On Friday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” U.S. Fire Administrator Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell responded to Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley stating that the department was let down by stating that “I think the Fire Chief certainly has credibility in my mind. I’ve known her a long time and I certainly will stand with her.” But “even with every resource brought to bear on this particular fire, we could have had a lot of water, we could have had even more and more and more firefighters, no one was getting in front of this fire.”
Moore-Merrell stated that fire hydrants ran dry because they weren’t meant for this kind of firefighting.
Host Blake Burman then asked, “But when I hear the Fire Chief say her folks were let down, her firefighters. And when I see that the reservoir was dry and hear firefighters say they’re fighting this with [pool] water and dirt. At what point is the federal government willing to say, yeah, the Fire Chief in Los Angeles there is right?”
Moore-Merrell answered, “Well, I think the Fire Chief certainly has credibility in my mind. I’ve known her a long time and I certainly will stand with her. What we have to understand, though, is that even with every resource brought to bear on this particular fire, we could have had a lot of water, we could have had even more and more and more firefighters, no one was getting in front of this fire. The fuel load on this fire, the wind speeds, the variables that were at play here were astronomical. These extreme conditions, it was a blowtorch. … These conditions, you’re not getting in front of it. So, we had to focus on containing the perimeter, which they are doing. Yes, dirt becomes involved because we use dozers to cut fire lines. And so, all of these things come into play. Firefighters find water, and that’s key.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
Read the full article here