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As bad as the Los Angeles wildfires have been, they could have been even worse.
It was “sheer luck,” says RAND's Jay Balagna, that agencies outside Los Angeles County weren't fighting fires in their own backyards and had capacity to help. Support has been coming from nearby Orange County, neighboring states like Nevada and Arizona, and as far away as Quebec.
North American wildland firefighting systems rely on this sort of mutual aid. Balagna, a former firefighter, acknowledges the benefits of this approach. But the current system is already strained and risks breaking down in a world of greater and more frequent fires, he says.
Fires are now a year-round problem that demands a stable, localized firefighting workforce. This may require exploring such options as perpetual National Guard activations with a focus on firefighting. It might even mean implementing voluntary local or national service models that leverage Americans’ desire to help. Sharing community resources should continue and be expanded as well.
Whatever the new system looks like, Balagna concludes, change is imperative: “If the usual response didn’t work in L.A., it won’t work anywhere.”
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