A resident inspects the remains of her home that was destroyed by the Eaton Fire on Jan. 9, in Altadena, Calif.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Firefighters in Los Angeles are facing a dire scenario that has become increasingly common around the world as urban areas grapple with the growing threat of wildfire: a lack of water.
On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets reported that firefighters in the fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades region hooked up to hydrants only to find there was little or no water pressure.
The water-scarcity issue sparked a round of blame among Angelenos and elected representatives, with president-elect Donald Trump falsely claiming that Governor Gavin Newsom’s fish conservation efforts were responsible for the lack of water for firefighting efforts.
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But fire experts, as well as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, note that municipal water systems, including in her city, were never designed to repel wildfires of the scale now scorching the city.
“We all know that this has been an unprecedented event,” she said Thursday at a news conference. “We also know fire hydrants are not constructed to deal with this type of massive devastation.”
The typical hydrant system is designed to provide enough water for a contained building fire lasting a few hours. The U.S. Fire Code states that hydrants should provide at least 1,900 litres a minute. To ensure continuous pressure, many municipalities use subterranean cisterns to store adequate water.
Los Angeles has about 114 such tanks spread across the city – including three Palisades-area cisterns that hold about 3.8 million litres each. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said on Wednesday that all cisterns were filled prior to the fire as part of emergency-preparedness protocols.
Extreme demand on those tanks exceeded the rate at which they could be replenished, the department said in a news release, limiting flow to some hydrants, especially at higher elevations.
Mark Petrella, director of Los Angeles County Public Works, said on Thursday that waterbombers were drawing from the city’s reservoirs, which remained full despite the extreme demand.
“A firefight with multiple fire hydrants drawing water from the municipal water system for several hours is just not sustainable,” he said during a news conference. “That’s why the air support is so important.”
That air support was vital to slowing down the fires on Thursday. High winds earlier in the week had ground aircraft.
“If we don’t have water, we find water,” said Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, who has been attacked on social media for the lack of water.
Water shortages have come to be expected during wildfires around the globe, which often flare up in drought-stricken regions and can knock out vital water infrastructure.
The L.A. scenario is reminiscent of the devastating 2023 wildfire that destroyed Lahaina on the island of Maui, where fire crews could not find hydrants with adequate water pressure. An analysis by drinking-water engineer Robert Sowby found that a combination of power outages, leaks from fire-damaged structures and a scarcity of emergency water supplies led to the shortage.
Major firestorms can have cascading effects on infrastructure that entirely knock out water systems, Dr. Sowby told The Globe and Mail in an interview. “In Maui, it was intense wind that knocked down the power lines that started a fire that then knocked out power to the water system,” he said.
“I don’t know that that’s happening in Los Angeles yet, but we may see some cascading effects of infrastructure failures because of this widespread fire.”
But considering the speed with which both the Maui and Los Angeles fires moved, hydrant pressure could be a moot point, said Alan Westhaver, a wildfire-management specialist.
“No conceivable fire-suppression response (or amount of water – except heavy rain) can effectively or safely outduel wildland fires of this intensity,” he said in an e-mail exchange with The Globe.
Mr. Westhaver co-created FireSmart, a program that educates Canadians on protecting communities from wildfire. As bigger fires encroach on towns and cities, the focus should shift to making properties and structures more resistant to ignition.
Water-supply issues, he said, are “another distraction that gets in the way of implementing effective actions that will reduce losses under these severe circumstances.”
Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley held a press conference Thursday, saying the Palisades fire is one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of L.A. Firefighters are battling to control major fires in the area that have killed five people, ravaged communities from the Pacific Coast to Pasadena and caused thousands of people to frantically flee their homes.
The Associated Press