January 20, 2025
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.
Experts said most water systems can't handle big wildfires and in a forceful press conference, officials implored residents to conserve water and to 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 mayoral race.
Regional water officials say the system was never designed for fighting such massive blazes.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
John Fisher, a retired battalion chief with San Diego Fire-Rescue, said California is among the best in the world at ensuring communities share resources and staffing to put out big fires.
“We get it done. We pre-position resources, we staff up reserve engines,” he said. “Yesterday, there (was) a lot more fire than there is firefighters. That will start to change as the wind dies out and additional firefighters arrive and we’ll get the upper hand on it.”
Across the country, water systems have struggled before. The 2023 fire that ripped through the historic town of Lahaina, killing more than a hundred people, burned so quickly in a dense area, that pipe bursts made it hard to maintain enough water pressure for firefighting 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.
