There is no Consolation for Devastation Wildfires Produce

"[The Los Angeles area] had another night of unimaginable terror and heartbreak, and even more Angelenos evacuated due to the northeast expansion of the Palisades Fire."

County supervisor, Lindsey Horvath

"We're not out of the woods yet. We have some very significant fire weather ahead of us." 

"We've prepositioned additional engines, fire crews, helicopters, bulldozers, water tenders across all of Southern California ... all poised to assist and support the additional fire threat."

Nancy Ward, director of the California Office of Emergency Services

 

"There's likely to be a lot more [fatalities in the wildfires devastating the Los Angeles area]."

"We always have to be careful on the death toll." 

"I've got search and rescue teams, we've got cadaver dogs out, and there's likely to be a lot more."

California Governor Gavin Newsom

 

"To all residents, please be assured that we will continue to be here for you until the last fire is completely extinguished."

"We stand alongside all of you as we begin to plan for the repopulation of evacuated areas, establishment of disaster recovery centers, and the rebuilding of your homes, your communities, and your lives."

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone  

"[Curfews remain in place for the Pacific Palisades and Brentwood neighborhoods, which is a] measure that is necessary to ensure public safety, as high winds are expected to pick up again."

"[The Palisades Fire] remains active, and as others have said, this situation is far from over."

"Pacific Palisades still faces dangerous conditions, including downed power lines, broken gas and water pipes and now slide conditions because of water activity."

Los Angeles City Council member Traci Park

Firefighters watch as water is dropped on the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon, in Los Angeles, on January 11.  Jae C. Hong/AP

Spreading wildfires saw firefighters racing to cut them off before the return of howling winds that could shove the flames closer to the J. Paul Getty Museum and the University of California Los Angeles. More home-owners were left on edge by new evacuation warnings, as a fierce battle was underway in Mandeville Canyon against the flames. Swooping helicopters were seen near the Pacific coast, dumping water on the downhill charging blaze. On the ground, firefighters were using hoses in an effort to beat back flames leaping everywhere, as thick smoke blanketed the hillsides.

CalFire operations chief Christian Litz explained their major focus on the Palisades Fire in the canyon area, not far from the UCLA campus. "We need to be aggressive out there", he said. The National Weather Service warned strong Santa Ana winds could soon return to replace the light breezes that were fanning the flames on Saturday. Santa Ana winds have been credited for the infernos that the wildfires were transformed into, levelling entire neighbourhoods which have seen no rainfall of any significant for the past eight months.

Megan Mantia, left, and her boyfriend Thomas, return to Mantia's fire-damaged home after the Eaton Fire swept through in Altadena, California, on January 8.   Ethan Swope/AP

There were fears that the fire threatened to leap over Interstate 405, into the Hollywood Hills and San
Fernando Valley, both highly populated. Teams conducted systematic grid searches on Saturday in the grim work sifting through the devastation with cadaver dogs. A family assistance centre was set  up in Pasadena as Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna urged residents to abide by curfews. "We have people driving up and around trying to get in just to look. Stay away."

The death count now stands at 26. Over 12,000 structures have been burnt to a cinder. Some 145 square miles have been consumed by the fires. Tens of thousands remain under evacuation orders while new evacuations were ordered Friday evening, following a flare-up on the Palisades Fire eastern side.Since the start of the fires on Tuesday north of downtown Los Angeles, structures including homes, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and vehicles have been burned.

No cause  has yet been attributed to the largest fires that have caused the nation's costliest wildfires event in its recorded history. Donation centres on Saturday were overwhelmed by volunteers to the point that many were turned away, although donations of necessities were accepted. Some residents have been returning in hopes of salvaging keepsakes, sifting through what was left of their homes in the rubble.

People were urged by officials to stay away. The ash, they warned, can contain lead, arsenic, asbestos and other dangerous materials. "If  you're kicking that stuff up, you're breathing it in", advised a spokesman for the  unified command at the Palisades Fire. "All of that stuff is toxic."

Yellowknife Ghost Town, Approaching Wildfires

"Grocery stores aren't open. There's no services here in town. The smoke's going to get thick, so really encouraging folks [to] head out now."

"Please don't spread rumours. There's no looting in Yellowknife."

"RCMP are patrolling the neighbourhoods. I contacted them this morning. I saw them on my walk to work this morning."

"There is no looting. Your homes are safe. You've gotta lock up and head out of town."

Yellowknife mayor Rebecca Alty 

Rebecca Alty, Yellowknife's mayor, says there are still exit options for people who stayed behind in the N.W.T. capital. 'The fire is approaching, we're working hard to stop it but let's not get to a situation where we have to do that emergency evacuation,'   CBC News

"It's a ghost town. This is kind of the D-Day for the fire effort. If it's going to get bad, it's going to get bad today."

"It's kind of like having a pint at the end of the world [exhausted firefighters taking a break at one bar still open, following long shifts]."

"Our members [First Nations] know the land better than anyone else. We're confident they'll be safe out there [those residents who choose shelter in cabins or camps out on the land]."

Kieron Testart, Yellowknife

Fishers Stephanie Vaillancourt and Annika Olesen, seen here on Friday, have a plan to shelter in place as wildfires threaten Yellowknife. (Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters)

Yellowknife has become a ghost town, as wildfires loomed nearby while the territorial capital's mayor urged residents to put away their fears of looting, and leave while they still could. The city of 20,000 saw thousands leaving by air or road Friday while a noon deadline to leave approached. Its goal was to see that everyone could evacuate in an orderly manner before the fire at 15 kilometres distance from the outskirts of the city, advanced to cut off access. 

 

1,600 people will remain in the city, workers fighting the flames, hoping to save as much of the city as possible. 236 fires are burning in the territory, a wildfire situation that is critical.

According to officials, the roads would remain open while flights would continue past the deadline as long as both avenues remained safe. Once-busy streets in the city had emptied, stores and businesses shuttered. Yellowknife gas stations were still operating, those that still had fuel. A single grocery store and a pharmacy remained open for the time being. Some First Nations people have chosen to take shelter in place while most people were clearing out.

"Busy skies today", commented fire information officer Mike Westwick, as work battling the flames continued. Eleven air tankers flew overhead, another plane dropping fire retardant, while a ten-kilometre fire line had been dug, backed up by 20 kilometres of hose and a plethora of pumps. Fire fighting implements representing "the most extensive heavy water operation we've ever seen in the territory", commented Westwick.

 

People who were evacuated from Yellowknife due to an approaching wildfire are watching from places like Alberta to see what happens with the ongoing fires in the Northwest Territories.  CBC

Havoc was threatening, with winds picking up from the north and northeast being predicted for Friday and Saturday. Hoped-for rain failed to materialize overnight, in an already drought-stricken environment. "Both of those winds would push the flames in directions we don't want them to go. We've still got some really difficult days ahead. There's no denying that", commented Mike Westwick.

Sprinklers, water cannons and fireguards were set up Wednesday as evacuation orders were given late on Wednesday. The following day, about 1,500 people left on evacuation flights, in addition to commercial planes. More flights scheduled for Friday that could see roughly 1,800 additional people leave the city. Steady, orderly convoys of vehicles headed for evacuation points on the main highway out. 

A Thursday view of another wildfire burning to the northeast of Yellowknife near the Ingraham Trail. (N.W.T. Fire)

"I urge all residents under evacuation orders to please adhere to them as they are issued."

"These orders are never issued lightly and always consider our collective health and safety."

"You could be jeopardizing your safety and that of others."

North West Territories' environment and communities minister, Shane Thompson

Abandoning the Liberal Government of Canada's Promise to Afghan Civilians

"In our conversation today you suggested we shouldn't be so involved and should step back and 'let the  professionals  in the Ministries handle it' or something to that effect."

"I hate to tell you, but everyone on the ground considers our government's management of this amounts, so far, to be a total disaster."

"It is, however, a little galling to suggest our office is an impediment and the Ministries are doing a great job."

"These men [Afghan civilians who worked for Canadian diplomats and Canadian forces] have not only provided their own countrymen with selfless service at their own risk, but are in part the reason why many soon-to-be Canadian citizens are alive and able to apply to these special immigration measures." 

"Retired General Thompson, who used to command the special forces, called me this A.M. and said he was 'livid' when he saw the video [depicting Canadian soldiers ignoring GAC-approved evacuees at Kabul airport]."

"The fact we continue to place getting the paperwork right above saving lives, outrageous as it is, seems to me classical Canadian government bureaucracy and therefore not totally surprising."

"Separating families, like parents from their children, is however, something that I would think is totally un-Canadian."

"I know that our government can't, for security reasons, reveal its plans and that we need to 'have faith' that we are doing everything we can to help the Afghans we claim to be trying to help. I am however, sorry to say, starting to lose faith."

Marcus Powlowski, Liberal Member of Parliament, Thunder Bay-Rainy River, mid-August, 2021

"I am astounded that a member of the embassy biometrics team, or members of the embassy staff in general, would even have access to the names and nicknames of those who are working with using this capacity [referring to an Afghan  interpreter by his underground nickname identifying him as an Aman Lara operator]."

"I'm appalled that this information would be shared in this casual manner, and with no apparent understanding of the impact communicating this knowledge in such a manner could have."

Drummond Fraser, Aman Lara co-founder, retired lieutenant-colonel

Afghans who appear to have documents approving their evacuation to Canada plead with troops to let them in to Kabul's airport last week, while standing in an open sewer. Source: Handout Photo 

During that brief period when the Taliban was speedily taking over districts and provinces, villages, towns and cities in Afghanistan on its way to reaching its final destination, the capital Kabul, to oust the legally constituted government supported by Western powers, allies Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom undertook dangerous and determined missions to rescue their personnel and remove them from the path of the incoming Taliban, and with them the Afghans and their families who had worked for them as office workers and interpreters.

Canada spoke quite a bit about its moral and ethical duty to rescue the Afghan civilians who had worked with Canadian diplomats and military, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assured everyone that he had the matter well in hand and would never abandon the Afghans whose lives were in danger from the Taliban who would make every effort to root them out, imprison, torture and kill them. No fewer than 23 Members of Parliament collectively approached the Liberal government to make haste.

On the day Kabul fell to the Taliban, and the days that followed to the end of August when all foreign troops were to leave the country, a prodigious effort was underway to rescue thousands of Afghans to ferry them out of harm's way and ultimately bring them to the countries which they had assisted during the NATO presence in war-torn Afghanistan. But in Canada, the prime minister saw an opportunity to call a snap election and turned his attention to persuading Canadians to give him a majority government.

It had been known for months that the Taliban agreement with the U.S. for troop withdrawal meant that a narrow window existed to extract the vulnerable Afghan civilians who had brushed away risks to work with foreign countries, and that moral indebtedness dictated they be taken out of harm's way. A Canadian veterans' group had taken steps the government had not, establishing a group they called Aman Lara, to rescue Afghan civilians whom Canada owed a debt of gratitude to, and their families.

 

Evacuees termed Canadian Entitled Persons — many interpreters were left behind — sit in a Canadian Air Force C-177 Globemaster III transport plane for their flight to Canada from Kabul on Aug. 23, 2021. Photo by Canadian Armed Forces/Handout via REUTERS

 

This group of veterans had attempted repeatedly to infuse the government with a sense of mission and timing, and failed. Member of Parliament Powlowski was brought into the rescue fold when Drummond Fraser, a co-founder of Aman Lara, a retired lieutenant-colonel, apprised him of a threatening phone call one of their safe-house coordinators in Kabul had received: "Who works for infidels and taking people out from our country and sending them to the infidel country...Don't worry, we will be soon your guests."

Which alarmed and motivated the Member of Parliament to initiate his own efforts to infuse the government with a sense of urgency. Concerns were raised of Taliban spies infiltrating safe houses, used by the Aman Lara group to house vulnerable Afghans and their families until they could be air-lifted out of the country to safety. Evacuation for most, however, never took place. Although recommendations for the immediate transport of Afghans with established links to Canada should take place expeditiously to a safe third country while their safe have in Canada was being processed, hundreds had little option but to go into hiding.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada had its bureaucratic routines and paperwork, and Foreign Affairs Canada had its preoccupations and the Canadian military lacked orders to act with alacrity, and so nothing was done to evacuate desperate Afghans though they themselves flooded local internet cafes to complete their applications as instructed and in the process were inadvertently exposed to Taliban collaborators.

Afghan ex-employees of Canada awaiting rescue

In one instance a Canadian embassy staffer openly referred to an Afghan by his underground nickname during a biometrics appointment, identifying him as an Aman Lara operator. The Prime Minister's Office lectured MP Powlowski to extract himself from involvement in the matter, that matters would proceed at their pace and all would be well. Even as panic and confusion in the capital of Kabul grew with Afghans terrified of their future prospects hunted by the Taliban.

Nothing stopped MP Powlowski from reiterating  his concerns, made all the more urgent by new revelations that very few interpreters were being allowed aboard Canadian relief flights. All the more shocking with the appearance of a video showing approved evacuees being turned away by Canadian forces at the Kabul airport. Afghan nationals were forced to stand in an open sewer waving their passports, visas and government-issued letters guaranteeing safe passage on relief flights. Few made it out.

And that timing coincided with the Taliban conducting door-to-door searches of homes looking for so-called 'collaborators and traitors'. That category also matched the position of Afghan civilians who had worked for the former Afghan government, and members of the Afghan military as well. All considered to be puppets of the West, enablers and unfaithful to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan represented by the Taliban.

Next Up: Kabul ... Evacuation in Full Flight ... Shock and Awe

"Our aim remains to support the Afghan government and security forces."

"We maintain our diplomatic presence in Kabul and the security of our personnel is paramount."

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg

 

"There are no clashes taking place right now in Jalalabad because the governor has surrendered to the Taliban."

"Allowing passage to the Taliban was the only way to save civilian lives."

Jalalabad-based Afghan official

 

"The situation has all the hallmarks of a humanitarian catastrophe."

"[There are concerns relating to a] larger tide of hunger."

Thomson Phiri, UN World Food Program

 

"[The shocking lack of foresight in the Biden administration's exit strategy has sent the United States] hurtling toward an even worse sequel to the humiliating fall of Saigon in 1975."

U.S.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell

"The city [Herat, population 600,000 in the west, which fell to the Taliban] looks like a frontline, a ghost town."

"Families have either left or are hiding in their homes."

Provincial council member Ghulam Habib Hashimi, Herat

An aircraft takes from the airport in Kabul as the Taliban closes in on the city. Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

It was inevitable that, in the absence of U.S. troops with the Biden administration's commitment to withdrawing American military personnel from Afghanistan, the Taliban was given the opportunity it awaited to consummate their end-plan of rushing, overwhelming and steam-rollering government security forces to reinstate themselves as the new government of Afghanistan by popular acclaim. In the face of provincial governors one after another offering no resistance to the entry of the Taliban in provincial capital cities, citing the priority of saving civilian lives, the Taliban proudly declared that the mass of the Afghan population welcomed their return as the proper governing body for the country.

The Taliban triumphant surge overwhelming the Afghan military and national police was predictable and most certainly expected. That the U.S. administration of President Joe Biden failed to recognize it beforehand and with that realization taking the opportunity to reprise their plan of exit for a more immediately responsive strategy which would allow them a partial withdrawal with a semi-permanent presence that might serve to protect both the government and the Afghan people and the U.S. itself from the looming inevitability of a firmly re-ensconced threat from terrorist groups stationed in Afghanistan again plotting against America just failed to penetrate the simple minds advising the president.

Taliban forces patrol a street in Herat, Afghanistan August 14, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer

This, the scenario that swiftly unfolded, leaving mouths agape at the White House leading to a confused response of returning thousands of U.S. soldiers to the city they had just recently departed from in a flurry of activity to escape the curse of Afghanistan that had consumed so much U.S. treasury and lives and time and effort, has left the world community with the unenviable vision of a U.S. administration in complete disarray, foiled in their planned escape and left once again holding hands with a corrupt government incapable of building consensus with the Northern Alliance Warlords who had once defeated the Taliban.

No one but the Taliban has come out of the situation in a better position than when they started. The U.S. besmirched itself to begin with,  negotiating with a terrorist group and in so doing legitimizing it as a future governing body in a country the U.S. was hoping to wash its hands of. But not really meaning to do so by delivering their allies into the hands so directly of the Islamist-ravaged-minds of the opponents both had fought so long, alongside NATO-member countries, all of whom are now desperately scrambling to remove their nationals from the country.

The Taliban, grim reapers of human life they so excel at, like all fundamentalist Islamists, played their hand openly enough, yet the U.S. negotiators under its special envoy, a man who with his own personal background would have recognized what the Taliban were planning, encountered no difficulty in persuading the Americans to leave Afghanistan and to take their allies with them. In plain negotiating talk, the Taliban insisted the foreigners must first leave before they would deign to sit at the negotiating table with the Afghan government. Their demand was acceded to, the expectation that they would negotiate in good faith with President Ashraf Ghani whom they now demand must step down, attests to their naivette.

 

Taliban forces patrol a street in Herat, Afghanistan August 14, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer

The provincial capitals continue to fall to the Taliban. Resistance is honourable, but proven futile. The defenders have a penchant for turning away from the advancing Taliban despite that their military mandate is to turn the terrorist invaders away from the cities they are so easily capturing. Their reputation for dispatching those members of the military whom they take in combat directly to their maker terrifies the Afghan national police and the military, just as the civilians are themselves fleeing in terror. Their defenders turn away from combat with the Taliban, and streams of refugees head for Kabul.

The final stronghold does not look as though it will hold. And knowing this, U.S. troops have been dispatched to evacuate the staff of the U.S. embassy numbering in their thousands. Is that possible? Both U.S. citizens and locally engaged Afghans. The U.K. has done the same, sending far fewer troops, as has Canada. Most embassies in the Afghan capital are retreating from the scene of what will soon become a large-scale butcher-shop. But President Biden is holding firm; he does not regret his decision to vacate the premises.

Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani and acting defence minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi visit military corps in Kabul, Afghanistan August 14, 2021. Afghan Presidential Palace/Handout via REUTERS