Don’t yell out fire in Silver Lake.

Cause then you’d be stuck, wouldn’t you. We don’t have any water.

The last couple weeks I wake up in a panic, and run to the window to see if by any chance dwp has started to refill the lake. The Times warned about the Big One coming, like Northridge or worse. If water pipes break – and they will- do ya THINK we might need a big source of available water?

Sierra Madre fire from my kitchen window.

And how about that rain we’ve been getting, huh? Not. We’re ONE WEEK AWAY from when we had the gp fire last year. (the reason I started this blog)!! Hello, fire season here, and nada from dwp  as far as water. It doesn’t help that I spotted the current fire in Sierra Madre on Saturday night. (I never knew I could see that from here.) Once again, the news refers to it as “only a brush fire,” as no lives or homes were lost. Tell that to the dead animals.

Thanks to one of my firemen readers, I found out last year that Los Angeles doesn’t have the right kind of trucks to effectively fight wildfire. Trucks go from Type 1 to 4; they use 4 in the very deep national forests. All we have is Type 1!( I explored more about fire trucks here, and please check out Jason Randall’s excellent comment – he is one of the heroes.) Horrible, but true: one year later, they still don’t. So almost all the water was transported in helicopters from Silver Lake.

They used Hollywood Reservoir first, but within a few hours switched to Silver Lake, every single day, every 10 minutes. In the 7 years I’ve lived here I’ve seen and heard (and felt) those great helicopters fly over to use Silver Lake many many times, for fires in the Burbank and Glendale hills, small fires in Griffith Park, etc. I decided to call the LAFD to see how important they think open reservoirs are to firefighting.

I talked with Chief Michael Fumas first (doesn’t Fumas mean smoke in Spanish?), and he was so polite, helpful, and knowledgeable, as I found all the firemen to be. They are certainly the best-bred city employees I’ve ever come across!

He explained some of the characteristics of the firehogs, Skycranes, and Superscoopers. (There’s a fascinating article here on why Los Angeles County doesn’t want the Canadian Superscoopers coming down here…and it’s not just because they’re so Big and Powerful. And Russia has a Waterbomber that holds 11,000 gallons!) Here’s what we have in Los Angeles: 4 Firehogs, that hold 300 gallons, and 2 Skycranes that we rent during some months, that hold 1000 gallons.

The helicopters drop a stinger down and it sucks the water up so fast, in less than 5 minutes. He said there are also heliports where helicopters can pick up water, but that is slower. dwp has the pipes gridded so that some water will always be available if some areas are shut down. He said that in an emergency situation, having available large bodies of water like Silver Lake is very important to firefighters.

Next I talked with Captain Glen Smith, of Air Ops. He had an interesting point: that even some heliports may get their water from the reservoirs, so they could be affected by the Silver Lake draining, too. His opinion on Silver Lake is that it is essential for it to be filled in case of city emergencies.

Last but not least I talked with Captain Comfort, in the hydrant unit. Smaller helicopters can get water from hydrants or from tender trucks. The Captain emphasized how much faster it is to suck up water from an open reservoir than to refill it from the ground. He said in a wildland situation (in any hilly area without roads) “we don’t chase fires, we just contain it.” And since they don’t have any large off-road fire trucks, their range is limited to the length of the hoses: only 300 to 500 feet! He added that the longer the hose, the more loss of water pressure, too. There are a limited number of small Brush Patrol trucks (4), used in Red Flag situations, that are off-road, and able to go deep, but obviously interior areas are mostly dependent on helicopters for big firefighting.

Captain Comfort said that the LAFD will certainly get water somehow, even without open reservoirs, but it greatly helps both in maneuvering, and speed, to use reservoirs to save lives and property. And for earthquakes he said it becomes even more important for domestic supply.

So there you go. Fire season, and the dwp could give a rat’s ass.

For your convenience:

How to call the dwp commisioners:

commission@dwp.com

dwp Commission
111 N. Hope St., Room 1555
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Ph: (213) 367-1356
Fx: (213) 367-1423