As of this writing, wildfires raging across Los Angeles County have already claimed five lives, over 1,100 structures and caused many billions of dollars in damage.

It’s an immense tragedy for all who have been impacted and will no doubt have repercussions for years to come.

If there’s any silver lining to come from this, it’s that many Californians might step up the pressure on their elected officials to ensure nothing like this happens again.

Assemblyman Bill Essayli has rightly called on Gov. Gavin Newsom to drop his stunt of “Trump-proofing” California and instead focus on wildfire prevention.

“I am calling on him to do his job and instead fireproof California and call for a Special Legislative Session on wildfires so we can immediately (1) fund critical firefighting efforts and upgrade our infrastructure; (2) pass policy changes to allow for needed fire mitigation, such as controlled burns and undergrounding of power lines, and (3) address the fire insurance crisis Californian’s are currently facing,” he said in a statement.

These are certainly more worthwhile points of consideration than what Newsom would prefer to spend his time and energy on.

After all, many not directly impacted by the fire will likely pay the price for the disaster in Los Angeles County. Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University, has warned the San Francisco Chronicle that the immense cost of this fire could add even greater pressure on California’s fragile insurance market.

But there’s also much to be said about local management, or mismanagement, of the problem.

“There’s no water in the fire hydrants,” complained Los Angeles businessman Rick Caruso, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times. “The firefighters are there [in the neighborhood], and there’s nothing they can do — we’ve got neighborhoods burning, homes burning, and businesses burning. ... It should never happen.”

In response to such complaints, LA Councilmember Traci Park lamented “the chronic under-investment in the city of Los Angeles in our public infrastructure.”

Memo to governments: get the basics of government right. If we’re going to spend as much as we do on fire departments, let’s make sure they can do their jobs when it matters. And better yet, if we can take proactive steps to prevent fires, let’s do that. If governments can’t do the basics to protect the people, what’s the point of them?