MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
By now, you've probably seen the pictures and heard the stories from the areas in and around Los Angeles that are engulfed in flames fueled by desert winds. At least five people have died. The Palisades fire is the largest of five wildfires spread through the area. It has already burned through more than 17,000 acres. The state agency Cal Fire says it is the most destructive blaze in California's history in the month of January. Throughout the morning, we've been checking in with individuals and officials in the area. Councilwoman Traci Park is with us now. She represents the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, where the fire is raging. Hello. How are you doing?
TRACI PARK: (Laughter) It's been a pretty horrible 48 hours, truthfully.
MARTIN: Tell me what you're seeing. I know you and your team have all been out, you know, in the area, you know, on the ground throughout this. Tell me just some of the things that you have seen.
PARK: Well, as the fire broke out on Tuesday, I was out at the command post at Will Rogers State Beach, and it looked like a volcano had erupted. There was just fire raging through the town and down the hillside. And of course, the firefighting operations were impacted by 80 and a-hundred-mile-an-hour gusts of wind, which prevented the ability to get assets into the air to fight the fire. There were chaotic evacuations and traffic backlogs. It was an absolutely terrifying situation on the ground. Overnight, the fire continued to grow. And as I was able to return to Palisades yesterday after the sun came up to get a first look at the scope and scale of the devastation, it - the scenes were absolutely apocalyptic. Most of the Palisades is gone.
MARTIN: It's just - it's devastating. So, you know, there's going to be a lot of time after this to talk about what went wrong and what could have been done differently. But for right now, the thing that seems most immediate is that some of the fire hydrants that firefighters were tapping into ran dry yesterday. Do you know why that is?
PARK: So I had heard anecdotally during the course of the fire that there were issues with the water. But it wasn't until DWP announced it during the press conference yesterday that we learned that the demand on services was four times the normal load, and that impacted the ability of our firefighters to have enough water pressure to actually fight the fire. And unfortunately, you know, fighting a wildfire with a fire engine and a fire hydrant - that's not how you do it. You know, that's - normally it would be an air assault on the fire. And because they weren't able to do that, they had no other alternative but to try to put it out by ground with the hydrants. And that is something that, you know, we learned about yesterday.
It, I think, raises more questions than answers. And it, to me, feels indicative of what has been chronic underinvestment in the city of Los Angeles and critical infrastructure, as well as our public safety resources. This particular area is in the very high fire severity zone. Many of these risks and threats are well known to the community. And so there is a lot of concern about this amongst residents, who unfortunately have now lost everything.
MARTIN: That is Los Angeles Councilwoman Traci Park. Councilwoman, thank you so much for joining us. We will all keep a good thought for you and for all the people that you're trying to take care of right now.
PARK: Thank you. Stay safe. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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