The City and Mayor Failed Pacific Palisades Residents in the Fire

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The once vibrant, well kept homes and greenery that was the Alphabet Streets in Pacific Palisades looks as if it was hit by a bomb after the Palisades Fire.

The City of Los Angeles failed Pacific Palisades residents during the raging fire storm from hell. It does seem like there could have been enough fire engines on the street. It does seem like there could have been water pressure in fire hydrants to spray on roofs.

There does seem like there should be some sort of data point where residents can find out if their homes are still standing, since days after the twilling red dervishes destroyed complete communities such as the Alphabet Streets, Tahitian Terrace and Palisades Bowl, residents are still not allowed back in the community.

Let’s start with Mayor Karen Bass. According to major media, Bass cut the city’s Fire Department budget by $17.6 million last year.

The cut was the second largest in Bass’ 2024-25 fiscal budget, city figures show. It was also reported that she had wanted the budget slashed by $23 million.

“The reduction… has severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires,” Chief Kristin Crowley wrote in a memo Dec. 4, 2024.

“Without this funding, pilot compliance and readiness are jeopardized, and aerial firefighting capabilities are diminished,” it said. “Changes to the Air Operations Section impact the Department’s ability to adhere to current automatic and mutual aid agreements, provide air ambulance service, and quickly respond to woodland fires with water dropping helicopters.”

The memo also highlighted other programs that would suffer under the cuts, including the Disaster Response Section, which funds the bulldozer teams that cut breaks and control lines around wildfires, and the Critical Incident Planning and Training Section, which develops plans for major emergencies.

It seems like this fire with hurricane force winds, could be called a major emergency.

Where did the money go? About  $837 million was slated for fire for 2023-2024. About $1.3 billion was slated for the homeless.

This editor watched as a lone television reporter was reporting on Radcliffe Avenue (across from Palisades High School) on January 7. The reporter said that several houses on the street were on fire, but there were no fire trucks anywhere and she could see other homes burning down the block. This editor got to see live video feed of the homes on her block, burning, but no fire trucks, no personal.

My neighbor’s home is on the right and this editor’s home is on the left.

Another major problem surfaced Tuesday night when the winds were peaking,  there was no water pressure from the fire hydrants. Initially her spokesperson blamed it on residents, for leaving their hoses on when they evacuated.

As Los Angeles firefighters faced down the most destructive blaze in the city’s history, they ran out of water.

“The hydrants are down,” a firefighter said over the radio, according to the L.A. Times.

Fire crews were forced to watch as entire blocks of the Pacific Palisades were incinerated in a matter of hours late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

“There’s no water in the fire hydrants,” Rick Caruso, who owns the Palisades Village mall in the heart of the devastated area, fumed to local media. “The firefighters are there, and there’s nothing they can do — we’ve got neighborhoods burning, homes burning, and businesses burning. … It should never happen.”

Why was there no water in hydrants?

On X, formerly Twitter, L.A. Fire Department Public Information Officer Erik Scott acknowledged the water challenges crews were dealing with and added that LADWP proactively filled all available water storage tanks.

Chief Executive and Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Janisse Quiñones said that by 3 a.m. on Jan. 8, all one-million-gallon water storage tanks that supply the Palisades hydrants “went dry.”

Of those three tanks, the first ran dry just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, the second before 9 p.m. and the third early Wednesday morning.

So even if there had been a fire truck on this editor’s street, Radcliffe, there would have been no water to fight the fire.

Councilmember Traci Parks joined Caruso in expressing upset that public safety is not prioritized for its residents.

Complete neighborhoods are gone in Pacific Palisades because there was not enough preparation, infrastructure, firefighters or water to fight the fire.

Then, to add insult to injury, there was an alert from the City to the people living in 90272.

“The unprecedented demand for water in the Pacific Palisades over a sustained period for firefighting efforts has resulted in significant low water pressure in your area. . . .LADWP and the State Water Resources Control Board Division of Drinking Water strongly advise consumer in the 90272 zip code and adjacent community north of San Vicente Blvd. to ONY USE BOILED TAP WATER OR BOTTLED WATER FOR DRINKING AND COOKING PURPOSES until further notice.”

To the five people still living in the Palisades, with no electricity, nor gas, make sure you boil the water, just don’t try to get it from a fire hydrant.

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