Pointing Fingers and denials begin: Lack of water cost homes in fire

OC firefighters: Lack of water cost homes in fire

YORBA LINDA, Calif.—A lack of water from hydrants in an upscale neighborhood prevented at least three homes from being saved during last weekend's wildfire, firefighters said Friday.

Firefighters were forced to retreat from the upper elevations of a Yorba Linda neighborhood after no water came out of the hydrants during the blaze, said Kris Concepcion, battalion chief for the Orange County Fire Authority.

Firefighters estimate at least three of the 19 homes damaged or destroyed in Hidden Hills Estates, in the suburbs southeast of Los Angeles, could have been saved, Concepcion said.

"They had no water," he said. "They were unable to fight those fires."

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Dry hydrants doomed up to 5 Yorba Linda homes, officials say

Water district officials said that the lack of water during the weekend fire was confined to the upper Hidden Hills neighborhood but that isolated problems could have occurred because of the overwhelming nature of a massive wildfire.

Fire officials reported at least one other incident of a lack of water, in a neighborhood two miles away.

According to Orange County Fire Capt. Greg McKeown, fire engines Nov. 15 encountered a dry hydrant on Fairmont Boulevard and Condor Ridge Road in Yorba Linda and had to tap into one 300 feet away.

"Although it delayed their actions momentarily, they did not lose any homes," in that instance, he said.

Highest area

Hidden Hills Estates is at a greater elevation than any other Yorba Linda neighborhood, and its upper streets are the only area within the water district's boundaries where water is supplied solely by electric and gas pumps that push water uphill to homes, officials said. The rest of the city has standard gravity-fed water lines.

The water district has allocated $9 million for a new reservoir to supply Hidden Hills through a gravity-driven system, but has not built the facility yet.

Even so, some residents of this eucalyptus- and palm-lined neighborhood were outraged that more wasn't done to fix the pressure problems before a fire came.

"We've been promised the reservoir for at least two years," said David Ramocinski, a 15-year resident who lost his home at the very top of Hidden Hills Road.

He said the pumps that supplied the community would sometimes break down, leaving only a blast of air coming out of the faucet. He called the water district about the weak water pressure so many times -- at least half a dozen, he said -- that he had taken to keeping a log, noting that the problem had worsened in the last three months.

"There was no evacuation notice and no water," he said. "The only thing that saved some homes were residents getting buckets out of pools."

Yorba Linda Councilwoman Jan Horton said the inadequacy of the water system during the fire was a "travesty."

"This was a tremendous firestorm, and it was a difficult fire to contain," she said.

"But the situation was amplified by the fact that we didn't have water," she said. "We relied on residents to take care of the problem, and that wasn't OK."

Concepcion said he did not know the reason for the lack of water.

No one at the Yorba Linda Water District was immediately available for comment. The district is reviewing its systems in response to the complaint and will make a report available to the public upon completion, according to a statement released Thursday.

Yorba Linda resident Larry Goodnough said neighbors have long known there were water pressure problems.

"It's a joke up there: don't have your sprinklers going when you're taking a shower," Goodnough told the Los Angeles Times. "I'm bitter. You can't blame the firemen. If there's no water, you can't fight the fire."

About 1,000 homes were damaged or destroyed by three wildfires that ripped across Southern California last week, prompting tens of thousandsof evacuations.

Sources:
Mercury News - Link
LA Times - Link
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