To some, the LA wildfires that devoured thousands of homes were down to a perfect storm of hurricane winds, drought and overdevelopment.

To others, it was the fault of gay firefighters.

“All of them are lesbians named Kristin,” once Conservative provocateur close to Donald Trump said, reeling off a string of officials including Kristina Crowley, the fire chief who has spent decades fighting fires across the region.

Furious residents are rightly raising questions about how parts of their city turned to cinders in a matter of hours.

And there is no shortage of answers.

The hunt for blame has quickly turned into a Democrat vs Republican, Left vs Right row taking in everything from smelt fish to “woke” diversity policies.

Several figures from the president-elect’s orbit have claimed that the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) was more focused on inclusion schemes instead of their basic task of tackling the blazes.

“DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] means people DIE,” Elon Musk, the Tesla billionaire and Trump ally, wrote on his social media platform X.

“They prioritised DEI over saving lives and homes,” he added in a later post.