The other option is to pump the water directly out of existing bodies of water (lakes, rivers, swimming pools). There are probably 250,000 or so swimming pools in the LA area. But again you need to be set up to do this.
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A Crazy Map Of 250,000 Swimming Pools Reveals Los Angeles County’s Inequality
It is a source that is sometimes used in exigency but pools are often not very accessible, being located in backyards. If I were a housesteader in a place likely threatened by wildfire, I’d certainly set up with a high flow water pump and 2 inch hose; not enough to fight a whole house fire, but enough to control a smaller fire and more importantly wet down roofs and exterior walls. (Also, fun at pool parties.)
Stranger
We’re all doing well, thanks. But this devastation down south, yes very heartbreaking. We drive down to Southern California a few times a year to visit him, and the destruction will remain for a long time to come. It’s going to take many years for rebuilding.
My sister lost the house that she was renting in the Tea Fire. The owner never bothered to rebuild. He street was an obvious fire trap. I hated going there. Once the fire was over they let residents back in. I met her there to help. The neighborhood was mostly gone with the odd house still standing. It was horrible to see.
Looking at Cal-Fire, it seems the fireline is the same as yesterday. Are the fires still spreading and the site hasn’t been updated?
The winds are not driving the fires deeper into the neighborhoods, but up into the hills. They’re slower to update there.
The Palisades Fire is still spreading to the north, and slowly to the southeast into Santa Monica (evac order for SAN-Q1388-B, Level warnings for SAN-Q1388-C and SAN-Q1389) with 20,438 acres and 8% containment reported plus new undesignated fire activity in the MRCA Open Space and moving toward Monte Nido. Eaton Fire is 13,956 acres and 3% containment still inching east along the Arcaida foothils and up into the Duarte Wilderness Preserve as well as advancing up toward Mt. Wilson Observatory and Chantry Flats; the entire Angeles National Forest is closed. The Kenneth Fire is reported at 1,000 acres and 35% containment with forward progress halted and minimal structure damage, and the Hurst Fire up in Sylmar is at 77 acres and 37% containment.
So, still spreading and not ‘under control’ (mostly contained) but being managed (despite political rhetoric to the contrary) and winds picking up this morning but projected to die down further this afternoon. Stronger winds are forecast for later in the weekend and next week, so certainly not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination, and as long as Southern California is heading into drought conditions and winds are high an extreme fire risk remains.
Stranger
These images are shared over on another platform. It’s simply beyond everything…
Palisades fire:
Eaton fire (most of Altadena consumed at the same time):
As others have mentioned, neighborhood hydrants are simply not designed to handle something like this - the system is meant for a single house fire or two, not a whole town being consumed by a wildland fire driven by 80 MPH wind.
Looks like a new fire called the ARCHER FIRE has started now.
<lana kane>Goddamnit, Archer!</lana kane>
Stranger
I swear to God I had something for this…
Yeah, 50 fire crews working to defend a line will drain water faster than it can be hydraulically supplied from a water main. Meanwhile thousands of destroyed structures with ruptured pipes are leaking water everywhere, further reducing pressure.
You can have a dedicated, separate water main designed just for fighting fires. San Francisco has one as a result of lessons learned in the 1906 quake. But SF has a much, much, much smaller footprint than Los Angeles - it’s an extremely compact city. The cost of installing such a redundant system throughout Los Angeles county would be gargantuan, hence like most cities municipal water and fire-fighting water come from the same distribution system. Nonetheless, it has been argued that LA county might be the most fire-hardened urban area in the world. Which is likely why (with a bit of luck in timing) that many more people didn’t die that first day.
But there was no stopping a fire like this under the conditions that prevailed that night. Mother nature is just more powerful than us.
Right next to the Hurst fire.
I am waiting to see what the proximate causes of the fires may be. If it turns out to be sparks from power lines, they simply could have shut off the power to those lines before the wind event. Considering what happened in Lahaina, and other fires around the west where power lines were the direct cause of damaging and expensive fires, I want to know if SCEdison took preventive measures in advance of the wind storm. While there is no stopping it in those conditions after it starts, there are ways to mitigate the risk beforehand.
Smoke from the Eaton fire can still be smelled where I am (Burbank), but it’s not nearly as strong as it was yesterday when I wore a mask anytime I was outside.
As a transplanted Midwesterner, it was a little scary looking at the Watch Duty map Tuesday and Wednesday and seeing myself surrounded by fires in every direction. Fortunately, none got too close this time—but I could have done without the false alarms to evac from the county yesterday.
The Eaton Fire was almost certainly caused by an electrical fault. The cause of the Palisades Fire is unknown but CalFire had pre-positioned resources and strike teams in anticipation of a fire event and despite this they ran low on water pressure from both LADWP water tanks (holding a reported 1 million gallons each) and municipal water supplies. I haven’t seen any cause on the Hurst Fire, and as already discussed the Kenneth Fire is suspected arson. There are a bunch of other smaller fires that aren’t on CalFire maps because they’re within a municipal boundary and don’t currently threaten to outgrow local response but it is pretty evident that despite precautions taken the scale and speed of the Palisades and Eaton fires overwhelmed any plausible response.
Stranger
Forward progress stopped.
They did. Many areas are without power. But there shouldnt be any power lines, except high voltage ones- both PG&E and SCE were supposed to put all local lines underground, but they used the funds elsewhere- dividends, etc.
I saw José Andres and World Central Kitchen are on site. Somehow that gives me some comfort that people will at least be fed. I swear that guy has multiple clones. He is at every disaster site.
I can’t imagine how devastating it would be to lose your entire neighborhood and community. I do think it will get more publicity because of the celebrities involved. I just think a lot of people aren’t going to rebuild.
Some fucktard decided to fly a drone in restricted airspace, probably to film the fire; it was hit by a super tanker plane and took a massive hole in the wing.
The plane landed successfully, but is now grounded, and they had to clear all the aircraft from the zone (delaying the fire response) until they could confirm there were no other drones.
It’s incredible to me that as we are in the midst of dealing with this massive disaster, there are morons out there making things worse.
It’s been posted multiple times that power has been shut off in many areas. My sister in Thousand Oaks and my friend in Simi Valley have been without power for all or most of the last several days and it will remain so through at least the weekend.
I have Southern California Edison in Santa Barbara and we haven’t seen the winds that are happening down south but their emails are going out to all customers once or twice a day about potential black outs and how to prepare.