California Governor Gavin Newsom has called for an independent investigation into the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) after firefighters encountered a dire situation: fire hydrants that had no water.
“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,” he stated in a letter to the LADWP on Friday.
Describing the discovery as “deeply troubling,” Newsom pointed out that the loss of water in fire hydrants while flames ravaged homes in Los Angeles “likely impaired” efforts to contain the fires.
“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,” he remarked. “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.”
The governor emphasized the need for answers, stating he had instructed officials to prepare an independent post-incident report to investigate the reasons behind the loss of water supply and pressure.
“We need answers to how that happened. Therefore, I have directed state water and firefighting 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,” he said.
“I request that LADWP and Los Angeles County officials swiftly prepare a comprehensive review examining their local preparation and response procedures to ensure available water supply for emergencies, and document any causes of the loss of water pressure and unavailability of water supplies.”
Newsom’s directive followed comments from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who revealed on Thursday that as much as 20% of the city’s hydrants were without water.
She added that by Thursday, firefighters had ceased using hydrants altogether.
Initially, the LADWP had been pumping water from aqueducts and groundwater into the system, but the demand was so high that there was insufficient supply to replenish three 1-million gallon tanks in the Pacific Palisades, which are critical for maintaining pressure in hydrants.
As a result, many hydrants ran dry while at least 10,000 homes and buildings were consumed by the flames.
{Matzav.com}