Jules Hotz/ CalMatters Photo
Paul Bass Photo
Alston at WNHH FM: Texting, praying.
John Alston Jr. had no time for the “blame game” over how Los Angeles’ wildfires have devastated America’s second-largest city.
Alston, New Haven’s fire chief, was busy monitoring California fire department website updates and texting fellow firefighters racing to save lives and entire neighborhoods.
Got you in my mind. I saw the map … You OK?
Most of the responses were reassuring for now: Thanks for checking on us. We’re good, hard at work. House is safe. Family safe.
One friend did report the sad news that he — like some of his colleagues — had lost his home in the wildfires he was battling.
While politicians sought to score points over the still-raging tragedy and some analysts hunted for causes and culprits, Alston and his kindred firefighters have been in what he described as “game mode.”
“There’s plenty of time to investigate after the fire. There’s plenty of time to look at causes and root causes and what we can do better,” Alston said Thursday during a conversation on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
“But in this situation, firefighters don’t have the luxury of having those conversations and those thoughts. They’re trying to save people, homes, property and themselves at the same time. There were firefighters who were fighting the fires who knew their own homes were burning. There were firefighters fighting this fire who lost their homes. We don’t have the luxury of playing politics and the blame game.”
Alston didn’t see precise parallels from the LA catastrophe to New Haven fire-fighting, but he did notice some possible early lessons that can be applied here.
He was interested, for instance, in how the LA crews used helicopters to drop materials onto the fires. It might make sense to expand their use here as well, he said.
He also noted the use of specialized bulldozers to clear away brush that could otherwise speed the wildfires’ spread. That make might sense here as well.
Menawhile, he called on people here to make sure to clear brush from their own properties and gutters, and to be careful around campfires and in disposing of smoking materials in their regular routines.
And, of course, to keep LA in our prayers as the effort continues to bring the historical blazes under control.
“I’m praying,” Alston said, “for rain, no wind, and cooler temperatures and a break for the folks that are doing a really, really, really good job performing under some harrowing conditions out there.”
Click on the video below to watch the interview with New Haven Fire Chief John Alston Jr. on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”