California Governor Gavin Newsom called for an independent investigation into the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to seek an “answer” for its failure during recent wildfires.
According to Fox News, the California governor on Friday, January 10, 2024, demanded an investigation into the nightmare situation that the state faced due to the failure of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
In a letter to LADWP he said, “From the moment firestorms erupted in Los Angeles County on Tuesday, January 7, it was clear our public infrastructure would be put under tremendous strain. The ongoing reports of the loss of water pressure to some local fire hydrants during the fires and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir are deeply troubling to me and to the community.”
“While water supplies from local fire hydrants are not designed to extinguish wildfires over large areas, losing supplies from fire hydrants likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors. We need answers to how that happened. Therefore, I have directed state water and firefighting officials to prepare an independent after-incident report," he added.
The “after-incident report” will examine the causes of lost water supply and water pressure in municipal water systems during the blaze and will identify measures for future catastrophic events.
Notably, this came after Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Thursday revealed that over 20% of the city hydrants were dry, which made it challenging to contain the fire, resulting in at least 10,000 homes and buildings being engulfed in flames.
