Rick Caruso on Pacific Palisades Wildfire: ‘You Can’t Fight a Fire Without Water!’

CARUSO: “But there hands have been tied. They can’t fight a fire without water, no resources that are needed. Everybody knew these ones were coming. The other question has to be, you know, with all the things in place to try to, again, mitigate the damage here, the real issue to me is twofold. We’ve had decades to go remove the brush in these hills that spread so quickly. And the second is, you gotta have water. And my understanding is the reservoir was not refilled in time and in a timely manner to keep the hydrants going. So that’s a failure whether on DWP’s part or another city agency. But this is basic stuff. This isn’t high science here. It’s all about leadership and management that we’re saying a failure of. And all these residents are paying the ultimate price for that.”
Reporter: “Then isn’t — that was going to be my next question, is, why aren’t — why isn’t there water in the fire hydrants? That doesn’t make any sense.”
CARUSO: “You’re right. That’s a good question, and I think you should start asking. Why don’t you call the mayor, who’s out of the country, and ask her and get an answer from her?”
Reporter 2: “Well, they say she’s on her way back, and that would be a great question to ask her tomorrow, if she’s at this briefing at 8 o’clock in the morning, because I think there’s a lot of people that are outraged by that fact tonight, when they look at scenes like this of businesses that people have worked really, really, really hard to build and homes, that people’s entire livelihoods are going up in in flames tonight.”