California’s fire hydrants are running dry—just when the L.A. fires need them most

L.A. officials have come under attack for its water management system, but experts say it isn’t the only city to see its public water system stressed as climate change exacerbates wildfires.

The water system used to fight the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles buckled under the demands of what turned out to be the most destructive fire in city history, with some hydrants running dry as they were overstressed without assistance from firefighting aircraft for hours early Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was pumping from aqueducts and groundwater into the system, but demand was so high that it wasn’t enough to refill three one-million gallon tanks in hilly Pacific Palisades that help pressurize hydrants for the neighborhood. Many went dry as at least 1,000 buildings were engulfed in flames.

The dry hydrants prompted a swirl of criticism on social media, including from President-elect Donald Trump, against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s water management policies.

But state and local officials and experts forcefully hit back, saying critics were connecting unrelated issues and spreading false information during a crisis. State water distribution choices were not behind the hydrant problems, they said, nor was a lack of overall supply in the region.

In a post on his Truth Social media network, Trump connected it to criticism of the state’s approach to balancing the distribution of water to farms and cities with the need to protect endangered species including the Delta smelt. Trump has sided with farmers over environmentalists in a long-running dispute over California’s scarce water resources.

Janisse Quiñones, head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said later at a news conference that 3 million gallons of water were available when the Palisades Fire started but the demand was four times greater than “we’ve ever seen in the system.”

Hydrants are designed for fighting fires at one or two houses at a time, not hundreds, Quiñones said, and refilling the tanks also requires asking fire departments to pause firefighting efforts. Mayor Bass said 20% of hydrants went dry.

“People are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools. Families completely torn asunder. Churches burned down. And this guy wanted to politicize it,” Newsom said of Trump on CNN. He contrasted the former president’s accusations with President Joe Biden standing by the devastated communities.

Peter Gleick, senior fellow at the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit that focuses on global water sustainability, dismissed Trump’s criticism as well.

“Those fights have been going on for a long time, and they have not affected in any way water supply for firefighting in southern California,” Gleick said.

About 40% of Los Angeles city water comes from state-controlled projects connected to northern California, where the Delta smelt live, and the state has limited the water it delivers this year. Yet the southern California reservoirs these canals help feed are at above-average levels for this time of year.

Rick Caruso, a real estate developer and former Los Angeles Department of Water and Power commissioner who lost to Bass in the last mayoral race, said officials needed to answer for the system’s failures.

“You got thousands of homes destroyed, families destroyed, businesses destroyed,” he said. “I think you can figure out a way to get more water in the hydrants. I don’t think there’s room for excuses here.”