Water system inadequacies contribute to failures during L.A. fires

Status of Fire Incidents Jan 19, 2025 from CalFire

Tragedy has fueled speculation about the causes

Many questions arise about the Los Angeles fire infernos over the past ten days. The first significant L.A. area fire began on January 7, recorded live by a LAX video journalist 10:30am. The Pacific Palisades fire spread embers and fireballs due to the abnormally high winds, as high as 90mph. This was how the Eaton and Hurst fires began later on January 7th. Although not listed on the California fire pages anymore, there were actually a rash of fires in the L.A. area, including in Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino, and even in San Diego. Currently many of these fires have been extinguished, but as of January 18, according to CalFire, Palisades Fire is 43% contained, while Eaton Fire is 73% contained.

Collectively the damage is tremendous, totaling over two hundred fifty billion dollars in damage to date. Throughout the Los Angeles Metropolitan region about 31 fires have forced the evacuation of 205,000 people. At least 12,400 structures have been destroyed or damaged, while other standing buildings and homes have been subject to looting by roving gangs. Copycat fires were also set by homeless people in the flatlands of downtown L.A., in areas where there are streets filled with tents and favelas. For Hollywood, the role of fraud and crimes committed preceding and amid this massive catastrophe will occupy the imaginations of writers, screenwriters, and film producers for years to come.

The Santa Ana winds are an annual occurrence along the LA coast, particularly in places such as Malibu; however these windstorms were abnormally intense and unexpectedly late in the season. According to The Healthy American (Peggy Hall), a longtime resident from Orange County, the Santa Anas usually end by late November. It did not help matters that there had been little precipitation so far this autumn. Nor that citizen journalists have recorded how unprepared the Los Angeles Fire District was, including a 17 million dollar budget cut, and video footage showing up to 100 firetrucks out-of-service due to maintenance needs that apparently are not being addressed.

Many commentators, especially online, have described a variety of contributing factors to these wildfires, which so far have burned 40,588 acres. They describe fire hydrants not having any water, fire trucks unable to connect their hoses due to mismatching adapters, and critical reservoirs not having water or insufficient amounts. Many are also commenting on staff or personnel problems, such as people with insufficient technical capability, a shift in mission focus towards political appointees, EDI, lowering morale among firefighters

If the fire chief or water department director is being paid eight times what the average firefighter or maintenance worker makes, meanwhile functioning as a paper-pusher, playing games with words, this is not a pro-active approach to fighting fires. Instead, it is enabling the shifting of responsibility, where what is required is cooperation and technical awareness.

Others are even speculating about whether these fires are part of an intentional globalist plan in association with the World Economic Forum to quickly transform Los Angeles into a smart driverless city per Smart-LA 2028, to replace highways with rail systems, and push people towards the downtown core, where they will live in high-rises surrounded by the Internet of Things (IoT).

It is unknown whether or not terrorists are involved, but in the age of 5th generation warfare, such as Israel has used against Lebanon in the pager-attacks, implanting explosives into walkie-talkies and cellphones, there are a variety of electronic devices that can be used to detonate a fire remotely. Commentators are speculating that smart-meters can be caused to overheat using a high-frequency penetration signal. Any electrical fire can spread quickly throughout the electrical wiring systems via copper wiring in the home. In fact, it does appear from some of the photos and videos that the fires are starting from inside rather than outside.

If there were domestic terrorists or shadow government involved, it would be difficult to prove after the fact and amid the mayhem. Fires could have been enhanced or begun with drones fitted with any kind of flaming mechanism, bands of criminal arsonists may have been secretly instructed to set fires at multiple locations, and direct-energy weapons may have even been used, with lasers beaming down from gun-type weapons.

However in terms of overall flammability, according to Dane Wiggington of Geoengineering Watch, it is also possible that the chemtrails being sprayed from airplanes to induce rain or for experimental purposes, is increasing the flammability on the ground. Chemtrail dust, combined with weather modification (HAARP), and drone warfare could have optimized the firestorms that have created the worse fire catastrophe in Los Angeles history.

No one in mainstream media, much less the politicians, will give such possible causes any credence. Besides, they simply have too many other priorities at this point, such as a new surging population of houseless people whose homes, businesses, and livelihoods have been destroyed. At best, the state and local governments will be fending themselves from critical questions and lawsuits over why or how there may have been fire and water resources mismanagement by the city and state.

“Deep Analysis of California Challenges Amid LA Fires” Interview

In fact, a coterie of spokesperson engineers, district managers, experts, and public citizens have long-raised concerns about water mismanagment and prioritizating of “fish over people” in California. One of them, Brett Barbre, a water expert from Southern California, was recently interviewed by California Insider with host Siyamak Khorrami.

AGN had previously reported on the California Insider‘s interview with Barbre in “Expert Asserts California Needs More Reservoirs. Here’s Why” article (July 23, 2022). On January 11, he made his case once again, that the State and local officials need to adopt a more pro-active vision for California in terms of building more dams and reservoirs. It’s a perspective that many traditionalist engineers, farmers, agriculture industrialists, builders, and pragmatists embrace, but is increasingly confuted with reactionary politics today.

It is neither conservative nor reactionary to look foward to provision of adequate water supplies for Southern California, which in fact could not exist as it does without the shipment and transport of water whether from Northern California, the State Water Aqueduct, or the Colorado River. In fact, the Great Water Projects began in the early 1900s, with the first big one being the Hetchy Hetchy Reservoir to bring water from the Sierras to San Francisco. In 1913, the L.A. Aqueduct brought water in a gravity system from the Owens Valley in the Eastern Sierras. The growing Los Angeles region was supported by the Colorado River Aqueduct connection, allowing the Imperial Valley farming region to flourish. And the water projects which interconnected dams, canals, flood control structures throughout the state continued on schedule until 1973.

After this, particularly with the growing environmental movement, the establishment of the EPA, CEPA, and mandate of NEPA and CEQA, dam and reservoir construction ground to a halt. The Sites Reservoir, on the books since the 1980s, has not been approved. The proposal to raise Shasta Dam to provide more water for transport has met criticism to the point that opponents are successfully delaying any expansion. The same has taken place with the proposal for the Delta Bay Tunnels project, which despite being renamed, downsized, and approved by Governor Newsom and the California Department of Water Resources in December 2023, remains mired in litigation.

Because of this, and despite water conservation measures in Southern California, there are water shortages, and not a lot of flexibility for diverting water, directing water to distal points at higher elevations, and keeping off-stream or on-stream reservoirs filled. The supply of water has simply not been keeping up with demand, since very few reservoirs and dams have been built since the 1970s. Meanwhile, the population of California has doubled since the 1970s, from 20 million people to nearly 40 million people. The analogy might be one of the upkeep of the highway systems proportionate to the increase in traffic volume, and what would happen if all the highways remained two-lane.

The insufficiency in water resources leads to a false economy especially when it comes to fire-fighting. Fire-fighting requires a robust fire hydrant system, robust water storage, robust pressurized systems and booster pumps, and extra emergency fire-fighting trucks, hoses in good condition, and practice accessing adapters for quick connections. Were these the case? Probably not, because society no longer supports a pro-active stance towards emergency preparation. Rather, a lax or reactive attitude towards fire-management may have allowed personnel to skip over fire-hardening critical facilities.

Of course, this is a region where with regular and lengthening fire seasons, it is difficult to imagine not being prepared enough. However the reduce-water-use mindset fosters a perspective that it is not necessary to build out critical fire facilities, such as hilltop reservoirs, building heli-hydrant pads, expanding the number of fire-fighting planes, replacing fire lines as needed with larger diameter, and so on. Barbre, who works for Yorba Linda Water District, mentions how they learned a hard lesson after the fire in 2008. At the least, they added permanent natural gas backup generators, and made sure that fire-pool reservoirs stay full and devised ways for quick refill.

Fire management requires anticipating events and practicing, which helps in identifying what can be done if a pressured system fails, supporting the construction of gravity-fed reservoir systems. The construction of the heli-hydrants was done in-house, which reduced the time and costs if the work was contracted out and outside permits were required. Today even the most basic construction proposals can take over a year for review and approval in Los Angeles, thanks to various permits necessary. This is especially the case where clearing of brush is concerned. The city and the state have laws in place that prevent brush clearing or removal, even if it is for maintenance purposes.

It is likely this is what contributed to the cascading failures that will continue even long after the wildfires are put out. The brush becomes tinder after a summer of no rain, and it takes only a spark fanned by wind to turn it into a fire-storm. These spread ember and fire-balls throughout the region, sparking more fires. Chemicals from superfund sites, such as Santa Susanna, long emitting radiation, lend their pulsating energy to prevent the fires from being easily extinguished. So do electric (lithium battery) cars, and battery plants. People breathing such fumes will likely become ill or suffer from disease stemming from this exposure. Brutal fires also destroy much other infrastructure including tanks, utility lines, roads, and conveyance systems. It will be very difficult for elderly people to have the time or energy to rebuild their homes, especially if they are already in retirement.

The irony of this is that what begins as an attempt to save an endangered species, conserve water, or restore habitat becomes an experiment in failure as so much air pollution, wanton destruction, and excess water must be used to put out the wildfires. It is also wasteful to have to rebuild so many structures that were once quite attractive and serviceable.

Unless California begins to adopt more common-sense approaches to state-wide water provision and management, the state’s economy and opportunities will shrink. People will no longer be able to live the California Dream. According to Barbre, and Geoff Vanden Heuvel, Director of Regulatory and Economic Affairs at the Milk Producers Council, California can meet all its water needs if it upgrades and expands its system and storage facilities. Both these experts assert in their interviews with California Insider that “there are enough storms in this state where 7-10 days worth of storms is more than enough water for the entire state. If you could move it through the system and have enough storage to fill them up.”

“It’s a public policy will that is lacking because as soon as we start doing it, we’re going to get sued, and they’re going to stop it. I mean the Colorado Aqueduct is 242 miles from Lake Havasu, which was created by Parker Dam, which was paid for by Met [Metropolitan Water District of Southern California], all the way to Lake Mathews in western Riverside County. And it’s pumped five times, and gravity feeds the rest of the way. We go through the San Jacinto Mountains, and it’s a brilliant engineering feat. They tunneled from both ends in the 20s and 30s just through trigonometry and a lot of dynamite and they went from both sides and ended up perfectly in the middle. So we have the technology, we have the engineering, and look at how more advanced we are today.”—Brett Barbre, Water Expert from Southern California

The challenges, besides going ahead with construction for Sites Reservoir, Shasta Dam, and Delta Conveyance Project, lay in relaxing the laws to allow for beneficial flood releases, surface water transfers for irrigation districts, groundwater surcharge for farmers, and constructing the conveyance structures, conduits, and pumps need to ensure flexibility across systems, such as between on-stream and off-stream storage. Only by ensuring there is potential, lots of it, can a great region like Los Angeles develop better fire-management capability and practice the kinds of flexibility that accompany water systems analysis, pressure fluctuations, accident-prevention, situational fire-event training, and wise equipment purchases.

Screenshot from CalFire (fire.ca.gov) dated 01-18-2025, Article prepared and written by Christine H. Kroll, M.A., P.E (Civil)