LOS ANGELES — The battle against a devastating November wildfire in Los Angeles County was hampered by politicians asking firefighters to check on certain homes. The conclusion comes from an after-action review by the Los Angeles Fire Department, which joined Los Angeles and Ventura county departments in battling the November blaze, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Assistant Chief Tim Ernst told the Times that he didn’t know which politicians were involved or exactly how those requests affected the firefighting efforts. The Woolsey Fire destroyed more than 1,600 homes and other buildings from north of Los Angeles to Malibu before it was controlled. The report says field observers should be deployed to “provide real time information and reconnaissance to address specific requests from political figures during a large-scale incident.”——Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/

Source: National Post April 27, 2019 03:33 UTC