it’s for the states to decide but it’s ok for him to stick his tiny hands in for this? Lol.
@Tony Skillington: and that’s just before a cheeseburger lunch
@thomas molloy: yet he doesn’t believe in any climate issues or climate change and wants to burn baby burn fossel fuels. The climate is only going to get worse under him and natural disasters more frequent
@thomas molloy: So all the people who deal with this issue are clueless and it will take the orange one to sort it out.
Is that in between invading Panama, Greenland, coopting Canada into the union and solving the Ukraine war.
Such a talented person, said nobody ever!
@Pelagius Asturias: They had used it all!
@FoxyBoiiYT: The sad part is they do not know what woke means!
Go woke go dry
@Lewis Armstrong: @thomas molloy: Channel 5 report:
“As we’ve seen, many in the area have been critical about the lack of fire department response. And across the world, everybody seems to be pointing fingers at who to blame for the wildfires. However, many locals understand that the magnitude of these fires is unprecedented, and that firefighters and first responders are doing everything they can to keep the fire contained, which is particularly difficult due to the state’s crippling water crisis, a situation that, by all measures, is a direct result of climate change, over consumption and corporate greed.
Many people don’t know this, but LA and San Diego have been out of water for years, and now purchase, most of their freshwater from privatized corporations like the Wonderful Company, owned by a billionaire couple called the Resnicks who systematically export drinking water from agricultural counties like Current and Imperial.
This practice has already caused devastating ecological and health impacts on communities like Bombay Beach, California, which we plan to cover in an upcoming video.”
“Half of American households now purchase Wonderful Co. products. The Resnicks own 175,000 farmland acres, with nearly 130,000 planted in California alone. Those crops consume an estimated 150 billion gallons of water a year, two thirds of that on nuts, which would be enough to supply San Francisco’s 875,000 residents for a decade. The Wonderful Co. says the estimate is high, but declined to comment further. For comparison, San Francisco uses about 70 billion gallons annually.”
@Lewis Armstrong: So a 130,000 acre Californian mega-farm owned by one billionaire couple gets more than twice the water of all of LA, a city of 3.8 million, leaving the city permanently dry.
But too few people pay attention to this fiasco, caused by corporate greed, because there are billionaires who control the media and the political system there.
US society and politics is owned by the wealthy, this permits billionaires to more freely gain wealth as the expense of ordinary working class people.
Instead of focusing on this, people get politically charged up over unimportant matters that the wealthy know triggers people. Indeed this is why the world’s richest man bought a social media empire to help get another billionaire elected and lately started using this platform for his next objective of toppling European governments.
So when you are told, southern California needs more water, but did not get enough because of a fish (so Woke), ask yourself who told you this and why? Who do you think stand to benefit most water piped from the north of the State to the south, where The Resnick’s farms are? It will mostly go to The Resnicks mega-farm.
And lets see how much and to which politicians The Resnicks donate to…
https://www.opensecrets.org/search?order=desc&q=stewart+resnick&sort=A&type=donors
The donated total of $3.97 million between 1993 and 2009, including:
$271,990 to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (Republican)
$29,000 directly to Diane Feinstein (Democrat) and $246,000 to Democratic political committees during her re-election years.
$50,000 to Governor Jerry Brown (Democrat)
“These contributions have been part of their broader strategy to influence water policy and other regulations affecting their agricultural enterprises. Their financial support has been directed toward candidates and initiatives that align with their business interests, particularly concerning California’s water resources.”
American can mobilize its troops with logistics to almost everywhere in the world within few hours, but can’t support its own citizens and fight with disaster, instead helping but sending “the National Guard service members in affected areas “to protect communities in the days to come”, another word is “for looting”, sigh, America … I guess it’s not priority on their agenda
@Ní neart go cur le chéile.: Little secret you might not be aware of the National Guard is part of the armed forces!
@Ní neart go cur le chéile.: In the US, elected representatives’ constituents are the lobbyists, not the people. Hasn’t changed in 200 years.
USA has billions for Gaza genocide bombs while its own backyard falls apart same happening in Britain roads and streets riddled with potholes infrastructure falling apart
A wake up call for the USA
@Argus Romsworth: They forgot to mention that Newsom is Democratic Party. ?
@thomas molloy: gas all you American gowls have nothing better to do with your time.
‘i have never ever heard a president launch a political attack instead of standing with first responders and americans battling a devastating disaster. Until trump. This is not normal; it is a terrible role model for our children and must be called out’ – former California Senator Barbara Boxer.
@Jack Hayes: Umm let me guess she is a Democrat now there is a surprise. They are to blame for this mess yet want to blame someone else for their own mismanagement.
@Trump24: Well the Paradise Fire happened when Trump was president and he didn’t exactly look competent during that disaster, but like most Trump ers that fact is ignored……
Gavin Newsom the governor that has absolutely destroyed California with awful mismanagement. He is the clown that allows men into little girls locker rooms.
First it was Holyhead , now Hollywood. What’s going on? If I was Holly Willoughby I’d be careful.
Well he attacked the opposition, so nothing new there. He has a plan, a great plan the biglyest plan of them all. Of course he has!!!!
He has not hit the old favourite, thoughts and prayers or was that press release earlier.
That was the governor’s Simon Harris moment.
@P. V. Aglue: Trump has often boasted about entering Miss World dressing rooms.
@Tasty k: Answer to trump24 above.
The joy of political comedy
Maybe they shouldn’t give 8 billion to the nazi Israel state.
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