On the morning of January 7, a firefighter in Los Angeles' Pacific Palisades neighborhood observed a 10-acre brush fire along a ridgeline and issued a warning.

"Just to give you a heads up," he radioed to the others. "This has over 200 acres of potential."

The Palisades Fire and other fires that followed have burned more than 40,000 acres—an area three times the size of Manhattan Island. More than a week later, the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, a fire that started at the base of the Los Angeles National Forest, are still burning.

Water to put out the fires has been scarce. NPR's investigative team transcribed and analyzed more than 2,000 hours of communications from 13 audio sources on Los Angeles city and county first responder channels. The feed is downloaded from Broadcastify.coman audio live streaming platform. Audio messages document how firefighters first noticed the dry hydrants and how they responded to the emergency with depleted resources.

It was around 6 p.m. that a Pacific Palisades firefighter first received an alert alerting others to a brush fire starting on the ridgeline, and just eight hours later, a Pacific Palisades firefighter Mentioned water issues.

"If you could find any type of public works or DWP (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power), our crews would start reporting that they were running out of water in their hydrant systems," he said.

The firefighter said he was radioing from a location off Radcliffe Avenue, less than a mile from the beach. A dispatcher chimed in to say people were working on a solution to the problem.

"Roger, processing," he replied.

Six minutes later, a firefighter suggested sending a water truck, known as a water truck, to his location near Ridgeview Country Estates. The community of Pacific Palisades is just minutes from the entrance to Temescal Gateway Park, a vast nature preserve spanning Oak Canyon and Fig Canyon.

“With the water loss we have here, is there any way we can get a bunch of water trucks going through the city,” he asked. "We can at least secure them in the Palisades area and we can set up a portable hydrant system so our folks can have a faster turnaround time."

One dispatcher said they were ready to give it a try.

"Yeah, we do have Shui Nen on the stage, where do you want it to be?"

But reaching burned areas with portable water on the ground isn't easy. When first responders earlier tried to rush the fire in Pacific Palisades, they had to contend with crowds of people trying to use those roads to evacuate.

"There's a traffic jam on Palisades Boulevard," a first responder said over the radio around noon. "People are driving both ways."

Nearby, an aircraft was providing support from the air.

"Super Scoop, just leaving the scene of the fire at this time," the first responder said over the radio.

Super Scoopers scoop water from large bodies of water, such as the ocean, and dump it on fires. Audio communications indicate Super Scoopers began fighting the fire at least 11 a.m. that day.

But radio communications coordinating helicopter assistance indicated that by Tuesday night the situation was becoming increasingly dangerous, even in the skies.

"Operation, HELCO Command. We will ground all aircraft," someone said over the radio around 7 p.m. "With the current wind conditions, we are inefficient and we will not compromise safety, so all rotorcraft will be grounded." Fly. "Go back." "

Other areas of Los Angeles were already burning. The Eaton Fire started that evening near Altadena, an area about an hour northeast of Pacific Palisades at the base of the Los Angeles National Forest. By early Wednesday morning, the water there also appeared to have been depleted.

"We're on the scene of a structure fire in Altadena right now," a firefighter said over the radio just after midnight.

"Get it, Los Angeles. We don't have water," another person in the area responded.

At 6 a.m. Wednesday, firefighters in that community also mentioned problems with fire hydrants — just like they had earlier in Pacific Palisades.

"We're having some water issues," said an Eaton firefighter. "Some of the hydrants are running dry."

That came as a surprise to those first responders, communications show.

"Have you encountered similar problems before?" someone asked in the channel around 6:30 a.m.

"No, negative. I haven't heard of anyone having problems with the hydrant. I could see if they could boost the pump, or maybe the tank is too low."

Just after noon Wednesday, another Eaton firefighter broke the dire news: "We're at Lake and Altadena and all the hydrants here are broken."

On January 10, California Governor Gavin Newsom Already ordered An investigation into how fire hydrants across the city lost pressure and stopped delivering water. Los Angeles city officials say the city system was never designed for wildfires like the Palisades or Eaton; it was designed to deal with smaller problems, like house fires. But in a letter to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, one of the utilities responsible, Newsom demanded answers.

First responders at the Eaton fire are also considering contacting the water company.

"Do we have water department representatives to address our water supply issues?" he asked.

But at the same time, they can only do one thing.

"Do the best you can and pick the best target of opportunity," a firefighter near Altadena responded. "There's no water at all. So do your best."