Biden Claims Planned Power Outages Led to Water Shortages Amid Los Angeles Wildfires
This update comes as fire officials work to make headway in containing numerous fires across the city.
Amid rising concerns regarding the water supply necessary to combat wildfires that have devastated thousands of structures in Los Angeles, President Joe Biden noted that intentional power outages have led to these shortages.
“From my discussions with the governor, I understand there are significant concerns regarding water shortages. Utilities, rightly so, have shut off power because they feared that the energy lines would be blown down and spark additional fires,” Biden explained at a briefing with White House officials. “This resulted in the inability to generate the pressure needed for pumping water, which is what led to the water shortage in the hydrants.”
According to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, approximately 20 percent of hydrants throughout the city ran dry as crews fought the blazes. Firefighters in Southern California typically handle the strong Santa Ana winds that blow in during fall and winter; however, the winds experienced earlier this week came as an unexpected challenge, grounding firefighting aircraft that were supposed to conduct critical water drops and taxing the hydrant system.
Officials told The Epoch Times that water tanks used to supply gravity-fed fire hydrants were depleted to such levels that there was insufficient pressure to effectively combat wildfires in certain areas of Los Angeles.
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Sam Digiovanna, chief at the Verdugo Fire Academy in Glendale, shared with The Epoch Times that “due to the number of fire trucks focusing on structure protection and connecting to many hydrants, we quickly depleted our water supply.”
“The water system became low for firefighters, and when they were engaged in combatting the fire, there were instances of very low water pressure,” he remarked, without addressing the claim that intentional power outages led to the reduced pressure.
Newsom, a Democrat, responded to this criticism during a CNN interview earlier this week.
“People are literally fleeing. Lives have been lost. Children have lost their schools. Families are completely torn apart. Churches have been destroyed, and this individual seeks to politicize the situation,” Newsom stated to the outlet. “I have many thoughts on this matter, and I know what I want to express, but I won’t.”
As of Friday morning, local time, at least 10 individuals have died, and 153,000 residents remain under evacuation orders.
The Palisades Fire near the coast was reported to be 8 percent contained, the Eaton Fire north of Pasadena was 3 percent contained, the Hurst Fire just south of Santa Clarita was 37 percent contained, and the Kenneth Fire in the San Fernando Valley was 35 percent contained as of Friday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.