As a workaround, the chiefs of Southern California’s biggest firefighting agencies — Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties, along with Los Angeles City Fire — say they now circumvent the mutual-aid system altogether in the first stages of fighting a fast-moving fire. AD“From the perspective of accountability and tracking resources, it’s a good tool,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said of the mutual-aid software. ADThe former issue was highlighted last month when Los Angeles County released its after-action report on the November 2018 Woolsey Fire. In 2016, the stubborn Soberanes Fire took months to put out and unfilled mutual-aid requests jumped to more than 3,000 engines. “There is definitely a slowdown in the resource ordering process.”— Los Angeles Times

Source: Washington Post November 11, 2019 01:07 UTC