Los Angeles fire response hampered by offline reservoirs in Pacific Palisades

City’s failure to restore Pacific Palisades and Santa Ynez reservoirs left firefighters with inadequate water supply during January wildfire.

Firefighters work to contain the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on January 8, 2025. Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images

By Anna Fadiah and Hayu Andini

When fire tore through Pacific Palisades in early January 2025, the flames revealed more than a vulnerability to California’s intensifying wildfire season — they exposed critical failures in Los Angeles’s water infrastructure. Months before the blaze, officials had identified the need to revive a dormant water reservoir to compensate for the inoperable Santa Ynez Reservoir. Yet, despite this foresight, the Pacific Palisades fire was met with a severe water shortage that left firefighters scrambling to control the inferno.

Santa Ynez Reservoir offline before the fire

The Santa Ynez Reservoir, a crucial source of emergency water supply for the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, had been taken offline in early 2024 due to damage to its protective cover. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) had scheduled extensive repairs to restore the reservoir, but by January 2025, the work was still incomplete. As a result, when the fire erupted on January 7, the city’s most significant water reserve for the area remained bone dry.

A plan to restore the Pacific Palisades Reservoir

In a bid to address the looming water shortage, LADWP began preparations in June 2024 to bring the long-retired Pacific Palisades Reservoir back online. Decommissioned in 2013, the smaller reservoir was considered a potential temporary solution while Santa Ynez remained under repair. Crews spent days cleaning the facility and outlined plans to disinfect it and lay new pipelines. Internal emails obtained under California’s public records law revealed the urgency and seriousness with which the city treated the situation at the time.

But despite these preparations, the restoration plan stalled.

According to LADWP spokeswoman Ellen Cheng, the department ultimately concluded that restarting the Pacific Palisades Reservoir could pose serious risks to workers and residents. Structural weaknesses, potential leaks, and safety concerns around the aging infrastructure were cited as the main deterrents.

Water tanks drained during the fire

When the wildfire ignited in January, neither reservoir was operational. With Santa Ynez still two months away from readiness and Pacific Palisades shelved indefinitely, firefighters were left to rely on three small tanks, each with a capacity of about one million gallons. The tanks were quickly depleted as the fire raged on. One was empty by late afternoon on January 7, a second ran dry by nightfall, and the final tank was drained by 3 a.m. the following morning.

The consequence was catastrophic: fire hydrants ran dry in multiple areas, hindering suppression efforts and allowing the fire to spread further through the hillside community. While it remains uncertain how much additional containment could have been achieved with full reservoir access, experts agree that the extra water would have significantly bolstered the response and potentially mitigated property damage.

Legal questions surrounding reservoir management

In the aftermath, legal scrutiny is mounting. More than 750 wildfire victims are pursuing claims against the city, and attorneys representing them are demanding clarity on the decisions that left the reservoirs offline during a period of known fire danger.

Matthew Stumpf, an attorney involved in the lawsuits, stated that many victims had not been informed that the city had previously explored the option of reactivating the Pacific Palisades Reservoir. He argued that transparency around this failed plan, coupled with the inability to repair Santa Ynez in time, contributed to the destruction.

“We believe it played a role in the destruction,” Stumpf said, highlighting that water availability is a central issue in many of the pending claims.

History of the Pacific Palisades Reservoir

Originally constructed in 1929, the Pacific Palisades Reservoir had long served as a backup water supply. Before it was decommissioned in 2013, it even included a special cistern from which helicopters could draw water during fires. However, years of underuse and aging infrastructure made it increasingly difficult to maintain. According to Cheng, the reservoir was ultimately retired because of concerns over water quality stemming from its low elevation, which led to stagnation. Cracks and a compromised roof further undermined its viability.

Nonetheless, the fact that it was briefly considered for reactivation suggests the city saw its potential value — if only as a stopgap measure during emergency repairs to Santa Ynez.

Delays and leaks in Santa Ynez repairs

In a further blow to recovery efforts, the Santa Ynez Reservoir, once expected to be refilled and operational by April, has again encountered setbacks. After crews completed repairs and began refilling the structure, they discovered new leaks, forcing them to drain the reservoir once more. As of late April, LADWP said it now hopes to return Santa Ynez to service by the end of June — nearly six months after the fire.

These delays have raised concerns about the city’s preparedness for future emergencies, especially as climate change continues to intensify droughts and wildfires across California.

A warning for future disaster planning

The Pacific Palisades fire water shortage offers a stark reminder of the high stakes involved in infrastructure resilience. While LADWP’s efforts to mitigate the reservoir outage were real, the failure to follow through left a critical gap in emergency response. Firefighters — already facing high winds and dry brush — were forced to battle flames without a full water supply. The result was predictable and tragic.

In hindsight, some experts argue that city officials should have acted more decisively, perhaps accepting short-term risks to bring the old reservoir back online or accelerating the repair timeline for Santa Ynez. Others note that even if the Pacific Palisades facility had safety concerns, partial use — such as for non-potable emergency water — might have made a difference.

The path forward

As Los Angeles prepares for another long, hot summer, the pressure is on LADWP and city leaders to ensure that water infrastructure is no longer a weak link in wildfire preparedness. The Pacific Palisades fire has already prompted deeper conversations about long-term planning, transparency, and accountability.

For the residents who lost their homes or were forced to flee in January, those conversations are not just about future fires — they are about justice for a disaster that might have been less devastating, had the city been ready.