Public records show that officials in Los Angeles County have missed dozens of opportunities to improve water supply infrastructure. Experts said that these opportunities may allow firefighters to save more houses during the Palisz fire.

When the staff fought with the fire, trying to extinguish the fire, the fire burned a large area of ​​Los Angeles County and caused at least 11 people to die, and some fire hydrants had dried up.

Since the outbreak of the mountain fire on January 7, the problem of water shortage has been closely concerned. Officials scrambled to explain why 117 million gallon of San Ernes Reservoir was empty for maintenance.

However, the Times' thousands of pages, counties, and city records showed that the disaster was brewing for many years. Fanwen Jie Festival, budget shortage, and government inaction have repeatedly hindered the water supply system improvement plan, including some plans that specially mentioned the need to improve the fire protection capacity.

In 2013, county officials have compiled a list of upgrading and reconstruction of about three "best priorities", and many of them have not yet started the construction of communities that have been damaged by fire.

The county wrote that upgrading will achieve "key goals", including ensuring that the system has enough water to meet the "fire traffic needs". The cost is expected to be less than $ 57 million, and the construction time is about seven years.

The plan to build a water tank in Marib and Topana, which suffers from fire, can originally provide more than 1 million gallons of additional water storage, but this plan is still on the drawing board. According to county records, the replacement of the "aging and severe deterioration" water tank, and the upgrade of the two community pump stations and the "easy leakage" water pipe. The water supply systems of these two communities were managed by the county public engineering department, or DPW.

The plan to build a new pipeline has also been postponed for many years.

County Public Engineering Director Mark Pestrera said in an interview that the water supply system of Marbu and Topana was "operated by design" during the Palisz fire. He said that its construction purpose is to provide sufficient water to extinguish the fire of individual houses or buildings, not large -scale wildfires.

"Can we do more? Each engineer and every firefighter will tell you the more, the better," Pestrera said. "When a firefighter says that if he has more water, he can do more, which is not necessarily true."

He believes that the proposed upgrade will only have a small impact: "This actually only provides an opportunity to save relatively few houses. ... If there are more water here or there, you will live better Maybe they may have more opportunities. "

Residents affected by the fire said that when they learned that the county failed to complete items that might help to limit losses, they were very angry.

"I was disappointed with the community leaders," Kathy King said. After Woolnes ’fire in 2018, her home in Marybu was one of her only residences in her community. "I think people are worried about spending money." Money, but I think it is your obligation if you live in such a community. In the face of water problems, you must have a better system. "

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When the fire broke out, the long -term extremely dry weather and the strong gust of gusts had caused disaster. However, experts said that projects that failed to complete in Los Angeles County would have had an impact on emergency response.

Gregory Pierce, a professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, studied the influence of the water supply system and water supply of Los Angeles County and the impact of water resources in Los Angeles. Help. "

Edith de Guzman, a professor at the University of California Los Angeles and an expert in water resources, agreed: "Some houses can be saved. It is definitely possible to help a little bit."

Pestrera said that the county's 2013 list "is not a promise of construction, but the overall planning of capital improvement." But cost has become a problem that leads to repeated delays.

In 2019, the county compiled a new "priority project list", including a number of action projects left over six years ago. These 13 upgrades will cost about $ 59.3 million. Except for one, all upgrades are planned to be completed in September 2024.

According to the record of Marbu, one of the most important projects is to plan to connect LAS Virgenes Municipal Water Area. The county is expected to cost about $ 4.1 million in 2019.

A county planning document in 2015 stated that "when the disaster occurs ... the Lasvignes connection system can be used to prevent the shortage of water resources."

Three months ago, the Malibu Planning Committee approved the project. According to county records, construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2026.

Some plans lack of progress are part of the reason that residents' opposition may increase water costs, and water fees are already the highest in the county. Persterrera, the head of the county's public engineering, said that it may take years to ensure that compliance with environmental regulations.

Anti -development emotions have always been a special restriction of Marbu. Pesterera said that the city sometimes restricts new construction based on insufficient water supply.

When asked why so many projects failed to make progress, he said: "The community has not made a request."

"They do not support development. They still use the water supply system to limit the development of Malibu. This is the bottom line. This is why it does not happen at the due speed."

A spokesman for the Palisz Fire Emergency Action Center, Malibaz City, Jorge Rodriguez provided a brief statement through email: "As a small city with only 10,000 residents, Maliba is serious Relying on external agencies and partners to provide basic services and manages some aspects of our operations. "

Compared with the billions of US dollars caused by the fire, these long -delayed measures are just a lot of money.

The county's 2013 project list includes a proposed $ 186,000 coastline "fire flow enhancement" project. This is a non -building Los Angeles County highway about half miles. Palishaz border. In 2019, the same road was once again marked as a "easy leak, aging and severe" water supply pipeline that needs to be replaced by "more than 2,000 feet, which cost $ 2.8 million.

According to the records of the Ministry of Public Engineering, the project "will improve system fire and reliability." The county wrote last year that it is expected that the project will start this spring and cost $ 6 million.

It is unclear whether the fire hydrant on the coastline has dried up. However, firefighters reported that the area was really lacking in other parts of the region.

On January 8th, the second day when the Palisades fire occurred, the 41 -year -old Jessica McIntyre returned to her apartment on the section of Coastline Drive, where the water supply pipeline there will be upgraded. Most of the nearby buildings have been turned into ruins, but her building has escaped the fire.

"We just thought our home had disappeared," she said, and put things into her car full of ashes while saying.

When she packed her luggage, the firefighters were trying to extinguish a hot house on the street. Firefighters take water from the tanker instead of nearby fire hydrants.

"I know that all emergency service departments are doing their best," Mcing Tail said. "The situation may become worse, this is really terrible. Of course I hope not."

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One of the water storage tanks of Malibu for fire supply is located behind the "prohibition of invasion" sign and the chain chain door with a wire mesh on the top.

This majestic concrete structure is called the "Belong Tank", which shows the traces of time. The front is covered with cracks, and there are broken wood slices around the upper edge.

A few years ago, a county document listed a plan that cost $ 4 million, replacing "aging and severe damaged 300,000 gallon concrete water tanks" with larger steel tanks. One of the goals of proposed repair is to "improve the fire".

The county has been determined to be the upgrade of the "priority" project in 2019.

Records show that Persterara described it as part of the county to promote the creation of "more flexible fire protection systems" -but repeatedly fell into stagnation.

A proposal to increase the water capacity of the Palisades fire area west of the Palisades fire area has been postponed for more than ten years.

Darian Wong, an environmental engineering expert of the Ministry of Public Engineering, said at an online seminar in November that the county plans to break the soil construction. Currently, a $ 13 million project will be built. "Old and small water." Pipeline infrastructure will be completed in the summer of 2027.

A public engineering study released in the fall last fall showed that the existing infrastructure "does not have enough ability to provide fire protection for service areas."

It's not just Marbas' long waiting for the upgrade of the water supply system.

Ryan Ulyate, co -chairman of the Topanga Canyon Fire SAFE COUNCIL, said that the Topanga Canyon Fire Safe Council provides local residents with a wildfire providing local residents And how to strengthen the organization of house education. canyon.

In 2020 and 2021, the county planning documents include a project that costs 2.7 million US dollars, "aimed at improving fire and reliability", and replaced the two "aging and severe deterioration 50,000 gallons" storage tanks of Fernwood into one to one 200,000 gallon storage tanks. The plan has never been realized. On the contrary, the county records showed that one of the existing water tanks was repaired.

Although Uliat acknowledged that the upgrade of the water supply system could not stop the wildfire, he said that these systems could have helped his community over the difficult level.

"You must do your best to ensure that the water supply infrastructure is as good as possible," he said. "They will learn from it."