Why L.A. firefighters were short of water to fight the huge wildfires
Fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades went dry; tanker trucks, water bombers deployed
While battling the huge wildfires in Los Angeles, many firefighters suddenly found they had lost access to a crucial firefighting resource — water. Here's a look at how that happened and why.
What water problems did firefighters encounter?
Firefighters were still fighting Thursday to control a series of major fires in the Los Angeles area that have killed five people, ravaged communities and sent thousands of people frantically fleeing their homes.
A day earlier, firefighters fighting the massive blazes in the city's hilly Pacific Palisades neighourhood plugged their hoses into local fire hydrants and found they couldn't get the water flowing, local media such as the L.A. Times reported.
Janisse Quiñones, chief executive and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), said the problem was restricted to hydrants at high elevations.
What caused the water flow problems?
Quiñones said all water storage tanks in the Palisades had been emptied by 3 a.m. local time that morning.
Those three tanks had each contained 3.8 million litres (a million U.S. gallons of water).
LADWP noted that water continued to flow in the Palisades area through its main system.
It added that firefighting had caused "tremendous demand" in the region — roughly quadruple the usual demand.
That lowered the water pressure in the Palisades area.
The number of hoses needed for ground-level firefighting was particularly high due to the high winds that prevented water bombers from flying for much of the day.
Mark Pestrella, director of Los Angeles County Public Works, said at a news conference Thursday that "a firefight with multiple fire hydrants drawing water from municipal water systems is just not sustainable. That's why the air support is so important."
In response to a media question Thursday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass acknowledged she was frustrated by the water issues on Wednesday, but she noted these wildfires were an "unprecedented" event.
"We also know that the fire hydrants are not constructed to deal with this type of massive devastation," she added.
As of Thursday morning, she said, the water situation was "a little better," since the winds had died down enough to allow for aerial firefighting.
What are authorities doing about these water problems?
The LADWP said Wednesday afternoon that it had deployed 19 tanker trucks, each carrying 7,600 to 15,000 litres (2,000 to 4,000 U.S. gallons) to support firefighting efforts.
"Our crews are working on how to refill the tanks during this very active firestorm," it added in a statement.
It is also asking customers in the Westside to conserve water.
On Wednesday evening, LADWP opened all its reservoirs to water bombers.
Pestrella said all the reservoirs are full and "continue to be ready and at the disposal of our firefighting friends."
Quiñones also spoke at Thursday's news conference, adding that LADWP is also working "around the clock" with other local water agencies to increase water supply and pressure.
L.A. fire chief Kristin Crawley said the high winds forced firefighting crews to change their strategies and tactics, but they were responding to the challenges.
"If we don't have water, we find water, we use water tenders, we draft water…. we're going to do everything in our absolute effort to do what we can do with what we've got."
The good news, she said, was that winds were subsiding, and she expected water drops and other aerial firefighting to continue all day Thursday.
