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Originally Posted by fintstone
Back to better design of the "system" that that failed/ran out of water. According to a firefighter that was at the Palisades fire 'these homes were not typical. They were very large (15,000 ft mansions) and hydrants were over 1000 ft apart with only a 2.5 inch warf hydrants instead of 4 inches meaning there was not enough flow to extinguish fires. The homes were commercial sized buildings. The firefighters could have saved a lot more if they had been able to put up a water curtain but couldn't because they ran out of water.' If this is the case I think that code should require the appropriately sized hydrants...if for nothing else, the safety of responders. Of course, one would still need sufficient water (more than the tiny reservoirs in the Palisades and the dry Santa Ynez Reservoir could supply this time).
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Yep, there is going to be a cruel reckoning when this thing is autopsied soon enough. The water pressure issue will be huge, as well as the FD’s initial preparedness and response time. The Palisades in general are far from most parts of LA in terms of travel time and the Palisades Highlands, (where the fire started), is another long hike by car from the main part of it. They should have had at least one engine up there but they did not. The Highlands are a newer development, (‘60s or ‘70s), the main part of PP is probably 100 years old but did not look it because of so many tear-downs and newer houses built.
The Highlands are up a long, steep road that goes maybe 5 miles(?) into the mountainside and has fancy subdivisions off the main road on both sides. The love of my life grew up there in the ‘70s and went to Pali High, so it’s at least that old.
Anyhow, it’s important to realize that this was a suburban and urban wildfire, (actually both big fires), driven by up to 100mph winds. Neither one was a forest fire by any definition. At no point did they run out of water, they ran out of water pressure. There is a difference.
They will be looking at the water grid but it’s probably impossible to upgrade it to handle any conceivable urban fire with hundreds of buildings burning at once. Can they improve it? For sure.