The causes of this gigantic disaster have not yet been established – some suggest a resumption of fire, under the effect of violent winds, from a first fire which had been contained, on New Year’s Eve, on a neighboring hill of Pacific Palisades (fireworks or a poorly extinguished campfire were the cause, according to local residents). If the origin could therefore be human and accidental, the scale of the phenomenon can hardly be dissociated from senseless urbanization and climatic disturbances: a prolonged drought has made the soils very dry, on which winds of unusual force have blown. .
Fires in California: when owners take advantage of the fires to increase their rent
Blame it on a “band of idiots”
It was enough for the relief efforts to be overwhelmed by events, but Donald Trump and, following him, the tenors of the American extreme right preferred to accuse the Democratic leaders of incompetence and carelessness. In particular California Governor Gavin Newsom, a sworn enemy of the former President, who, on social networks, likes to call the Democrat a complete idiot by calling him “Gavin Newscum” (from “scum”, scrap in English)…
It is true that the Democrats have provided ammunition to their adversaries. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was on an official trip to Ghana, despite a fire alert issued by the weather service before her departure. The city mistakenly ordered the evacuation of some ten million residents, causing indescribable panic. And the malfunction of the fire hydrants has fueled a controversy over the lack of water available to firefighters, even though the device is obviously designed to fight fires in homes, and not fires that sweep through neighborhoods. whole.
A flood of misinformation
Misinformation did the rest. Donald Trump criticized Gavin Newsom for having in his time rejected, to protect “useless fish”, a project to capture the rivers of northern California for southern regions. Except that the document that the governor would not have wanted to sign seems never to have existed, that the project was rejected on the advice of experts, and that it provided, in any case, for a water supply for agriculture, not for firefighting. Apart from one large reservoir, Santa Ynez, which was dry due to work, the retention basins in Los Angeles were, moreover, filled to their maximum capacity. The needs were unfortunately excessive.
-Fires in California: “Our house in Altadena and our town disappeared in one night”, Belgians testify to the disaster
More worrying is undoubtedly the propensity of far-right commentators to attribute the disaster to a recruitment policy, in the municipal administration and the fire service in particular, which would be based on the DEI program (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), intended to promote the advancement of minorities. In short, the inability of local authorities to contain the fires would result from the appointment, to command positions, of people from these minorities (African-Americans, LGBTQ+, etc.), or even simply women. Directly targeted are Karen Bass, the first black woman elected mayor of Los Angeles in 2022, and Kristin Crowley, the head of the Fire Department, who openly claims her homosexuality.
The future of Gavin Newsom
If some analysts predict that Gavin Newsom will not politically survive a tragedy which would otherwise illustrate the bankruptcy of the Democratic model of government, the enormity of the attacks made against him and his party leads others to think, on the contrary, that the governor and the Democrats will emerge relatively unscathed from this ordeal. Newsom, in whom some have long seen a presidential candidate who should logically try his luck in 2028, could even consolidate a stature which establishes him as the antithesis of Donald Trump. Everything will depend, however, on the outcome, in particular on compensation for victims and reconstruction, against a backdrop of the insurance crisis in California, where the proliferation of natural disasters has made premiums exorbitant and coverage sometimes non-existent.
However, if California embodies everything that Donald Trump and conservatives hate, the most populous state in the country is struggling today to live up to its ambitions. With natural calamities now recurring, which overshadow a legendary sweetness of life, California is faced with increasing crime, impoverishment which throws more and more people onto the street, and a cost of living and housing that is often prohibitive… So much so that the State, always accustomed to seeing its population grow, is now faced with the exodus of its inhabitants, attracted by better living conditions, in Texas or Florida for example. With, here too, political consequences: it is predicted that during the next census, in 2030, California will lose, with its demographic decline, four of its 54 “major voters” in the presidential election. She had already lost one during the previous one, in 2020.
