California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) demanded an inquiry into why a large reservoir in the Pacific Palisades was depleted at the time of this week’s deadly, historic wildfires.
When deadly wildfires devastated the community in the Los Angeles area this week, a large reservoir in the Pacific Palisades was offline and empty, according to a story published by the Los Angeles Times on Friday.
“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. The horrific hurricane-force winds and dry conditions have produced an unprecedented urban-wildlands disaster that has pushed all of our resources to the limits,” Newsom wrote.
“The ongoing reports of the loss of water pressure to some local fire hydrants during the fires and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir are deeply troubling to me and to the community. While water supplies from local fire hydrants are not designed to extinguish wildfires over large areas, losing supplies from fire hydrants likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors.” he continued.
“We need answers to how that happened. Therefore, I have directed state water and fire- fighting officials to prepare an independent after-incident report examining the causes of lost water supply and water pressure in municipal water systems during the fire events, and to identify measures that local governments can implement to provide adequate water supply for emergency response during future catastrophic events.” Newsom added.
Finger-pointing over the extent of the destruction has already increased, and reports of poor water pressure and fire hydrants running dry have been common in recent days.
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