I recall the h.uge Thomas fire of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties from Dec 2017.
Over 1000 structures destroyed, which is already far exceeded by the LA fires.
One of the key failures that came out in post-fire analysis is related to how in Ventura there are many foothills homes that are fed by gravity water feed from storage tanks located at the top of or some height above the development. These tanks are filled by pumps from down below..
Before the fire hit, many, if not most, of these tanks were not full, as they don't normally need to be so. They can operate for normal use on a level below full as they rely on inservice pumps to pump up water as needed.
When the fire hit, and the fire crews were trying to use hydrants in the development, fed by the same storage tanks, the hydrants ran dry quickly.
As at the same time, SCE was either losing power to, or shutting off power to, the areas where the pumps were located.
I think SCE moved in some portable generators to pump water but these were mostly after the fact and too late for the fire had already blown through.
This was a big oversight and failure of preparation.
In some developments, depending on their layout and how the fire hit, many more homes might have been saved if the fire crews had a chance to use more water that could have been pre-pumped to fill the high level tanks before the fire hit and the power was lost. And to have had more portable generators in place to continue pumping up water once the power went out.
I don't know for sure this will be found a similar failure for this fire in LA, but I am early guessing it may be quite possible.
Over 1000 structures destroyed, which is already far exceeded by the LA fires.
One of the key failures that came out in post-fire analysis is related to how in Ventura there are many foothills homes that are fed by gravity water feed from storage tanks located at the top of or some height above the development. These tanks are filled by pumps from down below..
Before the fire hit, many, if not most, of these tanks were not full, as they don't normally need to be so. They can operate for normal use on a level below full as they rely on inservice pumps to pump up water as needed.
When the fire hit, and the fire crews were trying to use hydrants in the development, fed by the same storage tanks, the hydrants ran dry quickly.
As at the same time, SCE was either losing power to, or shutting off power to, the areas where the pumps were located.
I think SCE moved in some portable generators to pump water but these were mostly after the fact and too late for the fire had already blown through.
This was a big oversight and failure of preparation.
In some developments, depending on their layout and how the fire hit, many more homes might have been saved if the fire crews had a chance to use more water that could have been pre-pumped to fill the high level tanks before the fire hit and the power was lost. And to have had more portable generators in place to continue pumping up water once the power went out.
I don't know for sure this will be found a similar failure for this fire in LA, but I am early guessing it may be quite possible.