Spencer Pratt & Heidi Montag Are Leading This Intense Lawsuit Over Palisades Fire Fallout
Spencer Pratt has never been one for subtlety, and after the Palisades Fire reduced both his and his parents’ homes to ashes, he’s channeled his relentless energy into social media. His mission? Shutting down the online narrative that wildfire victims — namely, wealthy or famous ones — somehow deserved their devastation of losing their home full of stories and irreplaceable heirlooms.
When he’s not defending victims on TikTok or trying to resurrect Heidi Montag’s 2010 album on iTunes, Pratt is livestreaming up to a dozen times a day to keep afloat financially. But his fight isn’t just online anymore — it’s in the courtroom.
Pratt and Montag are among over 20 homeowners from the Pacific Palisades neighborhood suing the city of Los Angeles, along with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) claiming its water system failed spectacularly when it was needed most, turning a bad wildfire into an absolute catastrophe. The legal basis? Something called “inverse condemnation.” Translation? If a government agency’s actions — or failure to act — directly damage private property, they’re on the hook for it. Here, the homeowners argue that “LADWP and City of Los Angeles had a duty to properly construct, inspect, maintain, and operate its water supply system.” A failure to uphold that duty, they contend, contributed significantly to the fire’s destruction.
At the center of it all is the Santa Ynez Reservoir, the main water source for Pacific Palisades. The lawsuit, obtained by Variety, alleges that “the Santa Ynez Reservoir… was completely offline and emptied before the fires erupted in the area, leaving fire crews little-to-no water to fight the Palisades Fire.” Why? According to the filing, LADWP had drained the reservoir for repairs in February 2024 and left it offline as a “cost-saving” measure.
For context, this isn’t LADWP’s first brush with controversy. It has previously faced a lawsuit from the U.S. government over its alleged connection to the 2018 Creek Fire and FBI investigations regarding an overbilling and coverup scandal, among other legal battles.
But this isn’t just about one of the many organizations failing citizens in the wake of the climate emergency — it’s part of a larger crisis we’re all grappling with. Climate disasters are escalating. It’s that simple. In 2024, the U.S. faced 27 billion-dollar events, including Hurricane Helene, which caused $79 billion in damage, and the South Fork Fire in New Mexico. Now, Southern California wildfires have forced over 100,000 evacuations, and brutal winter storms have battered the mid-Atlantic.
While there are valid arguments about how various government and agencies could have better handled the Pacific Palisades Fire in Pratt’s lawsuit, (and we hope that if either the City or LADWP were culpable they are held accountable) the bigger picture is even more concerning. The climate crisis is speeding up, and no amount of equipment or preparation will be enough. We need bold, sweeping changes now, or we’ll face disasters that we simply can’t handle.
Before you go, click here to see the most important celebrity lawsuits over the past 15 years.