As fires raged in Los Angeles on Tuesday, some firefighters battling the Palisades Fire reported via internal radio systems that fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades were running dry.
“The hydrants are down,” a firefighter said.
“The water supply just went down,” said another.
Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso, owner of Palisades Village in the heart of the Westside neighborhood, told the Times that he was receiving similar reports from his staff at the shopping center.
“There is no water in the fire hydrants,” Caruso said. “The firefighters are there.” [in the neighborhood]and there is nothing they can do: we have neighborhoods on fire, houses on fire, and businesses on fire. … It should never happen.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Water and Power acknowledged reports of decreased water flow from hydrants, but had no details on the number of hydrants without water or the magnitude of the problem.
In a statement, the DWP said water crews were working in the neighborhood “to ensure the availability of water supply.”
“This area has water tanks and close coordination is taking place to continue supplying the area,” the DWP said in its statement.
It is unclear how widespread the hydrant problems were or their precise cause. In November, a lack of water from hydrants hampered efforts to fight the mountain fire in Ventura County when two water pumps were left idle, slowing the process of delivering water to the slopes.
Caruso, a former commissioner of the city's Water and Power Board who also ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2022, maintained that the problem arose from problems with the reservoirs that feed the neighborhood's hydrants.
“This is a window into a systemic problem with the city: not just mismanagement, but our infrastructure is old,” Caruso said.
The DWP and the Los Angeles Fire Department could not immediately be reached for a response to Caruso's comments.
Caruso, who was evacuated Tuesday from his home in Brentwood, said he was deeply concerned. His daughter's home was destroyed by fire on Tuesday and he said his family was waiting to find out if one of their children had also lost their home.
Caruso said Tuesday night that several homes around his Palisades Village shopping center were “completely engulfed” in flames and that his shopping center, which opened in 2018, was damaged. He said he, like thousands of people in the neighborhood, was waiting all night to see how his property would fare and the full extent of the damage.
“We are feeling the very personal effects of this,” he said.
