LOS Angeles-The reality TV couple Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt pursue the city of Los Angeles after losing their Pacific Palisades house in forest fires that have ravaged southern California in recent weeks.
The couple, who has become a celebrity On “The Hills”, a spin-off of “Laguna Beach”, filed a complaint on Tuesday with more than 20 other owners and residents affected by the fire of Palisades. The complaint accuses Los Angeles and its municipal water service of being responsible for the water problems that have hampered fire fighting efforts and said that this has finally led to damage to their properties.
Eaton and palisades fires, lit by strong winds During one of the region’s demonstrations Dryer years never recorded, killed 28 people and destroyed more than 12,000 structures, placing them among the The most destructive fires in the history of California.
Fire mouths have been the subject of a meticulous examination run dry And water pressure problems, leading to a series of legal proceedings against the city and the Los Angeles water and electricity department. California Governor Gavin Newsom asked for an independent investigation into the Los Angeles waters department on these problems.
The complaint filed by the couple and others mentions that the Santa Ynez reservoir, which serves the Pacific Palisades district, was offline and out of service since February 2024 pending repairs. The district fire mouths were connected to three tanks each containing 1 million gallons (3.7 million liters) of water and dried in 12 hours, indicates the complaint, quoting Janisse Quiñones, Director General and Engineer in Head of the Water Service.
Without water from the reservoir, the firefighters were mainly counting on the water tanks, which were not designed to combat a fire of this magnitude, the complaint indicates.
The city and the water service did not immediately respond to requests for comments sent by email.
While the repairs of the tank were requested in January 2024, the water service told Los Angeles Times They will not be completed until April or May 2025.
The trial described the fire of the palisades “inevitable and inevitable consequence” of the water system exploited by the city and the water service.
“The system has necessarily failed, and this failure was an important factor in the losses suffered by the complainants in this complaint,” he said.
The complainants invoke the so -called principle ” reverse condemnation“, Which is the same mechanism that obliges public services to pay for damage caused by forest fires to their equipment.
