On fire
The fires in Los Angeles are raging due to climate change. But urban sprawl, a century of federal fire policy, and a water system that's not designed to combat multiple major blazes at once are also factors.
Most of the areas which have burned a dotted with single-family homes lining narrow, winding streets, which makes them difficult to defend from wildfire.
Pacific Palisades was almost impossible to protect. Homes were built high on bluffs or in steep canyons. Managing the grasses, bushes, and shrubs on these hillsides is physically impossible. You'd have to send someone down on rope with a chainsaw.
In unincorporated Altadena, the town only began addressing sprawl a month ago, asking Los Angeles County to adopt plan to direct development away from the Altadena foothills.
But realtors and landowners didn't want to lose the ability to develop their properties in the hills.
"We knew prior to this event, if a fire starts, it's pretty much impossible to stop," said Nic Arnzen, a town council member who lost his home in the blaze.
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In California, areas at high risk for fire are required to maintain a a five-foot perimeter free of vegetation around their home. In practice, the rules aren't followed. Homeowners are reluctant to remove wooden fences and replant their gardens. Homes in Pacific Palisades were surrounded by greenery, a common sight in wealthy areas.
When a volunteer group mowed and weeded properties for free, neighbors upset over weed whacker noise screamed at them and called police.
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A century of federal fire policy called for all fires to be extinguished, no matter how small, which led to a massive buildup in dead vegetation.
Federal and California land managers now use thinning and intentionally set fires to clear away fuel.
But this work is expensive. The feds created the mess, but they won't fix it. In 2022, Joe Biden proposed spending $50 billion to reduce fire risk on 50 million acres of land. Republicans balked, and only $3 billion was appropriated.
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NO WATER SYSTEM, anywhere in the country, is designed to fight multiple large fires at once.
EVERY SINGLE URBAN WATER SYSTEM was built to supply water to homes and businesses. At best, the water system is able to fight a large-structure fire, or a few homes at once.
NO urban water system can fight a fire that engulfs a whole neighborhood, much less a whole town.
In Los Angeles, water continued to flow through pipes even as they ruptured or melted. The system hemorrhaged. The only way to turn off water to burned homes was by opening a manhole in the street and turning off the water house by house. In the midst of a massive blaze, this wasn't possible.
(Turning off water to whole neighborhoods or towns is inconceivable, as it would also turn off water needed for firefighting.)
By sheer coincidence, the 117 million-gallon Santa Ynez reservoir near Pacific Palisades was empty, closed for repair.
It wouldn't have made a difference, though. Pumping stations and water-pressure storage tanks designed for flushing toilets, running baths, and doing the dishes could not keep up with the sudden demand for millions of gallons of water.
