Those are just a few questions that have been raised ever since the deadly and devastating fires erupted in Los Angeles County.
With firefighting aircraft temporarily grounded last week due to powerful winds, the Los Angeles city and county fire departments had to rely on boots on the ground. But extraordinarily strong winds had been in the weather forecast.
Were fire agencies ready for the firefight on the ground?
Both agencies said they pre-deployed firefighters the best they could.
"So, we pull people from all over L.A. County and then we group them up and we pre-deploy them," said Capt. Sheila Kelliher of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, explaining that strike teams were in position.
The teams are each comprised of five fire trucks and 21 firefighters whose mission is to pounce when a brush fire ignites.
"This strike team pre-deployment is essential because we get people on the ground quickly," Kelliher said in an interview.
Tuesday morning, the L.A. County Fire Department positioned one strike team at Fire Station 89 in Agoura Hills, which ended up being just miles northwest of what would become the Palisades Fire.
Strike team 2 was based at a station in La Cañada Flintridge, very close to what would grow into the Eaton Fire.
Strike team 3 was at the fire department's air operations base in Pacoima.
"Pacoima is just very centrally located, so everyone can kinda huddle up there and they can get anywhere pretty quickly," Kelliher said.
We know from CalFire that the Palisades Fire sparked at around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The fire started inside the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles City Fire Department.
But L.A. County Fire says they still dispatched crews to that fire at 10:39 a.m., and it's first fire truck arrived at the scene 13 minutes later at 10:52 a.m.
The Eaton Fire was first seen inside L.A. County Fire's jurisdiction at 6:18 p.m. that evening. The county says the first crews were dispatched at 6:20 p.m. and arrived at 6:31 p.m.
Kelliher said three strike teams being deployed was sufficient.
"Remember, we also have to provide services to the rest of the county and what they are dealing with, too," she said.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley defended her pre-deployment plan.
On Thursday, we learned her department had 122 firefighters pre-positioned for wildfires on Tuesday morning.
Crowley says she pre-deployed everyone she could, but wants more firefighters to staff stations and join the next firefight.