Fire hydrants ran dry in Southern California just when they were needed most
The water system used to fight the Palisades fire in Los Angeles buckled under the demands of what turned out to be the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history. Some hydrants ran dry, hindering the fight against the flames, local water officials said Wednesday.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was pumping more water from aqueducts and groundwater into the system, but demand was so high, that wasn’t enough to refill three one-million gallon tanks in hilly Pacific Palisades that help pressurize hydrants for the neighborhood. Many went dry and at least 1,000 buildings were engulfed in flames.
In a forceful press conference, officials implored residents to conserve water and not attempt to fight fire with garden hoses.
“I would ask that you turn off your water and turn off your gas, both things before you leave the residence so that we can continue to have that water supply for the hydrant system,” said Mark Pestrella, director of Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.
That prompted a swirl of criticism on social media against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s water management policies.
“You got thousands of homes destroyed, families destroyed, businesses destroyed. I think you can figure out a way to get more water in the hydrants. I don’t think there’s room for excuses here,” said Rick Caruso, a real estate developer and former commissioner with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, who came in second in the last Los Angeles mayors race.
President-elect Trump seized on the moment to blame Newsom for the dry fire hydrants. In a post on his Truth Social media network Wednesday, he renewed criticisms of the state’s approach to balancing the distribution of water to farms and cities with the need to protect endangered species including the Delta smelt. Trump has sided with farmers over environmentalists in a long-running dispute over California’s scarce water resources.
“The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need,” said Izzy Gardon, director of communications for California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Most water systems are not designed to fight such massive blazes. Regional water officials pushed back and said
Regional water officials also pushed back, saying the system was never designed for fighting such massive blazes. That’s true for most water providers around the country, experts said.
“We’re fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that is really challenging,” said Janisse Quiñones, CEO of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Peter Gleick, senior fellow at the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit that focuses on global water sustainability, dismissed Trump’s criticsm as well. Leaving more water in rivers for endangered fish is one thing. Water availability in Los Angeles is another, he said.
“Those fights have been going on for a long time and they have not affected in any way water supply for firefighting in southern California,” Gleick said.
About 40 percent of Los Angeles city water comes from state-controlled projects connected to northern California, and the state has limited the water it delivers this year. Yet the southern California reservoirs these canals help feed are at above-average levels for this time of year.
A widening problem
As wildfires become increasingly common in urban areas such as Boulder, Colorado and Lahaina, Hawaii, public water systems are often unable to meet the firefighting demand. Human-caused climate change is making it worse, experts say.
Beyond water availability, large urban fires can also melt or otherwise damage pipes, causing them to leak large amounts of water, draining pressure from the system, said Andrew Whelton, an engineering professor at Purdue University. Individual homes with water meters that have a remote shutoff can help water utilities quickly stem such losses, Whelton said.
Greg Pierce, professor of urban environmental policy at the University of California who had a family member lose a house in one of the blazes, pushed back on Caruso’s assertion that the loss of water pressure was a clear sign of mismanagement.
Providing enough water could amount to a subsidy for very high-income areas, he said. “I think the conversation has to be more about whether these areas are habitable.”
The 2023 fire that ripped through the historic town of Lahaina and claimed more than 100 lives burned so quickly in a dense area, that pipe bursts made it hard to maintain enough water pressure for fire fighting efforts.
In the 2021 Marshall Fire in Colorado, the city of Louisville’s water department had workers manually open valves to let untreated water from the Colorado River and Boulder Creek into pipes to restore pressure. That helped firefighters but also led to water contamination.
LADWP is sending in mobile water tankers to help fight the fires. They can then refill at hydrants that still have pressure, Quiñones said. It takes about 30 minutes to refill about 4,000 gallons of water.
For many hours, the fire itself made it impossible for aircraft to gather water from a much more abundant source of water — reservoirs.
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