California Democratic senator backs creation of 'independent commission' to investigate wildfires
Adam Schiff was particularly concerned about erroneous evacuation alerts.
The Democrat recently arrived in the Senate/ Mandel Ngan.
Adam Schiff (D-CA) backed the creation of an "independent commission" to investigate the California wildfires. The Democratic senator spoke of the seriousness of the events and the need to review what was done right and wrong. He was also concerned about erroneous evacuation alerts.
Schiff, who recently arrived in the Senate after defeating Republican Steve Garvey in the 2024 election, spoke with ABC's "This Week" about the situation in his state. So far, authorities estimate more than 300,000 evacuees from the fires.
"We’ve had no shortage of fires in Southern California over the years that I’ve been in Congress. It has often been very idiosyncratic. You’ll see one house lost here, then the others fine around it. There is some of that here, but there are whole neighborhoods that are gone," he said.
">The scale and severity of these fires are simply unprecedented.
— Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) January 12, 2025
From our communities who lost everything to the firefighters on the front lines – we're all in this together.
We need to put these flames down ASAP, and bring an equal sense of urgency to the process of rebuilding. pic.twitter.com/WlCLEREyr1
"We haven’t seen that before, not in Southern California, not like this. And so, the heartbreak is just overwhelming," the Democrat added.
In turn, Schiff said he supported the creation of an independent commission to investigate, for example, the lack of water in places like the Pacific Palisades and the water pressure problems seen in the Altadena neighborhood.
“I support that independent review. I think we should go further and, frankly, do an independent commission review of all of this. What went right in our response? What went wrong in it?" the senator continued.
The senator also raised alarms about the erroneous evacuation alerts that were issued in Los Angeles.
“If people can’t trust when they’re told you need to get out, that they do need to get out, then it not only severely impacts the whole effort, but people ignore the alerts, endangering themselves and endangering the firefighters that have to step between the fires and these civilians," he said.
"But the most urgency right now has to be reserved to putting down these flames. We have more high winds coming up in the next couple days. So, for now, let’s focus on putting out these fires, saving lives, saving property, and then … let’s do the full analysis of what went wrong," Schiff concluded.
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