CBS’s drama Fire Country, now in its fourth season, is set in the fictional town of Edgewater, California. So, it was only a matter of time before we got hit with the “it’s climate change, not liberal bureaucracy” excuse for the state’s ongoing, real-life problem of severe wildfires. [emphasis, links added]
Episode 7, “Best Mom in the World,” featured a meeting between fire chief Manny (Kevin Alejandro) and his crew, during which he imparted lessons he learned at a fire-training session in Sacramento.
The team had recently battled a massive fire that was difficult to control and claimed many lives and homes.
Manny warned his crew that, “Thanks to climate change,” they’re “at war,” and they need to be prepared because the fires are going to get much worse:
“Manny: All right, everyone, sit down. As you all know, I went down to Sacramento for a couple of days to do some training, and they put me in this presentation about fire season. Well, we all know damn well there is no fire season anymore. Thanks to climate change, it’s all year round. Just keeps getting worse. Last year, little more than 8,000 wildfires and over a million acres burned. Here in NorCal, we had Zabel Ridge. And we lived it, and we fought it. We saw this. It took land. It took homes. And lives.
“Right now, snowcap’s at 30% of normal, which means we’re gonna have a really dry spring. And if we don’t get significant, and I mean significant, winter storms, they’re saying it’s about to look like this. So, we got to be ready, guys. We were this close, this close to losing our town. But this? This will make the Zabel Ridge Fire look like a baby. We cannot wait for it. We have to act. Now. I’m talking resources, I’m talking training. I’m talking, whatever you got going on, set it down. Single focus, no distractions. Because what’s coming ain’t stopping for nothing. We’re at war.”
Umm, did Gavin Newsom write this episode?
When Manny’s division chief chastised him for his “death is imminent,” and “everyone should panic,” messaging because she believes he shouldn’t give the firefighters the full picture all at once, Manny clapped back with, “That’s science…the mother of all fires will come.”
Sure, Manny. Liar, liar, pants on fire (pun intended).
Let’s ignore the fact that liberal California politicians have spent decades banning controlled burns and shutting down logging and grazing that used to clear deadwood, all while chasing carbon credits.
It’s not about “science.” It’s about government bureaucracy protecting areas of “habitat” where 100 million dead trees remain unremoved, just waiting to become potent tinder for the next massive wildfire.
Poor forest management has led to this excessive fuel buildup (dead wood, underbrush, and dense vegetation), making fires more intense when they occur.
As for the “snowcaps” (the proper term is “snowpacks”), California weather has alternated between drought and deluge for centuries.
The 0.8°C of warming since 1880 isn’t to blame here.
Lastly, most of the “8,000 wildfires” mentioned were ignited by homeless encampments, downed PG&E lines (thanks to shifting focus onto green-energy incentives), arsonists, and other man-made causes.
Combined with unmanaged fuels, these incidents increase fire severity and frequency more than minuscule temperature changes.
“Climate change” is just a copout for liberal politicians like Newsom who want to shift the blame from themselves and their horrible policies.
Too bad Fire Country chose to give cover to such liberal bureaucracy rather than emphasize the real problems with, and causes behind, California wildfires.
Read more at NewsBusters
The usual conservative disinformation.
The worst fire was started by arson.
The January 2025 Palisades Fire in California was caused by arson
It was a small fire that incompetent firemen left smoldering.
The fire later restarted, and that had nothing to do with Democrat policies. Several days of high winds prevented flying of airplanes and helicopters to put out the fire.
There are too few controlled burns in California, largely due to a century of fire suppression leading to overgrown forests, but also because of challenges like finding suitable weather windows (dry, cool, low wind)
California’s U.S. Forest Service (USFS) did set a record for prescribed burning on federal lands in 2024, treating over 72,000 acres for forest health.
California has approximately 33 million acres of forest land, making up about one-third of the state’s total area. California, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, has a major goal to manage one million acres of forests and wildlands annually by 2025. But 6 or 7 million acres of forest a year would have to be managed to do the job right. That task is simply impossible.
The U.S. Forest Service manages approximately 19-20 million acres of forestland in California, part of roughly 33 million total forest acres in the state. Not enough management of 20 of the 32 million acres is blamed on the US government. The US government is completely controlled by Republicans in 2025, not Democrats.
Trump 1.0
No, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) did not manage 1 million acres per year in California between 2017-2020; they managed a smaller amount (e.g., ~235k acres in 2019-2020) but in August 2020 agreed to a shared goal with California to treat 1 million acres total (500k federal/500k state) annually by 2025
If you blame politicians for not enough forest management in California, then Republicans get most of the blame in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 & 2025.
Conservative Way: When something goes wrong, blame Democrats or claim it is a hoax. Never mind the truth.