GOP Sens Launch Investigation Into California’s Response To Devastating Fires

Republican senators are probing California’s response to the deadly Palisades Fire, after the January catastrophe left 12 dead.

The investigation, led by Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott, aims to highlight missed opportunities in disaster prevention that may have led to the unprecedented level of death and destruction seen in the January fire —which spanned over 23,000 acres and caused about $25 billion in property damage.

“Why did it happen? Why was it not preventable?” Scott said at a Wednesday news conference. “And then how do you make sure this doesn’t happen again? … That’s the big thing here, because we don’t ever want this to happen again.”

Scott said there was a lack of effective action on the part of local officials in preparing for the fire, drawing on a recent visit to the community with media personality Spencer Pratt, a Pacific Palisades resident whose home was destroyed in the fire.

“There’s almost zero reconstruction,” Scott said. “We went street after street … I think I saw one house being rebuilt.”

“There’s nothing political about this,” Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said at the news conference. “Let’s find out what happened, let’s expose the truth, no politics involved in this at all.”

Johnson and Scott — as well as Pratt, who joined the senators at the conference — highlighted some mitigation measures that the state should have taken.

“There’s some pretty simple things, pretty low-cost things that could prevent the deaths and prevent literally billions of dollars of damage, and that’s really the purpose of this thing,” Johnson said.