A public utility is being sued by over a dozen victims of the Pacific Palisades blaze for allegedly contributing to the destruction of the Los Angeles fire by failing to provide water.
Residents and a pizzeria owner in the now-devastated Los Angeles region filed the case, accusing the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power of causing fire hydrants to dry up within hours of the fire starting. The claimants claimed that the fire destroyed all of their houses or places of business.
Last Tuesday, the first of several quickly spreading wildfires broke out, including the Palisades Fire, the most devastating fire in Los Angeles history.
Tens of thousands of inhabitants have been forced to evacuate as the wind-whipped fire has turned the Los Angeles area into a post-apocalyptic landscape, burning thousands of houses, businesses, landmarks, and automobiles in its path.
According to the complaint, the biggest municipal utility in the United States, LADWP, ought to have kept water in a neighboring reservoir that was dry when the fire started. The complaint claims that the Santa Ynez Reservoir, which has a capacity of 117 million gallons, has been depleted since February 2024.
Law firms Robertson & Associates and Foley Bezek Behle & Curtis filed the complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging that LADWP postponed the water resource’s repairs in order to save money.
“Had the LADWP acted responsibly, the damage caused by the Palisades Fire could have been greatly reduced,” the complaint stated.
The lawsuit was filed as the way utilities and political officials handled the fatal fires has come under increasing attention. While the utility claims that the enormous fires forced its water infrastructure to its limit, California Governor Gavin Newsom has initiated an investigation into LADWP’s water supply issues.
Additionally, Newsom admitted that while municipal hydrant systems are not meant to put out such massive fires, the loss of the expected water supply from them “likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors.”
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The complaint, which was filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that certain fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades emptied within hours of the Palisades fire starting. The plaintiffs attributed the quick depletion of the hydrants on the empty reservoir.
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According to the lawsuit, the floating cover broke and the Santa Ynez Reservoir was emptied in February 2024, enabling pollution, garbage, and bird droppings to enter the basin.
Citing dire predictions from the National Weather Service, it chastised the company for failing to fix it “timely” and pointed out that LADWP was aware of the significant fire risk posed by the Santa Ana winds.
According to a map made by the California Public Utilities Commission, Pacific Palisades was also deemed a high-fire-risk region in the lawsuit.
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In response to the fire, LADWP defended its system capabilities, citing “unprecedented and extreme water demand to fight the wildfire without aerial support” as the reason for the low water pressure.
Some high-elevation hydrants were affected, according to the company, but it “immediately deployed potable water tankers” to aid in the fight against the fire.
The out-of-commission reservoir was also addressed by the utility.
