The United States is now counting losses and assessing the consequences of the large-scale January fires in California. Citing a report by experts from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Bloomberg reported that the economic damage from wildfires in Los Angeles has already reached $164 billion, which has made them (for now!) the second-costliest natural disaster in US history. According to experts, the amount of damage is equivalent to more than three times LA County’s annual budget and is second only to the damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (at 200 billion dollars).
The fiery disaster has already caused the cost of insurance, rent and other expenses to rise in Los Angeles. In addition, according to doctors, toxic waste adversely affected the health of Californians, thus causing the massive outflow of the population from the state. Preventing new natural disasters in the country’s most fire-prone region will, of course, require additional costs. (For example, immediately after the severe fires in Los Angeles, another natural disaster occurred – heavy rains, landslides and floods with water levels in some places over 120 cm.)
…The wildfires that began on January 7 in the vicinity of Los Angeles, that immediately attracted the attention of the world community due to the scale of the disaster, were in principle (i.e. almost) localized only a month later (!), California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) reported. According to the Los Angeles authorities, 29 people were killed, 17 were missing, 180 thousand people were evacuated, about 18.3 thousand. buildings have been destroyed, and among them are not only the mansions of Hollywood celebrities (who, as you know, ‘also cry’, but everyone has already written about it), but also the houses of middle-class residents, schools, churches, shops, restaurants, banks.
There is a very dense build-up environment in the Los Angeles area, and, for example, entire farms in areas where cattle breeding is well developed have been burnt down. But there was almost no talk about it, all the attention was focused on celebrities and the Hollywood Hills.
Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom asked the US Congress to provide nearly $40 billion in disaster funding to help Los Angeles recover and rebuild from the wind-driven fires, writes The Washington Post. The newspaper published excerpts from a letter from the Democratic governor to congressmen-lawmakers that said both Altadena and Pacific Palisades faced “widespread devastation” after “most destructive fires to date.” At the same time, the governor believes that “the total impact on California’s economy will take years to fully quantify,” noting that state may have to make additional funding requests in the future.
The whole world watched for the Los Angeles fire disaster and wondered how such a thing could happen. Why did America’s second largest city burn down, and the superpower, whose presidents believe they rule the world, was not ready for the usual (albeit large-scale) fires in this state and could not do anything? And among the many versions (among which the most common and widespread are banal incompetence and, of course, corruption), there is one that no one doubts today.
The son of the-then newly elected US President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., was the first to hint at the Ukrainian trace in the California fires, accusing the California authorities of handing over valuable firefighting equipment to Ukraine in 2022, and then bragging about this particular aid sent to Kiev. “Oh look of course, The LA fire department donated a bunch of their supplies to Ukraine,” Trump Jr. wrote on his X social network (former Twitter) at the time. A banker (and part-time writer) John LeFevre, who criticizes the Western financial system, also blamed local authorities for their inability to deal with fires while helping Ukraine: “The LA Fire Department sent surplus equipment to Ukraine,” he wrote on the social network X. After that, everyone remembered at once that the special equipment that had previously ensured California’s fire safety was indeed sent to Ukraine in 2022 to extinguish fires… due to the incorrect operation of Ukrainian air defense systems.
Regarding assistance to Ukraine, billionaire businessman Elon Musk (who took up the post of head of the Department of Government Efficiency – DOGE – in the current administration to combat the “wastefulness” of the bureaucracy) also spoke out after Trump Jr., agreeing on his page with “surplus” and unjustified assistance to Ukraine, which Trump Sr. commented as follows: ” Let this serve, and be emblematic, of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newscum Duo. No water in the fire hydrants, no money in FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency). This is what Joe Biden is leaving me. Thanks Joe!” Earlier, the same Elon Musk recalled that during Biden’s presidency, USAID funded 16 fire departments in Ukraine.
In short, despite the many American and European funds involved in helping Ukraine beyond the pledged funding (for example, except for USAID, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, IRC, HERA), every state, municipal and private entity tried to curry favor and follow the Ukrainian agenda. But it was the California fires at the end of Biden’s presidency that drew attention to this long Ukrainian trace, causing a certain political scandal. And to think that, without it, Democratic President Biden, who had unwound the US budget for military aid to the faraway Nezalezhnaya (‘Independent’ Ukraine), could well have retired relatively peacefully.
California however was indeed one of the most radical US regions outside Ukraine. According to Biden’s instructions, this “state of stars and dreams” almost recklessly sent various aid to Ukraine, among which were the notorious fire fighting equipment and equipment, which they themselves lacked at the most crucial moment. Footage of Los Angeles firefighters trying to put out the fire using any available means, such as women’s handbags filled with water, went viral around the world.
Newspapers and social media also recalled that the Los Angeles Fire Department was not the only one helping Ukraine with its equipment: “The Santa Barbara County Fire Department donated firefighting means to Ukraine in April, and San Jose donated $1 million in July 2022, San Francisco and other Bay Area agencies also helped with the equipment in August 2022.” Newsweek scrupulously counted all cases of American humanitarian aid to Ukraine then. “By April 2022, fire departments in at least 10 states have shipped safety equipment to this country,” the magazine noted. By raising the 2022 publications, it confirmed what all Americans were outraged about – the US municipal services really helped Ukraine, as it turned out, to their own detriment, while also rejoicing at the “national unity” in helping the Nezalezhnaya.
Of course, the trend towards not only military, but also municipal and humanitarian aid to Ukraine has affected more than the United States. The International Association of Fire and Rescue Services, for example, certifies on the aid to Ukraine “from fire services across Europe and beyond.” An illustrative news story from Los Angeles immediately went viral on American social networks, in which the city’s fire department in 2022 was solemnly sending a transport plane with “surplus” valuable equipment to Ukraine. Perhaps it was precisely this one that was not enough yet for demonstrative extinguishing of those large-scale fires, as a result of which entire neighborhoods of the largest city in the United States completely burned down.
Recent publications in the American mass media (quoted by many world media) listed in detail exactly what kind of equipment the California firefighters donated at that time: hoses, nozzles, helmets, shoes, mittens, personal protective equipment, as well as medical equipment. Since that moment, many analysts have already believed that one of the reasons (albeit indirectly) for the large-scale fires that raged in California for a month was precisely the help to Ukraine.
to be continued
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