chrissteel
Exceptional Member
- Messages
- 151
- Records show L.A. County missed dozens of opportunities for water infrastructure improvements that experts say likely would have helped firefighters during the Palisades fire.
- Some of the long-delayed projects were specifically aimed at improving “fire flow” and ensuring enough water during emergencies.
- A county official said that the water system “performed as designed” during the Palisades fire, and that additional water would have saved “relatively few homes.”
As crews battled the blaze, attempting to extinguish flames that burned huge swaths of L.A. County and killed at least 11 people, some hydrants ran dry.
The lack of water has come under scrutiny since the wildfire broke out Jan. 7, with officials scrambling to explain why the 117-million-gallon Santa Ynez Reservoir was left empty for maintenance.

Officials were warned of failing water system before Palisades fire. Fixes never happened
Thousands of pages of records reviewed by The Times show L.A. County officials had for years described water infrastructure in areas where hydrants ran dry during the Palisades fire as 'leak prone,' 'severely undersized' and not having enough flow to support firefighters.
