Letters to the Editor: Why concrete buildings might not be the answer to fire in California

Firefighters battle the Palisades fire in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) To the editor: While there is a need to upgrade the building codes to more fire-resistant practices, the kind of tilt-up concrete buildings suggested by one letter writer is not necessarily the answer. Those buildings are more rigid … Read more

Paradise lost along Pacific Coast Highway

A spiral staircase is all that’s left of a home destroyed in the Palisades fire. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) Everyone knows California is disaster-prone, but there’s a familiar logic to the calamitous geography in this high-maintenance beauty of a state. Wildfires are supposed to be in the hills — in the wild — … Read more

As wildfires rage, private firefighters join the fight for the fortunate few

Private firefighter Bradcus Schrandt, right, holds an injured kitten while Joe Catterson watches at the Zogg fire near Ono, Calif., in September 2020. (Ethan Swope / Associated Press) When devastating wildfires erupted across Los Angeles County this week, David Torgerson’s team of firefighters went to work. The thousands of city, county and state firefighters dispatched … Read more

Job 1? Americans say infrastructure

I’m a pollster and political consultant associated with Republican causes: the Contract with America, the “death tax” and, of course, ending wasteful Washington spending. So why am I behind the new stimulus legislation — the biggest spending bill ever to be considered by Congress? Maybe because when it comes to some things — crumbling schools, … Read more

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