Lawsuit says critical water source sat dry for months before Palisades Fire

More than a dozen victims of the Pacific Palisades wildfire are suing a public utility for water supply failures they say contributed to the devastation of the Los Angeles inferno.

The lawsuit, filed by residents and a pizzeria owner in the now devastated Los Angeles area, blames the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for hydrants drying up within hours of the blaze's ignition. The plaintiffs said they all lost their homes or businesses to the inferno.

The Palisades Fire, the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles history, was the first in a series of rapidly growing wildfires to ignite last Tuesday. Thousands of homes, businesses, landmarks, and vehicles have burned in its path as the wind-whipped blaze has transformed the Los Angeles area into an apocalyptic scene and prompted evacuations for tens of thousands of residents.

The LADWP, the largest U.S. municipal utility, should have maintained water in a nearby reservoir, which was dry at the time the flames erupted, the complaint said. The Santa Ynez Reservoir, which can hold as much as 117 million gallons of water, had been empty since February 2024, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by law firm Robertson & Associates and Foley Bezek Behle & Curtis, claimed LADWP delayed repair work on the water resource to cut costs.

"Had the LADWP acted responsibly, the damage caused by the Palisades Fire could have been greatly reduced," the complaint said.

The lawsuit comes as utilities and elected officials face mounting criticism for their handling of the deadly fires California Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced an investigation into LADWP's water supply failures, while the utility says its water system was pushed past its limit from the massive blazes.

Newsom has also acknowledged that local hydrant systems are not designed to extinguish such large fires, but losing anticipated water supply from them "likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors."

Lawsuit: Water supply ran dry amid historic LA blaze

Some hydrants in the Pacific Palisades emptied within hours of the Palisades fire's ignition, according to the complaint filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The plaintiffs blamed the empty reservoir for the hydrants' rapid depletion.

The Santa Ynez Reservoir was emptied in February 2024 after the floating cover tore, allowing debris, bird droppings, and other pollutants into the basin, the lawsuit said. It criticized the utility for not repairing it in a "timely" manner, noting that LADWP was aware of the extreme fire danger from the Santa Ana winds, citing grave forecasts from the National Weather Service.

The lawsuit also said that Pacific Palisades was a high-fire-risk area, according to a map created by the California Public Utilities Commission.

LADWP defended its system capabilities after the blaze ignited, blaming "unprecedented and extreme water demand to fight the wildfire without aerial support" for the lack of water pressure. The utility said some hydrants in high elevations were impacted but it "immediately deployed potable water tankers" to support firefighting.

The utility also addressed the out-of-commission reservoir.

“To commission the support and resources to implement repairs to Santa Ynez, LADWP is subject to the city charter’s competitive bidding process which requires time,” the utility said in a statement.

USA TODAY reached out to the LADWP for comment on Tuesday.

Wildfire legal battles: Eaton Fire blamed on utility company, lawsuit alleges

Governor announces probe into water system failures during fire

Newsom announced an independent investigation into water mobility issues that reportedly hampered firefighting efforts. His announcement comes as politicians, including President-elect Donald Trump, have pointed fingers at California's elected leaders, saying they weren't prepared for the fires.

Reports of loss of water pressure in local hydrants and unavailability of water from the Santa Ynez Reservoir are "deeply troubling," Newsom wrote in a letter to leaders of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Los Angeles County Public Works. He said state water and firefighting officials would conduct an independent review of what caused the malfunctions.

"We need answers to ensure this does not happen again and we have every resource available to fight these catastrophic fires," Newsom said.

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power CEO Janisse Qui?ones acknowledged hours after the first fires ignited that the city's water system was pushed to the "extreme." The city utility’s three 1-million-gallon water storage tanks in the Palisades area "went dry," she said at a news conference.

"Four times the normal demand was seen for 15 hours straight, which lowered our water pressure," Qui?ones said. "It was like a worst-case scenario, but I think we should be planning for those worst-case scenarios."

The suit follows other legal actions in connection with the California wildfires, which have been linked to the deaths of at least two dozen people and have burned tens of thousands of acres across Los Angeles in what is expected to be the most costly natural disaster in American history.

A group of residents and business owners also recently sued Southern California Edison over the Eaton Fire, which is still raging near Pasadena, California.

Contributing: Terry Collins, USA TODAY: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lawsuit accuses LA utility of supply failures during Palisades Fire