Firefighters make progress slowing wildfires while Los Angeles grapples with scope of devastation

Tragic.

Still, questions were being raised about why some hydrants ran dry and what caused the water system to buckle when it was needed most.

This was at the press conference with President Biden.

Earlier, President Joe Biden took some time during a White House briefing to debunk President-elect Donald Trump's claims that the hydrants were running dry because of water conservation priorities.

Biden asked his deputy energy secretary David Turk to help explain why power lines were shut down in the fire and how that impacts hydrants.

Turk said it was a power and pressure issue — hydrants need power in order to pump water up, but during such disasters, power lines are cut in order to curb the potential for power surges and line breakdowns.

Governor Gavin Newsom also shot down claims reservoirs were below average, saying "many of the state's largest reservoirs are currently at or above their historic average storage levels for this time of year."

You can see LAs major reservoirs from major highways. I live near the big one that sends water down the two pipes from the Owens Valley to LA. It's full. The aqueduct canal above the reservoir is full. The dam that diverts water from the Owens River above the old dry bed of Owens Lake is full. You can see reservoir elevations on the LADWP Daily Report on line.

I drive by these reservoirs because I sometimes have to use a veterinarian in Bishop. It's a long drive but our local vets are booked into oblivion so it's either Bishop or Bakersfield. The big reservoir at the other end of the aqueduct is full too. From there it gravity feeds the rest of the city. Only a small number of hillside areas are higher than that reservoir and need water pumped up into tanks. Most of LA and most fire hydrants do not need any pumps to deliver water. It all flows by gravity from the reservoir at the end of the aqueduct. William Mulholland designed the whole LA water system from Mono Lake south to operate on gravity. It was only many decades later that developers put homes so far up in the hills that water could reach them by gravity and tanks and pumps had to be built to supply these hillside homes.

The tanks above Pacific Palisades were all topped up Monday in anticipation of the Santa Ana winds. The problem was that water demand was four times normal for 15 hours straight and LADWP could not pump water into the tanks as fast as it was being used. This is something the city has never experienced before.

What this points up though is that many if not most of these homes on the hills should never have been permitted. That is easier said than done because the developers fight every attempt by cities to limit these developments and the courts tend to rule in favor of the property owners. And more recently developers have begun suing homeowners in existing neighborhoods who protest their plans to add more homes. This is happening with a big development in Glendale close to where the Eaton fire is burning. The people living below the proposed development don't want it and have been fighting with the city of Glendale and LA County to prevent it. The developer has sued each home owner individually for millions of bucks for delaying the project and costing them money. The case has not made it to trial yet so nobody knows how a court will rule.

Indeed. Hopefully the worst is over. Terrible scenes.

The latest estimate is over 10,000 structures lost between the Palisades and Eaton fires.

The Eaton fire burned south through many kilometers of built up city. I watched a TV camera crew on scene and you could see the winds driving the fire from building to building miles from the mountains. These were older homes and businesses. Embers carried by the wind started new fires kilometers away. The embers would catch the bushes and trees people have in their yards on fire and those in turn would catch the home on fire. Embers landed on the roofs of businesses and set them on fire. Whole apartment complexes burned. and when those went up they were throwing big burning chunks into the air catching more homes on fires. It was nuts.

Years ago when I was a teenager I remember an apartment building in Anaheim caught fire during a wind storm and it ended up burning down a whole city block. Anaheim has a heck of a good fire department but even still it got away from them. Not much you can do when the winds are over 100 kph.