Food & Climate
Fire hydrants ran dry, while firefighters are making intensive efforts to extinguish the Los Angeles wildfires, which sparked a revolution of widespread criticism of the California governor, due to the weakness of the water system in the region, in which politicians, artists and businessmen participated, starting with US President-elect Donald Trump, passing through his ally, businessman Elon Musk, and reaching the famous Hollywood star Mel Gibson.
As firefighters battled three wildfires raging across Los Angeles in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the water tanks supplying Pacific Palisades – where the largest of the fires broke out – ran dry, according many reports seen by “Food & Climate” platform.
Janisse Quiñones, chief engineer and CEO of the Los Angeles department of water and power, told reporters that by 3am Wednesday, the three 1m-gallon tanks serving the Palisades had been depleted.
“We had a tremendous demand on our system in the Palisades. We pushed the system to the extreme,” Quiñones said during an early Wednesday morning press conference. “Four times the normal demand was seen for 15 hours straight, which lowered our water pressure.”
Although all 114 water tanks serving the city of Los Angeles were completely filled before the fire, water use in the Palisades caused the first of three tanks to run dry at 4.45pm on Tuesday, followed by the second at 8.30pm and the third at 3am Wednesday. As those tanks – located in the high-elevation Palisades – emptied, it became more difficult to refill them from lower-elevation reserves.
“Those tanks help with the pressure on the fire hydrants in the hills of Palisades,” Quiñones said. “Because we were pushing so much water in our trunk line, and so much water was being used before it [went] to the tanks, we were not able to fill the tanks fast enough. So, the consumption of water was faster than we can provide water in our trunk line.”
Los Angeles wildfires and water crisis
Did Los Angeles wildfires reveal water crisis? Mark Pestrella, director of the Los Angeles county department of public works, told the Associated Press, that urban water systems are not designed to fight wildfires, according to “The Guardian” .
“That’s why air support is so critical to the firefight. And unfortunately, wind and air visibility have prevented that support”, he added.
All firefighting aircraft were grounded by 7pm Tuesday due to high winds that evening, according to the Los Angeles fire department chief, Kristin Crowley, who said she had never seen such high winds as when the Palisades fire broke out on Tuesday morning.
Karen Bass, the Los Angeles mayor, announced that air operations had resumed by Wednesday afternoon, allowing LAFD helicopters to drop water on the fire. With wind conditions slightly improving, Joe Biden directed the defense department to provide air support to the state of California.
Triple criticism
Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk skewered California Democrats, and in Trump’s case Gov. Gavin Newsom, over Los Angeles wildfires.
Musk wrote on X Wednesday: “These fires are easily avoidable, but nonsense regulations in California prevent action being taken, so year after year homes burn down and more people die.”
While Mel Gibson, Speaking on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle on Friday night, the controversial actor told the show’s host there were any number of unanswered questions about the “convenient” circumstances surrounding the inferno in the Los Angeles area, wondering aloud whether the fires had been “commissioned” as part of a nefarious effort to move tenants off otherwise valuable land and property.
As Gibson put it on Friday night, “I know they were messing with the water, letting reserves go for one reason or another. California has a lot of problems that sort of, baffle the mind as to why they do things.