A Super Scooper plane drops water on the Palisades Fire January 7 in Pacific Palisades, California.
Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
On the morning of January 7, a firefighter near the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles observed a 10-acre brush fire along a ridgeline and sent out a warning.
“Just to warn you,” he radioed to the other first responders. “It has a potential of over 200 acres.”
The Palisades Fire and other fires that followed have since burned more than 40,000 acres, an area three times the size of the island of Manhattan. More than a week later, the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, a fire that started at the base of the Angeles National Forest, are still burning.
Water to put out fires is scarce. NPR’s investigative team transcribed and analyzed more than 2,000 hours of communications from 13 audio feeds broadcasting the channels of first responders in the City and County of Los Angeles. The streams were downloaded from Broadcastify.coma live audio streaming platform. The audio messages tell the story of how firefighters first noticed the hydrants were drying up and how they responded to the emergency with exhausted resources.
Just eight hours after this first call warning of the start of a brush fire on the ridgeline, around 6 p.m., a Pacific Palisades firefighter reported a water problem.
“If you can get your hands on some sort of public works or DWP (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power), our people start reporting that they’re running out of water in the water system. hydrants,” he said.
The firefighter said he was radioing from a point near Radcliffe Avenue, less than a mile from the beach. A dispatcher responded to confirm people were trying to resolve the issue.
“Copy that, it’s a work in progress,” he replied.
Six minutes later, a firefighter suggested sending a truck carrying water — called a tender — to his location near Ridgeview Country Estates. The Pacific Palisades neighborhood is minutes from the entrance to Temescal Gateway Park, a sprawling nature preserve that stretches through canyons of oaks and sycamores.
“As we are losing our water here, is there any way to circulate a number of water dispensers around the city,” he asked. “We can store them at least in the Palisades area of the state and we can put in a portable hydrant system so our folks can have a quicker turnaround time.”
A dispatcher said they were willing to try that.
“Yeah, we have water tenders in the staging, where would you like them?” »
But it was not easy to reach the burning areas with potable water on the ground. As first responders tried to rush toward the flames in Pacific Palisades earlier, they had to battle crowds of people trying to use those same roads to evacuate.
“You have a traffic jam on Palisades Drive,” a first responder said over the radio around noon. “People are riding on both sides.”
Nearby, a plane was providing air support.
“Great Scoopers, I just left the scene of the fire at that time,” a first responder said over the radio.
Super Scooper planes collect water from large bodies of water, such as the ocean, to dump on fires. Audio communications show that Super Scoopers were helping fight the fire at least as early as 11 a.m. that morning.
But radio communications coordinating the helicopter aid indicated that by Tuesday evening conditions were becoming increasingly dangerous, even in the skies.
“Operations, HELCO command. We’re going to ground all aircraft,” someone said over the radio around 7 p.m. “Based on current wind conditions, we are inefficient and we are not going to compromise safety, so all rotorcraft are taking off.” to go back.”
A firefighter works with water hoses near homes burned during the Palisades Fire along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, January 9, 2025.
David Pashaee/AFP via Getty Images
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David Pashaee/AFP via Getty Images
Other areas of Los Angeles had already begun to burn. The Eaton Fire broke out that evening near Altadena, a neighborhood about an hour’s drive northeast of Pacific Palisades in the foothills of the Angeles National Forest. Early Wednesday morning, water appeared to be flowing there as well.
“We are now on scene of a structure fire in Altadena,” a firefighter radioed shortly after midnight.
“Copy that, Los Angeles. We don’t have water,” replied another in the area.
As of 6 a.m. Wednesday, firefighters in that neighborhood also cited problems with hydrants — just as they did earlier in Pacific Palisades.
“We’re having water supply problems,” said an Eaton firefighter. “Some fire hydrants are drying out.”
Communications suggest this came as a surprise to first responders.
“Have you ever encountered problems like this?” we asked on the channel around 6:30 a.m.
“No, negative. I haven’t heard of anyone having problems with the hydrants. I might see if they can boost the pumps, or it could be that the tanks are getting weak.”
Shortly after noon Wednesday, another Eaton firefighter made a dire announcement: “We’re in Lake and Altadena, and all the hydrants here are dead.” »
On January 10, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered an investigation into how the city’s fire hydrants lost pressure and stopped delivering water. Los Angeles city officials said the urban system was never designed to withstand wildfires like those in Palisades or Eaton; It was designed for more minor problems, like house fires. But in a letter written to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power — one of the utilities in charge — Newsom demanded answers.
A first responder at the scene of the Eaton fire also thought about contacting the water company.
“Do we have a representative from the water department to try to resolve our water supply problems?” he asked. “
But in the meantime, there was only one thing they could do.
“Choose your best targets as best you can,” replied a firefighter near Altadena. “No water at all. So do your best.”
