The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) released its official after-action report on the Palisades Fire on Wednesday — and it completely omits any mention of the empty Santa Ynez reservoir during the blaze. [emphasis, links added]
The comprehensive, 76-page report identifies several mistakes during the LAFD response to the fire, including a lack of staff, a shortage of equipment due to maintenance, and communications problems.
However, it fails to mention the fact that the 117-million-gallon Santa Ynez Reservoir atop the Pacific Palisades was largely empty, which caused water to run out during the fiercest part of the fight.
The report does mention another problem that would have affected water pressure in the hydrants regardless of the reservoir supply — namely, that sudden, extreme demand caused pressure to drop.
This, as the report notes, was a failure of design, as the system was not intended for fighting a sudden, massive wildfire:
“The local water infrastructure was never designed to support firefighting operations at this scale and intensity, while at the same time experiencing thousands of breaches in residential supply lines due to open pipes.
“The system is primarily engineered for residential and commercial use, not to sustain the extraordinary water demands of a large, fast-moving vegetation fire combined with the leaking open residential pipes.
“Firefighters and leaking pipes were flowing water at a rate that exceeded the system’s ability to replenish local tanks, which in turn affected both pressure and availability.”
Hydrants in the Eaton Fire, further east, also ran out of water, without a comparable reservoir problem.
Still, the lack of water in the reservoir was a major factor that complicated firefighting efforts — a fact that the after-action report curiously omits.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) currently faces lawsuits over its role in the fire, relating not only to the reservoir but also to power lines that may have sparked a second blaze.
A criminal complaint against Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, for alleged arson notes that the LADWP was not involved in causing the initial small Lachman Fire on New Year’s Day, which was reignited on January 7 as the Palisades Fire that destroyed nearly 7,000 structures across over 23,000 acres.
Top photo above shows an empty reservoir and hydrant via India Today/YouTube screencap
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