Fact-checking criticism of California Democrats over fires

LA Mayor Karen Bass has faced criticism over cuts to the city’s fire department budget.

For the latest financial year, the LA Fire Department (LAFD) budget was reduced by $17.6m (£14.3m).

In a memo to Mayor Bass last month, LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley warned that the cuts had “severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, such as wildfires”.

Mayor Bass responded to the criticism, saying: “I think if you go back and look at the reductions that were made, there were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple of days.”

The LAFD has an overall budget of almost $820m (£670m), and it isn’t the only department responding to the fires.

For example, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Los Angeles County Fire Department are part of the relief efforts, along with the federal government.

“LA County has some of the most advanced and sophisticated wildfire fighting resources of any location in the world. If you had to chose one place on earth that was best place to tackle this sort of disaster, it would be LA county,” says Mr Swain.

“The disaster isn’t as bad as it is because there’s a lack of resource, the reality is there’s a limit to how effective wildland firefighting can be under extreme conditions like we experienced this week.”

Additional reporting by Joshua Cheetham.