Sayre Fire: Someone Must Pay

At 6AM this morning....

• 2600 acres
• 10,000 homes threatened
• 500+ firefighters and growing
• 12 water dropping helicopters
• 2 fixed-wing aircraft
  
• Countless homes and possessions already burned
• Citizens and firefighters hurt
• Pets and animals burned alive
• 0% containment
• Cost to the taxpayers: $million$ and counting

All in just 8 hours.... and someone must pay.

The fire started at Veterans Memorial Park. It probably didn't start itself.

Could have been a cigarette, a small cooking fire, a bonfire with drinking buddies, or a deliberate act by a sick individual or group.

Regardless, if someone with any cognitive ability whatsoever is lighting a flame in conditions such that we have now, they are knowingly threatening everyone's lives. Attempted murder, in essence.

• Major health cost to thousands from stress and air quality conditions
• Unknown cost in medical bills, loss of work time, or even permanent disability
• Unknown amount of repairable and irreparable damage to the environment
  

Taxpayers, victims, employers, and the environment... all will pay this price.

• Odds that the arsonist will be caught and prosecuted: very low.
• Typical sentence if caught: community service hours or less than a year of jail time.

LAFD does what it can with the resources it has. Their firefighting ability is absolutely second to none. Unfortunately, until we look at the definition of arson differently and put the kind of funding in place necessary for cutting-edge research, development, and manpower needed to seriously raise the percentage of successful arson prosecutions, the only person who will not pay is the one who started this fire.