California’s “Hell”: Why are American firefighters fighting fires with buckets of water?
As wildfires spread rapidly across Los Angeles, California, images of firefighters using traffic cones and buckets of water to extinguish the flames have sparked criticism of city officials.
California is the wealthiest and most developed state in the United States, but firefighters in Los Angeles are now fighting the fires with the most basic tools; the current criticism is mostly directed at Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who is blamed for the current situation.
The New York Post, in a critical report on the firefighters’ response to the rapidly spreading wildfires in Los Angeles, wrote that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass faced intense criticism on Wednesday after it was revealed that she had cut the city’s fire department’s budget by $17.6 million before this week’s devastating fires. It has been claimed that this budget was allocated for the massive homeless population, which has not yet been spent.
According to this publication, official statistics in Los Angeles show that this fire department budget cut was the second in the 2025-2024 fiscal year by Bass – and it was not even what he wanted; if Bass’ plan had been implemented, the fire department’s budget would have been reduced by up to $23 million.
According to American media reports, five people have died so far due to the ongoing fires in the forests of Los Angeles.