Residents in Yorba Linda and Sylmar had complained of poor flow for years. But some officials say no system is designed to handle the kind of demand that arose over the weekend.
By Jeff Gottlieb and Tony Barboza
November 19, 2008
Residents of Yorba Linda, where fire destroyed 118 homes, had complained for years of poor water pressure, a problem that may have made it more difficult for firefighters to beat back the weekend blaze that tore through the upscale community.
In Sylmar, where about 500 mobile homes burned to the ground, fire officials said they were investigating reports of lack of water pressure there. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power supplies water to the Oakridge Mobile Home Park property line, but inside, the water system belongs to the park.
In both areas, residents and some officials were openly discussing whether the lack of water pressure complicated the already monumental task that firefighters faced.
Fire officials in Sylmar are checking to see if their department had inspected the mobile home park hydrants as required in the last year, said Craig Fry, assistant fire marshal for the Los Angeles Fire Department.
County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said he was at the mobile home park after the fire burned through on Saturday, and firefighters told him that hydrants had stopped working and they were forced to use their water tenders instead.
"We would have had a fair shot if the pressure hadn't gone down," said Battalion Chief Fred Mathis, as he sat in his firetruck in the mobile home park Saturday.
A representative of the company that owns the park, Continental Mobile Housing, said he was busy at Oakridge and did not have time to talk.
Farther south, Ken Vecchiarelli, assistant general manager of the Yorba Linda Water District, said its hydrant system was built to fight fires involving a few houses, not a firestorm.
"This was the type of thing any system in any community was not designed for," he said.
At a packed meeting at Yorba Linda City Hall on Tuesday night, residents, many of whose homes had burned, expressed anger.
"I was told when they [firefighters] got to the top of our street, they turned back because there was no water pressure," said Diane Manista, whose house burned down in the hard-hit neighborhood of Hidden Hills.
"The fire hydrant in front of our house has a bag on it and wasn't even working. It's beyond words."
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