California Gov. Gavin Newsom demanded an independent investigation into the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) after firefighters faced a nightmare situation: fire hydrants that had run out of water.
“From the moment firestorms erupted in Los Angeles County on Tuesday, January 7, it was clear our public infrastructure would be put under tremendous strain,” he said in a Friday letter to the LADWP.
Los Angeles officials had filled three one-million-gallon tanks to provide as much pressure as possible to feed hydrants in the hilly Pacific Palisades neighborhood on Tuesday, but it wasn’t enough.
While acknowledging that resources and infrastructure was bound to be put to the test, Newsom called the loss of water pressure “deeply troubling.”
“While water supplies from local fire hydrants are not designed to extinguish wildfires over large areas, losing supplies from fire hydrants likely impaired the efforts to protect some homes and evacuation corridors,” Newsom said.
In addition to the problem with fire hydrants, Newsom requested that Los Angeles officials conduct an investigation into the “reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir.”
At least 10 people have died and more than 10,000 structures have been destroyed in the wildfires. The largest of the fires, the Palisades Fire, has burned over 20,000 acres. It was 8% contained as of Friday afternoon
