CAN THE PALISADES FIRE HAPPEN HERE ON THE Peninsula
THE PALISADES DISASTER
What happened during the wind-driven fires in Pacific Palisades?
23,713 acres burned so far, 5,000 structure destroyed. For comparison, the Palos Verdes Peninsula sits on 24,000 acres.
Fire hydrants ran out of water.
Limited egress bottlenecked residents’ vehicles trying to leave.
The Fire Department was overwhelmed.
IS THE PENINSUA PREPARED?
We didn’t have 30 mph – 100 mph Santa Ana winds. We were lucky, this time.
Water – do we know if we have sufficient water supply if similar wind-driven fires start in our canyons? No, we don't know!
Egress – Are our roads sufficient to handle a mass exodus of
63,000 residents? No!
Fire Department – does the LA county fire department have adequate resources to handle a similar fire here? Highly unlikely!
Have we removed sufficient overgrown vegetation? No!
Who is responsible for turning our ‘no’s’ into ‘yes’s'? The State? Our local governments? The LA Fire Department? The residents? All of the above? Yes!
WHY IS ADDITIONAL HOUSING A PRIORITY?
Meanwhile, the State has mandated requirements to add housing in each of our communities. Do we need more housing or does that just exacerbate the problem? Need? No. Exacerbate? Yes.
An existing “affordable” housing application in Rancho Palos Verdes involved building 480+ apartments in four separate structures 7 to 11 stores tall in a canyon with ONE road in and another out. The State’s “affordable” housing laws allow such applications to apply for exemption from local fire safety requirements!
Shouldn’t the State’s and our local government’s TOP responsibility be public safety with sufficient police and fire protection? Certainly NOT more housing. Our cities have spent millions of dollars to appease state mandates to add housing. Shouldn’t dollars and time be spent on public safety instead?
CALL FOR ACTION!
PVP Watch’s opinion is that every PV resident should make their voice heard by their respective city councils to send a clear message to the state that we, the residents of Palos Verdes, need public safety as their top priority.
BEFORE additional housing can be built, we MUST have sufficient police and fire protection!
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Here are your city councils’ email addresses or contact phone numbers.
Palos Verdes Estates – citycouncil@pveestates.org
Rancho Palos Verdes – CC@rpvca.gov
Rolling Hills (phone only) – 310-377-1521
Rolling Hills Estates (phone only) – 310-377-1577
If you agree, please contact them and demand that they make our safety their top priority, and urge the state to do the same with copies to the following:
Daily Breeze – letters@dailybreeze.com
LA Times – letters@latimes.com
Gavin Newsom (mail only)
Governor Gavin Newsom
1021 O Street, Suite 9000
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 445-2841
Together, our voices can strengthen our communities and help avoid what happened in the Pacific Palisades. Public safety including police and fire MUST be the cities’ and the State’s top priority.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW!
This editorial was written by David Koch, resident of RPV and member of PVP Watch.
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