Excerpted from the Los Angeles Times, dated March 1, 2025:
The Los Angeles Fire Department did not inform the city’s Department of Water and Power until mid-February that more than 1,000 fire hydrants needed repairs, despite being aware of the issues months before.
According to city records and officials, the Fire Department discovered the damage to the hydrants during inspections in the months before the Jan. 7 Palisades fire, which destroyed thousands of homes.
While firefighters struggled with low water pressure during the blaze, it’s unclear whether the damaged hydrants played a role.
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“Any assertion that LADWP received information [about damage] and didn’t do anything regarding the hydrants is incorrect,” added Anselmo Collins, chief of the DWP’s water operations, at the board meeting.
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The LAFD did not respond to questions about the fire hydrant inspections process. Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for Crowley, said, “Chief Crowley will have no further comment until” the Tuesday meeting of L.A. City Council.
Although DWP owns and is responsible for maintaining the city’s fire hydrants, the task of inspecting them falls to the LAFD. Each year, the utility pays the Fire Department about $2.5 million — drawn from ratepayer revenue — to carry out the inspections and report the findings.