Pacific Palisades Reservoir Found Empty
and Offline During Firestorm Catastrophe
– 117 Million Gallons Could Have Saved
the Day
Gateway Pundit,
by
Jim Hoft
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
1/11/2025 3:20:38 AM
Outrage is boiling over after revelations that the Santa Ynez Reservoir, a critical water source in Pacific Palisades, was empty and offline when a devastating wildfire ripped through the area.
The Los Angeles Times reported that despite the reservoir’s critical role in the city’s water infrastructure, it had been offline for nearly a year.
The Santa Ynez Reservoir, with a capacity of 117 million gallons, could have played a critical role in providing water pressure to firefighters battling the devastating fire that destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Malibu.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
DW626 1/11/2025 3:48:18 AM (No. 1871065)
I’m neither a conspiracy theorist, nor do I play one on tv, but I’m starting to believe that these actions, like empty reservoirs, and the amount of underbrush that’s not been cleared off in many years, was done on purpose.
That probably sounds nutty. But I’m beginning to become suspicious that someone wants that, now for the most part worthless yet formerly expensive land. And this fire was set for a reason…yes I do realize that it does sound a bit crazy, but I can’t help it.
64 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
watashiyo 1/11/2025 3:55:59 AM (No. 1871067)
LOL!!! Every chief and head of public servant morons are calling for an "Independent Investigation" to get to the bottomless bottom of who is ultimately responsible for the empty reservoir or the waterless fire hydrant.
.....and mysteriously, it all points to climate change caused by Trump. The concepts of responsibility and accountability are virtues the liberals and weirdos cannot process.
54 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
NotaBene 1/11/2025 4:41:25 AM (No. 1871075)
I lost my beautiful home of 39 years, with neighbors we fought the fire all day and when we thought it was contained had mandatory evacuation. During this time I did not see a single Fireman spill a single drop of water for us. Not one. LAFD did nothing! They did not have water in the Palisades Santa Ynez reservoir. Democrats channel the Southern California water and agricultural water to a baitfish called smelt. To rub salt in further, State Farm canceled all fire and earthquake insurance this December for the entire Pacific Palisades. They suggested a State Fair (Obamacare) plan but to qualify for that your roof had to be replaced.
In conclusion: we lost our home, and after paying insurance for 39 years will get nothing back to replace it. This mating between Socialists and Corporations must stop, but the gimme gimmes keep voting DEI Democrats in. At least the LAFD Chief is a woman. The Mayor Karen Bass is a Black woman. And FireChief II makes 800,000 including overtime. The highest salary in the City of Angels is almost 900,000 for the Chief of Water and Power who provides no water. Arghhhhh.
98 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
mifla 1/11/2025 4:58:27 AM (No. 1871076)
How bad do things have to get in CA before the residents realize how inept the Dems are, especially the DEI hires?
55 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
EJKrausJr 1/11/2025 5:04:07 AM (No. 1871080)
Californistanians - your government from state to local are incompetent and spend your money on such things as Do Expect Incompetent employees. And you are surprised that your reservoirs are empty. But you saved the smelt, that should count for something. When you leave Californistan, don't come to Florida.
44 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
ARKfamily 1/11/2025 5:27:45 AM (No. 1871092)
#3, I am so sorry for your loss.
82 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Jesuslover54 1/11/2025 6:10:55 AM (No. 1871116)
Larry Fink is dancing with his pitchfork. Looking for multi-family dwellings.
13 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
govlawyer 1/11/2025 6:13:40 AM (No. 1871119)
In 9 days, it'll be Trump's fault. (Mark my words, please.)
Listening to some of the libtard celebrities complain about Bass and her band of LGBTQAM&FM appointees, all I can think is that we've seen a mass mugging of liberals (but that group are probably too stupid to realize that they caused their problem by the trees that they hugged and the spotted owls they protected).
We all know how Einstein defined their insanity.
35 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Strike3 1/11/2025 6:19:10 AM (No. 1871121)
Hazardous conditions like an empty reservoir that is critical to an emergency should be brought up by the fire department at every city council meeting - you had a year. People are quick to defend the first responders but if you don't insist on having the tools that you need ready at all times, that is not doing your job. That said, Karen Bass is a total nitwit. Who could vote for that? I agree, #1, sometimes sheer stupidity looks like a conspiracy because the average person has enough sense to spot potential problems before they happen.
24 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
SweetPea3 1/11/2025 6:39:17 AM (No. 1871139)
Ah, but the smelts rejoiced.
21 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
privateer 1/11/2025 6:43:34 AM (No. 1871142)
FTA: 'We need answers to ensure this does not happen again and we have every resource available to fight these catastrophic fires,” Newsom wrote on X. Happen again!! Has he seen images of the destruction? Newsom is the very portrait of an arrogant, insensitive, entitled bungler. It's like he's saying: drat, I hate when that happens! We'll do better next time. Here's your answer: you, and those 4 women (I'm counting Janisse) are criminally incompetent. You are destructors. I'd attach more blame to the voters if I didn't assume the elections are rigged. Particularly GN dodging the recall.
41 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Krause 1/11/2025 6:47:15 AM (No. 1871143)
Who votes these incompetent people? Stupid liberals, that's who.
21 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
RuckusTom 1/11/2025 7:00:16 AM (No. 1871152)
Which California official didn't know about this like the New Orleans police chief who was unaware she had any "road blocks" available for New Years?
24 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Venturer 1/11/2025 7:39:12 AM (No. 1871167)
You would think that after a year the problem at the reservoir would have been fixed.
Is there a contract to fix it? Or was it just forgotten about?
DEI leadership is bad. Super bad. It means problems do not get solved and morale among those who work goes in the toilet. I know California an expensive place to live, and it's no wonder when municipal employees are paid in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. And then they don't get the job done.
24 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
BarryNo 1/11/2025 7:41:30 AM (No. 1871170)
Los Angeles is beyond nuts!! Main reservoir out of service during fire season... reports all over the place of Arsonists... DEI fire department... 'Extra Equipment' donated to Ukraine. 150 million dollars cut from the fire department budget in the last year, and another Fifty million demanded of that budget just a week before the fires started...
This is turning into the Lake of Fire Dante envisioned.
27 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Lazyman 1/11/2025 7:50:17 AM (No. 1871173)
Along with DEI comes lack of accountability because they would have to admit the insanity. Lucky on a $700,000 salary you don't have to "work" many years which seems to be a story too. A good Risk Management Department would have cost far less.
14 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Krause 1/11/2025 7:55:06 AM (No. 1871176)
Democrat politicians burned down Hollywood actors homes. Hmmm.
17 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Marthinius57 1/11/2025 7:57:44 AM (No. 1871180)
#13, Fun fact : New Orleans police is a transplant from Oakland , Ca.
24 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 1/11/2025 8:50:28 AM (No. 1871228)
#3, I'm at a loss for words as to what happened to you. Horrible.
26 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 1/11/2025 8:52:46 AM (No. 1871233)
Impeach Governor Brylcreem! Then break his comb and hide his "aviators." Yesterday!
11 people like this.
#1 Compare to the government bungling followed by a grab of prime real estate in Hawaii recently, and the puzzle pieces start to form a picture.
21 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 1/11/2025 9:03:08 AM (No. 1871239)
This should sound all too familiar to the folks in Lahaina, Maui - another dim stronghold whose town was burned to the ground a year and a half ago. And you know something? The locals still voted dim last November.
16 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 1/11/2025 9:04:45 AM (No. 1871241)
Our area has several reservoirs. They never go ''off line''. They are filled with water for use during droughts or an emergency - presumably a large fire. They'll now spend millions of dollars on an ''investigation'' with a diverse rainbow of participants.
19 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
preciosodrogas 1/11/2025 9:08:09 AM (No. 1871245)
I'm seeing a lot of failings by our leadership from the top to the bottom. This latest outrage is a prime example. WTP keep electing politicians thinking that we just had the wrong politician, but this time they promise to do better. They have, over the years, rigged the system in their favor. We don't need term limits. I don't like them because it takes away my liberty to vote for who I like. What I am saying has been proven with President Trump's reelection - it can be done.
These politicians are crooks. The do you find predators - everywhere there is prey. Child predators - schoolyards. Or the answer to why someone robs a bank - that's where the money is. WTP have put off `the responsibility that goes with having liberties. Like Trump said they are out to get us"I'm" just in the way. This is an expression of opinion - with three fingers pointing back at me and no one this site.
5 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
TCloud 1/11/2025 9:22:25 AM (No. 1871254)
NIFC will have to rewrite and add one more reason for catastrophic wildfires. Manuals teach that a wildfire will require Topography, Oxygen, Fuels plus stupid Wokeness!
4 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
edgar 1/11/2025 9:25:51 AM (No. 1871261)
Whatever dems touch turns brown... except in Minneapolis and LA where it gets torched to the ground and turns black.
6 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
kono 1/11/2025 9:34:52 AM (No. 1871263)
The greenies might give their obsession a strategic break; but it won't take long before we hear again the droning of "remove the dam" Our own insatiable thirst isn't the only reason we needed to build those reservoirs.
6 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
Zigrid 1/11/2025 9:39:30 AM (No. 1871270)
It's always the same...the politicians go off on vacation to Ghana ...free of charge...always at the taxpayer's expense....get elected by soros money to disrupt WE common folk...and then blame everyone but themselves...when will Californians say "enough" and put in some real qualified men to fight fires and clear out the fallen trees and brush....Newscum has been in politics for 50 years...living off the taxes of real hard working Americans...and now he blames President Trump for climate control???
15 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
janjan 1/11/2025 9:54:23 AM (No. 1871281)
Most political disasters eventually blow over. This one won’t. This is the direct result of grossly incompetent liberal governance. They couldn’t manage a simple repair to a reservoir in a year but their DEI hire water manager makes $750K a year to do this job. Sorry Newsom, a strongly worded letter asking for an investigation of something that should have come to light months ago is not going to save your worthless ass. I feel terrible for these people even knowing that most of them voted for this.
16 people like this.
Reply 30 - Posted by:
hershey 1/11/2025 10:03:01 AM (No. 1871296)
Offline? For a YEAR??? How many smelt did gruesome Newsome save with this little maneuver???
11 people like this.
Reply 31 - Posted by:
HotPatty 1/11/2025 10:30:38 AM (No. 1871320)
There is one prime reason for this situation. Democrats.
14 people like this.
Reply 32 - Posted by:
ilovedogs 1/11/2025 10:48:14 AM (No. 1871327)
#3, I am so sorry.
11 people like this.
Reply 33 - Posted by:
DrOstrow 1/11/2025 11:04:04 AM (No. 1871338)
First, my sympathies #3, I wish there was something I could do and can't imagine what you and your family must be going through.
You are not alone #1. Since 2020 I have become more and more convinced that there is FAR MORE fraud in our elections, from local to state to federal, than any of us realize.
It's the only explanation for how, somehow, Democrats keep getting elected over and over and over despite being one of the most destructive entities in our country.
As #22 says, Dim were apparently voted in, AGAIN, in Maui !! One would think that the Dims would have been set adrift in chummed water ! Instead, they keep getting RE-relected over and over !!! Something stinks ! In fact, a LOT of 'somethings' stink in what we're seeing these days !!
15 people like this.
Reply 34 - Posted by:
JrSample 1/11/2025 11:20:18 AM (No. 1871346)
Meanwhile, the city of LA budgeted 1.3 billion dollars for homeless bums and spent 599 million dollars of that.
The priorities of the democrat party seem to be catering to the interests of various categories of misfits and losers; homeless drug addicts, criminals, sexual deviates/perverts, illegal aliens, and they do this all at the expense of working taxpayers.
6 people like this.
Reply 35 - Posted by:
DVC 1/11/2025 11:23:17 AM (No. 1871352)
And we will find that DEI hires were in charge of this decision, no doubt.
5 people like this.
Reply 36 - Posted by:
DVC 1/11/2025 11:25:12 AM (No. 1871355)
The entire city is run by DEI hires, ALL of them incompetent. And this is what you get with DEI hires. Perhaps going back to hiring ONLY by competence, and allowing white males might help?
8 people like this.
Reply 37 - Posted by:
dbdiva 1/11/2025 11:29:09 AM (No. 1871360)
#1 ~ you are NOT "nutty"; as soon as I heard about the fires the first thought I had was that this is no accident but was quite purposeful.
#3 ~ I have no words that accurately express how sorry I am for what happened to your home and property. None of this should EVER have happened. I'll include you in my prayers.
As for Gavin's letters and posts on X I have no doubt that these are for show only. I don't think he has any intention of getting to the bottom of things or having anyone/anything investigated.
He reacts due to what's expedient at the time. Remember the woman who accosted him in that video (who is an attorney BTW)? First he told her he couldn't talk because he was on the phone with Pedo. When she told him she didn't believe him and wanted to hear the conversation for herself, his story changed on a dime and he told her he couldn't get through to Pedo from his cell. Upset as she was, (and she had every right to be) she may not have caught that story change. Nothing out of Gavin's mouth should be believed or trusted. His constituents must realize , if they don't already, that their governor is nothing more than a professional liar.
11 people like this.
Reply 38 - Posted by:
DVC 1/11/2025 11:42:02 AM (No. 1871384)
Sorry for your loss, #3, truly sorry. Let's hope that this becomes a massive 'red pill moment' for LA and they figure out that voting Dem is voting for everything to come crashing down around your ears. Everything.
8 people like this.
Reply 39 - Posted by:
DVC 1/11/2025 11:44:43 AM (No. 1871386)
Re #3, when the government makes rules which make the business environment literally impossible, then the businesses have to leave. This is NOT a failure of insurance, it is a massive government destruction of everything. And before they burn your home, the government drives out the insurance companies to compound the damage.
Best wishes for recovering, hope you and your loved ones are safe.
11 people like this.
Reply 40 - Posted by:
Harlowe 1/11/2025 11:53:17 AM (No. 1871394)
#3,EtAl~ FWIW, just watched a very brief “humorous conspiratorial/tinfoil hat video” that gives pause for thought. Wearing a “tinfoil hat” the “comedian” mused that in a few days this country will have a president committed to combating human trafficking and what better way to destroy evidence, if complicit with human trafficking, than destruction by fire.
9 people like this.
Reply 41 - Posted by:
PrayerWarrior 1/11/2025 12:04:31 PM (No. 1871409)
#3 Our family adds our prayers for your loss and pain. May the God of all comfort and strength cover you with His presence now and in the coming days.
What happened in So. CA is criminal and we believe intentional. No one goes on a trip with warnings of 100 mile Santa Ana winds coming; no one tears down 4 watershed dams in your State when you have annual fire seasons; no one cuts the fire department's budget millions of dollars when you live in a fire area prone to annual fires and when you just had a Malibu fire months before...and I could go on and on. This was deliberate. The federal govt. needs to step in. The State govt. is corrupt.
12 people like this.
Reply 42 - Posted by:
gwholmessr 1/11/2025 12:37:33 PM (No. 1871439)
You’re not crazy if you think these fires were by design. No water, insurance cancellations, preventive measures not taken, the mayor is in Africa on the tax payer dime. The properties will be condemned and in 5 years the properties will be built on by some mega corporations aka Blackrock and nobody will be able to fight it.
5 people like this.
Reply 43 - Posted by:
aasilver 1/11/2025 12:44:13 PM (No. 1871443)
Janisse Quiñones is the head of water and power. She is the responsible incompetent executive.
6 people like this.
Reply 44 - Posted by:
DVC 1/11/2025 2:55:29 PM (No. 1871517)
In case you wondered what this reservoir looks like...
https://legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Santa-Ynez-Reservoir-california-Fire.jpg
A whole lot of empty, instead of 117 million gallons of water.
2 people like this.
Reply 45 - Posted by:
DVC 1/11/2025 2:59:51 PM (No. 1871520)
It's a real shame that the California folks chose to not keep the old Martin Mars flying and dropping water like it used to. It could pick up 6,000 gallons of water in 30 seconds of high speed running across the surface of a lake. Here's what the old girl could do...
https://infotel.ca/news/medialibrary/image/orig-mediaitemid21359-7880.jpg
Sadly, now sitting in a museum instead of saving homes. Hawaiian Mars, a big beautiful old water bomber.
1 person likes this.
Reply 46 - Posted by:
Hazymac 1/11/2025 4:11:07 PM (No. 1871565)
I join all the other LDotters' prayers for #3. Heartbreaking.
6 people like this.
Reply 47 - Posted by:
Catherine 1/11/2025 5:00:18 PM (No. 1871596)
What I find the most curious are the few houses that didn't burn. They are surrounded by burned house all around them and yet their house is fine.
1 person likes this.
Reply 48 - Posted by:
NotaBene 1/11/2025 6:36:18 PM (No. 1871626)
Thank you Ldotters from number 3
2 people like this.
Reply 49 - Posted by:
Imright 1/11/2025 6:55:41 PM (No. 1871629)
I also add my prayers to #3....God Bless.
1 person likes this.
Reply 50 - Posted by:
NeonVortex 1/11/2025 7:19:46 PM (No. 1871637)
Climate change did that.
0 people like this.
Reply 51 - Posted by:
crashnburn 1/12/2025 1:07:41 AM (No. 1871735)
I am sorry for all of your losses, but someone voted these DEIncompetents into office. Sometime it will get bad enough that the Republican vote will overwhelm the Democrats’ cheating.
In the meantime, every time I read about CA, I am glad I left. CO is also blue, but so far isn’t as crazy and corrupt as CA.
0 people like this.