‘Green hydrogen bomb reactivated’: Historian blasts California leaders for ‘absurd’ wildfire response

There were many factors that preceded the “unreasonable” response from Los Angeles and California state leaders to the devastating wildfires that continue to burn across the region, according to historian and political analyst Victor Davis Hanson.

“To mitigate it you have to know where it went wrong, and there were short-term and long-term problems,” Davis, a senior fellow for public policy at the Hoover Institution, told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday. “And I don’t think climate change played a role, at least not an immediate role.”

Davis described the situation as “a hydrogen bomb that has woken up” – from the absence of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass during the first critical 24 hours of the inferno to empty fire hoses, an inactive water reservoir, a subsidized fire department and a lack of new water infrastructure. despite the support of Gov. Gavin Newsom with billions of dollars set aside to deal with it.

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“It’s a very fragile system,” Hanson said. “What Gavin Newsom didn’t do was he didn’t take the money that was allocated to him and build reservoirs that would be able to accommodate more people. Number two, this water is pumped across the ocean. [Sacramento-San Joaquin River] Delta, released from the port under the demands of environmentalists. In his defense, he said that the dams are full of water. That is not true. If you look at the biggest one, it’s only 75% full, and we’re in a drought right now.”

Newsom told NBC News in an interview that aired earlier Sunday, “The lakes are completely full – the state lakes here in Southern California. That misinformation and disinformation, I don’t think, benefits or helps any of us.”

But as of Tuesday, Shasta Lake, California’s largest lake, was at 77% capacity, holding about 3.52 million acre-feet of water out of its 4.55 million acre-feet capacity, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Newsom’s office for comment and has not yet received a response.

Existing California dams can store a lot of water, and most were built in the mid-20th century.

In 2014, Golden State voters passed Proposition 1also known as the Water Quality, Supply and Infrastructure Improvement Act, which authorized $2.7 billion in bonds to increase the state’s water storage capacity by building new reservoirs and underground water storage facilities. But as of January, no new pools have been completed under Prop. 1.

In 2024, the state experienced record rainfall after the atmospheric river event, but the existing water infrastructure faced difficulties in managing the sudden inflow of water. Much of that rain was dumped into the ocean as the state struggled to properly store water, several California agencies said.

“There was about 120 million in water storage that was not being used because they only had 3 million reserved – that would have made a difference,” Hanson said. “That had been idle for almost a year, and it was because the cover was torn. It was just nonsense.”

The reservoir outside the order Hanson referred to, known as the Santa Ynez Reservoir in Pacific Palisades, has been closed for maintenance since February due to a tear in its cover, which was designed to maintain water quality, the Los Angeles Times first. reported on Tuesday.

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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was criticized for being on a trip to Africa when the wildfires broke out, and Gov. California Rep. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, filed suit and ordered an independent review of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. (AP/Getty)

Hanson has Central Valley a farm that relies on melting snow from the Sierra Nevada mountains, he explained.

In California’s Central Valley, irrigation water usually comes from the Sierra, mainly through the San Joaquin River system, which is supported by large dams such as Shaver, Huntington and Pine Flat. That water is often released into the Sacramento River, which flows into the Delta. Despite growing demand, no new dams have been built in the San Joaquin system in decades.

On the west side of the valley, water from melting snow in the northern Cascade Range of California and the northern Sierra, fills large reservoirs such as Oroville and Folsom. These reservoirs are designed to store water during wet years, to ensure a stable supply in normal years and back up in drought years.

However, California has experienced prolonged drought, little rain or snow in recent weeks, causing reservoir levels to drop.

“So when Gavin Newsom says, ‘they’re full,’ they’re not all full, but they’re going down very fast, because he’s not going to stop the discharge,” Hanson said. “They’re still going, as you and I speak, and they’re not pumping 100% of it into the canal, which serves agriculture in Los Angeles.”

Newsom, meanwhile, blamed local officials and ordered an independent review of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

“We need answers as to how that happened,” Newsom wrote to the department’s director and Los Angeles County Public Works director on Jan. 10, regarding reports of water loss.

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In this drone photo, a main pump in front is part of a groundwater recharge project designed to capture excess flow from groundwater storage in Fresno County, California, on March 13, 2023. (Andrew Innerity/California Department of Water Resources via AP)

For his part, Newsom also proposed allocating at least $2.5 billion to bolster California’s emergency response efforts in Los Angeles, his office announced Monday.

The proposed funding will support repair and clean-up activities, improve bushfire preparedness and help reopen schools closed due to the fire. This funding will come from the Disaster Response Emergency Operations Account, and $1.5 billion will come from accelerating the use of climate bond funds for immediate use, according to his office.

There was a slight increase in containment of the deadly Palisades and Eaton fires fire in Los Angeles Countyaccording to a Wednesday night update from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The Palisades fire, the largest of the two that has burned 23,713 acres since Wednesday, is 21 percent contained after it ignited in the Pacific Palisades area more than a week ago, according to the department.

The Eaton Fire in the Altadena/Pasadena area was 45% contained as of Wednesday night. Both fires broke out on Jan. 7.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Bass’ office for comment.

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Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.