'Pushed the system to the extreme': Los Angeles fires unchecked amid scarce water supply

One after another, the million-gallon tanks firefighters tapped into to douse the deadly Los Angeles wildfires went dry, leaving them without enough water to fight the flames, officials said Wednesday.

The admission comes as residents have wondered how the wildfires ? whose causes are still under investigation ? got so out of hand and turned into one of the most devastating Los Angeles fires in recent memory, killing at least five and destroying at least 1,000 homes, businesses, and other structures.

"We had a tremendous demand on our system… we pushed the system to the extreme,” Janisse Qui?ones, CEO of the LA Department of Water and Power, said at a news conference Wednesday. “If there’s a message to take away from me today, it’s I need our customers to really conserve water.”

Water shortages hit Pacific Palisades the hardest, Qui?ones said, a neighborhood west of downtown Los Angeles that stands at a higher elevation.

Demand for water in the area rose to four times its usual amount for 15 hours straight, said Qui?ones, who is also the agency’s chief engineer. Water in the area’s three 1-million-gallon tanks petered out at 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and 3 a.m. on Wednesday, she said.

Authorities attempted to refill the tanks but couldn’t refill them fast enough to restore enough pressure to the system to move the water to higher elevations, she added.

Resident after evacuating her home: 'Where was the water?'

At the other end of the dry firemen’s hoses stood people's blazing houses.

Osbee Sangster is a 73-year-old resident who fled her Los Angeles-area home at 3:30 a.m. local time Wednesday. She noticed a conspicuous absence as fire trucks rolled through her neighborhood, mandating evacuations.

"Where was the water?" she told the USA TODAY Network while at the Pasadena Convention Center, where about 700 people ? and pets ? fleeing the fires gathered.

Sangster said her home is probably nothing more than a pile of ashes, though she cannot be certain.

Bowen Xie, a spokesperson for the water management agency, said workers had filled all 114 of the city’s water storage tanks before the fires ignited. The agency responded to the water shortages by deploying trucks carrying up to 4,000 gallons of water to areas where firefighters had challenges using hydrants.

Bowen said the agency deployed seven trucks at midnight local time Wednesday and an additional 11 trucks later in the morning.

Pasadena City Fire Department Chief Chad Augustin acknowledged the water system problems but downplayed the impact.

"When you have multiple city blocks on fire… we are going to stretch our water system," he said at a news conference Wednesday. "But I’ll be clear, we could have had much more water, with those wind gusts we were not stopping that fire."

The water supply problem was made worse by power outages, he added.

Southern California wildfires: What started the fires raging across the Los Angeles area?

'We have to look at our system'

Erik Scott, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department, acknowledged the water supply issue.

"We did experience some challenges with water pressure while battling the Pacific Palisades Fire," said the fire captain on X. "The extreme demand caused a slower refill rate for these tanks which created a challenge for our firefighting effort."

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also urged residents to conserve water.

"We want to make sure we are ready if we need more water," she said at a news conference Wednesday.

The issues with the water supply will require a possible reengineering of the system, Qui?ones said, as climate change-induced drought threatens to bring even more devastating blazes.

"To your question of climate resiliency and how do we need to update the system, I would say that that is true," she said. "How are we going to change the way we operate our water systems for events like this?… We have to look at our system."

Contributing: Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY; McKenna Mobley, USA TODAY Network

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Firefighters left without enough water to combat Los Angeles wildfires