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Safer Streets, Brighter Futures

Deadly Cal⁠i⁠forn⁠i⁠a W⁠i⁠ldf⁠i⁠res  are a Fa⁠i⁠lure of Leadersh⁠i⁠p

By: Gabriel Nadales / January 22, 2025

Gabriel Nadales

National Director, Our America

Safer Streets, Brighter Futures

January 22, 2025

This year’s devastating California wildfires were totally predictable and preventable. Growing up in California, every year I saw heartbreaking images of homes reduced to ash and heard stories of families forced to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs. In recent weeks, I’ve called numerous friends who have been forced to evacuate and heard from others whose families lost everything. This year’s wildfires are some of the worst in the state’s history—but unfortunately, they’re nothing new.

I’ll never forget the Colby Fire of 2014. I was in college, sleeping in, when my mom burst into my room, terrified. I stumbled outside and saw cars covered in ash. Fortunately we didn’t have to evacuate, but my college became a center for many people who had been displaced, with some of my friends again losing their homes.

Years later, when I moved to Washington, D.C., I saw snow for the first time and instinctively told my wife it looked like a fire must be nearby. That’s how normal wildfires were in California—they were always on my mind.

But these fires aren’t natural disasters we have to accept. They’re man-made problems caused by years of poor decisions and government mismanagement. One of California’s biggest failures is its refusal to properly manage its forests.

From the San Gabriel Mountains, where I grew up, to the towering redwoods along the Avenue of the Giants, California forests are among the most beautiful in the world. But they are also deadly. It doesn’t take an expert to see the problem. The forest floors are littered with dead trees, dry brush, and timber waiting to ignite. Whether it’s a careless accident, a lightning strike, or an arsonist with bad intentions, these conditions turn any spark into the hell we can see in California right now.

The solution isn’t complicated. Forests need to be thinned, and controlled burns should be part of regular maintenance. These aren’t new ideas; they have worked elsewhere and they will work in California. But California’s leaders just don’t have their priorities straight.

Take Gov. Gavin Newsom, for example. He’s been criticized for rerouting water to protect a fish species in Northern California. While that decision might contribute to the problem, the real issue is that the state has allowed its forests to become fire hazards. Instead of focusing on flashy environmental policies, California needs to get back to the basics.

Wildfires cost California billions of dollars each year. They destroy property, devastate local economies, and leave families with nothing. And it doesn’t end there. The smoke pollutes our air, the destruction damages ecosystems, and rebuilding takes years. Lives, homes, and communities are at stake and California’s elected officials need to change course, putting people above political agendas.

I still remember in the 4th grade my classmates and I couldn’t play outside during recess or turn on the air conditioning because the smoke in the air had reached dangerous levels. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. California has the tools and the knowledge to reduce the risk of wildfires, but it needs to act. I’m tired of seeing my home state burn year after year. It’s time for leaders to step up and make forest management a priority.

Wildfires are not a fact of life in California. They’re a failure of leadership. And until that changes, we’ll keep seeing families lose everything to a problem we already know how to solve.