On January 7, as tens of thousands of houses began to burn in Los Angeles, fire hydrant stopped working. The flame in the flame spread quickly Most of 100 miles per hour The pump happened too fast. It shocked the system and the people who escaped the flame.
70 -year -old Joan Zoloth said: “This area is famous for encountering a fire, so you will think they will prepare for it.” She said that she moved to the area first when she was 6 years old.
Zoloth’s childhood home was burned in the fire of Palisades. Her home was at the corner, and the home near her son was lost.
“My mother is a teacher.” “What people don’t realize is that how many people in Malib are full of such people, not just movie stars.”
Joan Zoloth’s childhood in his childhood in Malibu, California, was exhibited after burning in the fire of Palisades on January 21, 2025.
Andrew Evers
CNBC went to the wreckage of the fire of Palisades and asked officials what happened in the Los Angeles’s water system and what other cities could do to prepare. most Sixth of the Americans Now living in areas with great risks of wild fire.
Marshall Daniel Berland, a state firefighter in the California and Fire Department (called Cal Fire), said: “With this scale, any system will face challenges in maintaining water pressure.”
Fire officials and water experts told CNBC that water pressure is the main problem, not lack of supply.
Most of the water in Palisades sit on the mountain by three 1 million gallons of storage tanks, using gravity to maintain the fire hydrant and water pressure in the house.
The pump forcibly moves the water from the main line and the surrounding reservoir to these storage tanks. At the beginning of the fire, the tank was full, but the pump could not quickly replenish the water in the water tank as the firefighters used below. With the exhaustion of the storage tank, the water pressure also followed until about 20 % of the fire hydrant was dry.
Greg Pierce, director of the Human Rights Water Laboratory of the University of California Los Angeles, said: “In the terrain where this happens, fire hydrants will be dry anywhere in the world.”
Joan Zoloth lost three household houses in Malibu during the fire during Palisades. She appeared in the family and friends of Venice, California on January 21, 2025.
Andrew Evers
It was closed on the nearby complex issues of 117 million gallons. Earlier this month, the California government Gavin Newsom (Gavin Newsom) He Los Angeles Municipal councilor Call for investigation why the Santa Iz Reservoir has not been reopened after being drained about one year ago Fix the tears on the coverEssence
Pierce said, “That will do something.” “But, even in all aspects, if the reservoir is full, it will not stop the fire.”
Usually, the fire is also airplane The water and flame retardant were dropped from the top, but the wind kept them maintained for several hours on the first night of the fire.
Firefighters adopted three strategies. They put water on multiple engines connected to functional fire hydrants, drive them to the position of large water bidding, and then pump water directly from the backyard swimming pool.
Los Angeles Water and Electricity Department said Four times the water flows to the area and convened 15 water boats Fire truck directly. Not enough.
Blame the game
With the calmness of danger, Error information crazyEssence Federal emergency management agency or FEMA re -activated it Rumor response websiteLos Angeles Fire Department Direct response Inaccurate social media posts.
For example, President of Donald Trump claimed that the water was exhausted in Los Angeles because it aims to protect a small policy of small endangered fish, which aims to protect it.
“This is just wrong. This is nonsense,” said Peter Gleick, co -founder of the Global Water Tank Pacific Institute. Gleick has been studying water problems for forty years.
On the first day he took office, Trump signed a entitled “Put people on the fish: stop radical environmental protectionism to provide water to Southern CaliforniaEssence Another administrative order Instructed federal officials to find a way to cover the “catastrophic” California water policy.
“Greek said:” Regarding California’s water policy and how we allocate water to protect fish or ecosystems rather than transport water to different types of users, but there is no effect on water available on fire protection water. “
He added that due to the two seasons, there are two many seasons, and the reservoir in Southern California at this time at this time is higher than the average level.
“If we have more water from Northern California in Southern California, the University of California, Los Angeles, said that this is not the case.” Can’t quickly move it to a area like Palisades. “
Water experts talking to CNBC said that this is why the billionaire Lynda and Stewart Resnick should not be attributed to Palisades Fire.
RESNicks has an excellent company that includes brands such as POM and FIJI Water, and occupied farmland in San Joaquin Valley. The farmland has planting happy fruit, oranges and pomegranates. They have always launched the theme of attack on social media, some of which are anti -Jewish, because they invest in the water pressure problem of Los Angeles 100 miles north of Los Angeles, but they do not have the ability to affect Palisid’s hydraulic pressure. Essence
Felicia Marcus, former chairman of the California Water Resources Control Commission, said: “There is absolutely no connection between the two. This is a local issue.”
The fire also reappeared around the decision of the state and local water Remove the dam don’t want Building enough reservoirEssence
Experts told CNBC that the real culprit is a very dry condition. Grick said that since May, Los Angeles has been close to zero in rainfall, and 2024 is the hottest year on the planet.
He said: “Higher temperature means soil, vegetation, and people and agriculture more demand for water.” “Climate change is a problem in many ways. Drought, floods and wildfires show.”
More flexible water system
This is not the first fire hydrant in a large battle. They aim to deal with the fire of one or two structures, not hundreds of burning at the same time.
A similar water pressure problem plagues the Oakland Hills Fire in 1991. The fire destroyed more than 3,000 houses, and the fire in the two Ventura County burned more than 1,000 houses. 2017 and 2018Essence
The scope of this problem exceeded California. Texas saw The biggest fire in history February last year. With the prosperity of the population, more and more people are moving to high -risk areas of fires between dense development and wilderness.
California is the top six cities in the highest risk of wild fire in the United States, but there are cities in Texas, Colorado and Oregon Top 15Essence
A fire helicopter quickly stopped from the blue ridge fire from the Blue Ridge fire from Yorba Linda, California on October 28, 2020.
Jorba Linda Water Area
Pierce said that the water system is more flexible, there are three key components: increase water supply, improve local infrastructure and enhance power.
After destroying 280 houses in 2008, the Yorba Linda Water District of California introduced these three houses. It increases the spare generator of the water pump station that failed in the fire, added a long-term planned underground reservoir, and installed a first water tank named Heli-Hydrant.
The $ 70,000 tank can automatically fill yourself and keep the helicopter tilt from the water, thereby reducing the flight time between water connection and drip. It was used to stop the blue ridge fire quickly in 2020.
At that time, John Decliscio, the operating manager of Yorba Linda Water distribution, said: “Cal Fire can jump on it and use our helicopter to help, and trigger the firepower to “Five acres” “That’s a huge success.”
San Francisco has almost destroyed the earthquake in 1906 and the fire caused by the fire, and San Francisco has implemented a comprehensive solution, which also causes most fire hydrants to dry.
In 1913, the city developed Unique fire water supply system Open with the rest of the city. Sea water enters the system from 52 suction power along the seaside, and pumps into the system from fire boats and two high -pressure pump stations. There are more than 200 underground water tanks to store reserve water. High -altitude reservoirs and two large -capacity storage tanks use gravity, rather than pumping special high -voltage emergency fire hydrants. You can see black, red and blue tops around the city.
Cities can implement other solutions.
A company named rain Autonomous planes are dripping on fire. In Japan, an autonomous system Water cannon Protect A Cultural heritage There is a 200 -year -old thatched roof house.
Cost is the main reason why these solutions have not yet been implemented.
“There is always a delicate balance, saying that the former State Water Bureau chairman Marcus said, that is, he is afraid to find customers and increase its rate, but if you do not raise your interest rate, you cannot do these extra things.” When you manage one of the institutions, this is something that makes you get up at night. “
