By Tommy Acosta
Sedona, AZ — To see it all go up in smoke, burned to the ground, every hope and dream, every memory, gone.
What once were flourishing communities of colorful homes, ocean views, and lush landscape have been turned into a charred, grey wasteland as far as the eye can see.
What a blow from above as Los Angeles is turned into ash. These poor people, losing it all like that. Talk about an act of God, flinging a living hell at their unsuspecting heads, one day living a life of beauty and comfort, and hours later cast into a flaming nightmare that will take years to wake up from.
Fire eats everything in its path, and there is much to eat in those once beautiful communities.
It’s just so hard to fathom what these poor people are going through.
Everything turned to grey mud in such a short time.
They will relive the horror of that night and maybe days, that they suffered through.
They barely had time to escape the hungry flames with their lives, pets, and maybe a few valuables, with plumes of fire nipping at their heels.
What did these victims do to deserve such a fate? Why the misery they suffer? Why the total loss and the casting of their future into the gutter of hopelessness?
It’s just so hard to wrap one’s head around this. Putting oneself in their shoes is an exercise in panic and pain.
What will they do? Where will they go? Will they ever get over this and rebuild their lives?
And no one, regardless of wealth, was saved from the wrath of the flames. The fire could not care less about status or fame. It just went in there and took from them all.
There is an answer, though, as to where many of those now living in LA might go, and that is here to Arizona—and Sedona for those who can afford it.
There is a sense that Arizona would never suffer the same fate as California.
Then again, are we as safe here in Red Rock Country as we might think? With an ever-lingering drought, could a fire touch those of us who live here?
One might say yes, it’s possible but not probable.
Still, with the chaos enveloping the planet right now and this sense of impending doom percolating slightly beneath the consciousness of many, anything can happen, where even the laws of physics would be ignored with impunity. And raging flames very well could take a chunk out of Sedona.
For now, though, the illusion of safety still has a hold on most of us. And we can drink our wine beneath the glowing stars without a worry in the world.
So we can sit in front of our TVs and gasp at the immolation of a neighboring state, glad it’s them and not us, who were betrayed by conscienceless fate.
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19 Comments
Imagine the number of homeless added to an already untenable unhoused population nationwide. I’ve not heard a peep from anyone on what they intend to do about this growing crisis! Every climate disaster equals homes and livelihoods lost which results in homelessness. But let’s “drill baby drill” rather than help those in desperate need!
Yes it is very sad. I was on Ready, and Set just a few years ago here in Sedona. Was just waiting for the Go…. It can happen anywhere, and then add that wind. A living nightmare for sure.
But on the bright side, our next president can spew his hate, and lies, and make nicknames up for officials in government!
Maybe he can get people to rake or vacuum the forest? Or he is great at throwing paper towels to help victims of tragedies!
He’ll sell them his made in Chyyynaaa $80 Grifters Bibles, $12,000 Fake Fender Guitars and his $150,000 Fake Rolex Watches that the Soviets used to sell in Berlin for 8-10 DM each when the wall first came down. All the while blaming Gov. Newsome for absurdities like the hurricane force gails and rapidly growing vegetation aka CLIMATE CHANGE!
ILL Douche’s Bigliest Bestest Wall will get finished, Greenland Panama and Canader invaded far quicklier than he will ever do anything of substance to help CA out like a TRUE Leader should and would! It’s all about the Benjamin’s and Deportations Baby! Not helping the un housed gives wealthy A Holes like him a full staff baby cremini mushroom s. like Joe Pesci in his movie The Super!
Some of the people that lost their homes and apartments are living in their cars and motor homes. It would be nice if they had a safe place to park
I hope you have the same attitude towards the people who are still displaced in North Carolina and other states devastated by back to back Hurricanes.
Republican congressman calls for halting of disaster relief to California-
https://apple.news/AfapnxANSRva_r8uMKayfNQ
Typical Criminal MAGGOT Logic, being an asshole toward M’ericans in need of immediate assistance. Obviously they compete to one up one another over the shitting upon those in need following their Criminal Draft Dodging Treasonous Insurrectionist Felon’s asshole comments on CA, the fires and the CA Governor. I mean if we follow their logic then heads should roll and funds withheld in the cases of every form of climate change disaster. Because somehow they can blame a Governor for not raking CA’s forest floors, while encouraging those who caused the actual problems to “drill baby drill” and create more of them! Criminal MAGGOT Hypocrisies Greatest Hit-“blame everyone else for everything and accept no responsibility or blame whatsoever”! Mass shootings-“thoughts and prayers” and “mental health is the problem not the weapons used to commit the crimes”. Job loss-“it’s the fault of the migrant doing the jobs I wouldn’t be caught dead doing” “it’s DEI and Civil Rights that made it harder for incompetent white people to be hired over better qualified and better skilled workers of color”! Fentanyl Crisis-“if we halt legal migration than the drug fiends in M’erica can’t get the illegal drugs they demand”! War in Ukraine-“It’s Ukraine’s fault Rusher illegally annexed Crimea then invaded Ukraine conducting genocide because Ukraine shouldn’t be Democratic it should be part of Rusher like Canader and M’erica under ill Douche’s fevered dreams”!
And King Nothing hasn’t even ascended to his Golden Commode yet! Going to be difficult to track the insanity on a daily basis then. Which is completely the point of it all from their deranged prospectus.
It’s easy why this happened. Poor forest management. Poor leadership and Dei initiatives. And last but not least climate change hysteria.
Joe I’m going to pretend you’re not a troll. Where do I begin ? Let’s see uh, how about with every other state in the nation and country in the world that has gone up in flames since our CLIMATE began heating up due to carbon emissions to include AZ which has a large fire ongoing since early December 2024. Did AZ fail to “rake” its forest floors in accordance with GeniASS ill Douche’s fever dream for CA fire management? NO-NO it did not! The HORROR! But we won’t mention AZ in your diatribe will we? What about “the Great White North” Canader going up in flames for over a year including during heavy snowfall? Our what about Italy, Greece and other EU countries going up in flames over the past several years now? Not a peep huh?
Truth is you are just parroting horseshit nonsense spewed by your unstable Orange Insurrectionist FELON just like his horseshit nonsense about Haitian migrants eating domestic animals in OH and 110% of everything else he invents in his tiny DICKtator mind to cause strife and unrest in these MAGGOT UnUnited States.
But you’re just trolling aren’t you?
https://www.newsnationnow.com/video/la-fires-damage-is-direct-result-of-bad-public-policy-rep-mcclintock-on-balance/10367063
Troll? We don’t even kow how you are. You could be on another state for all we know.
President Trump had multiple comments and conversations with California between 2017 to 2020 regarding Forest management. Sacramento is controlled by Eco Terrorists. You get what you vote for. If a D is by your name, get elected. Never mind your intelligence and common sense capabilities.
California gets a lot of rain. A lot of brush grows. Looks nice. Then it dies. The cycle repeats. That dead material builds up. New green material appears on top.
Controlled burns? Nope, not allowed. Too much smoke.
Fire specialists wanted to cut fire breaks with bulldozers. OMG, not in our pristine Forests.
Water? Prop 1 demanded new reservoirs. Nope. Not one built since the 70s.
100,000s of thousands acre feet of water shipped out to sea for a minnow. They’re more important than human beings.
An empty reservoir. Surface material under repair. With a drought and no fire mitigation being done. Stupid? Who’s in charge?
It’s California crazy policies put in place by idealogs. No common sense.
When NFS does controlled burns here, don’t bitch about the smoke. Don’t complain about fire break roads in the forest. When you drive up to the rim on 89A to Flagstaff note the piles of debris in the forest due to cleaning by NFS.
And with all that we still have forest fires. Thank God we do not have anything close to Santa Ana winds.
And who the hell is JB? Sounds like a Chinese plant in a foreign country who needs a lesson in grammar and spelling.
“One might say yes, it’s possible but not probable.”
It’s INEVITABLE! The danger of fire here is far greater than LA!
And just like Pacific Palisades, there are very limited escape routes. I’m sure you saw the cars that were left on the road, blocking firefighters from getting to the burning houses. And we’re building a parking structure for tourists to block our new road.
The city has been patting themselves on the back for their emergency plans, because they divided the city into zones and sent everyone a magnet. This is not an emergency plan! Pretty sure I won’t give a crap about which zone I’m in when fire comes rushing down the canyon.
Then there’s a complete lack of water pumping infrastructure in uptown that the city has promised to properly maintain for many years! We’re doomed! So we individually have to make our own preparations and plans for when (not if) fire and wind arrive in Sedona.
I can’t worry about what’s going on nationally or even in other states. We can only make a difference right here in this town! It’s time to hold the City Council’s feet to this impending fire! Stop the parking garage! Stop the corporate welfare of Pink Jeep!
There’s no lack of water! Their water reservoirs which are redundant were at or above capacity. Their hydrant system which is far more massive than any in AZ failed in part likely due to failing to purge them all routinely which is a massive undertaking for any sprawling metropolis anywhere in the world.
Arson seems to be the main culprit to 99.9% of fires. But I don’t see any blaming of the arsonists in your post? The rest are either natural occurrences from lightning or are started by cars running on bare rims, dragging towing chains or by refracting broken glass igniting ground fuel.
The Orange Insurrectionist Felon threw paper towels to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico and told them all to get bent when it came to Federal Assistance. He hocked his Dump Bibles to tornado victims in the SE and didn’t do squat to assist anyone other than drawing bigly sharpee lines on a weather map. Talk about incompetence! But he’s a convicted FELON after all so that’s to be expected from him.
Tommy, please learn proper punctuation!! In the first sentence, the comma between all and go is wrong and dysfunctional.
As to the fires, yes it will happen here probably sooner rather than later. We are in the worst drought of the past 1,200 years. This is a direct result of climate change due to human idiocy.
LA FD, underfuded. 30% short, personmel, 100 fire trucks in the shop.
Weather Service warned on January 2nd and 3rd of upcoming wind situation. Why weren’t fire trucks and aircraft prepositioned.
Take note how DeSantis prepared for the hurricanes and how he had people and crews staged and ready to go.
Should the feds help LA with our tax dollars. Sure. Do there need to be strings attached so California starts acting responsibly?
Without a doubt. This is an unbelievable situation caused by irresponsible idealogs.
I’ve resided in CA during said hurricane in which CA’s power companies were out in advance of trimming trees away from all power lines to include those in people’s yards.
CA is far larger than AZ is and has way way more trees than AZ.
AZ had and likely still does have a massive deficit in hiring of all First Responders since COVID.
Your comparisons are ridiculous to say the very least. It is also incredibly biased against all things non MAGA like everything you spew.
Climate change not a factor huh?
Phoenix dry streak 15 days away from record https://www.azfamily.com/2025/01/15/phoenix-dry-streak-15-days-away-record/
When AZ is in flames this year (which it currently already is in Payson- guess they forgot to rake them thar mountains) due to the enormous amount of undergrowth that grew during last years rainy season but is now dry as baby powder, I want to hear you recant your every word but of course you won’t!
That’s the result of brainwashing via propaganda!
When a government picks and chooses which of its citizens to help in times of need based upon political ideology it is called Fascism. The United States used to proclaim itself as the world’s shining example of Democracy of the People by the People. What happened to all of that bluster? The US is becoming Putin’s Czarists Russia where only the Oligarchs matter and everyone else comes last.
Pistachio moguls and reservoirs: False water claims spread about California fires
https://apple.news/AakfmN1u6TKya1t82NnfSfQ
Want to retract your parroted propagandist claims yet?
Social media user sparks disbelief with mind-boggling theory about wildfires: ‘Why does this keep happening?’
“It is unfortunate that a significant portion of the U.S. population clings to conspiracy theories instead of trusting scientists who have decades of data supporting their position.”
https://apple.news/ATsYPGVhMSCa7HSPkVzNSAA
“Without a doubt. This is an unbelievable situation caused by irresponsible idealogs“
So the fire that has been burning in Payson since early December must be a direct result of “irresponsible ideologues”? And Oregon, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Montana which go up in flames routinely must also be the direct result of “irresponsible ideologues” according to your biased unfounded MAGA propaganda logic? If you are going to apply your logic to one you must apply it to all!