Posted on 01/09/2025 7:18:11 PM PST by Morgana
Los Angeles' water boss who makes $750,000 a year couldn't quite explain why fire hydrants have run dry during the disastrous wildfires in a bumbling video.
During a press conference Wednesday, Janisse Quiñones, the newly appointed chief executive officer and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said all water storage tanks in the Pacific Palisades area 'went dry' as flames continue to rage on.
At least seven people have been killed and almost 180,000 forced to leave their homes amid the most destructive blaze in the county's history.
Quiñones, who previously worked for PG&E prior to being appointed in May, said the third water tank ran out at about 3am local time Wednesday, after the first tank ran out around 4.45pm, and the second at approximately 8.30pm - each at about 1,000,000 gallons each.
'Those tanks help with the pressure on the fire hydrants in the hills of Palisades, and because we were pushing so much water in our trunk line, and so much water was being used before it can get to the tanks - we were not able to fill the tanks fast enough,' she explained.
'So the consumption of water was faster than we can provide water in our trunk line,' she continued, adding that there is water in the truck line, but it 'cannot get up the hill because we cannot fill the tanks fast enough.'
After someone asked her for the number of hydrants that cannot get water because of these issues, Quiñones started to stumble on her words.
'We, um, we were trying to keep water at all altitudes on the Palisades, and I think about three in the morning, that's when - uh - the hydrants went dry above the Brentwood area.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
$750,000 per annum plus perks, bonuses, stipends, expense and charge accounts, free transportation, housing allowance, Cadillac healthcare, life insurance, several pensions, all financed by taxpayers.
Asked asked why numbers of hydrants cannot get water, $750,000 per annum Quiñones stumbled on her words. 'We, um, we were trying to keep water at all altitudes on the Palisades, and I think about three in the morning, that's when - uh - the hydrants went dry above the Brentwood area.'
Exactly. I get they used a lot of water at once and it could be possible to drain down the system. However, if the reservoirs or tanks weren’t full that extra say, 40 mins of water could have easily sowed or stopped some of the destruction.
Puerto Rican born, Janisse’s mission statement.
“It’s important to me that everything we do um it’s with an equity lens and social justice and making sure that we write the wrongs that we’ve done in the past”.
lol.......
She has one job!
How about creating by neglect a situation where 10,000 houses burn down and the number of dead no one even knows.
Would that be wrong if someone were to do that?
Yeah I think that’s a little more than struggling.
More like a completely nonresponsive answer to a straightforward question.
Definitely has that face. Good catch.
yup
A real serious professional, she is.
Aerial view of destruction.
Quinones along with Mayor Karen Bass must be Recalled, Prosecuted, Or Forced To Resign
What about the report Thursday AM that the power co killed the power that ran the water pumps because they fears that the high winds would disrupt power lines and spark another fire. (Which sounded pretty damn non sensical to me.)
Makes sense: regardless of how many existing fires, any NEW fires from power lines would be used to sue the power company.
I guess L.A. / L.A. county not having burned to the ground like this before is a wrong of the past. "Great Job Jani"
The great Gildersleve would have at least been competent.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gildersleeve
Funny thing is her explanation makes some sense but she isn’t confident enough in her position to make the point. If they are using the water as it comes up the hills yes the tanks won’t fill. The real question is why there aren’t more tanks or why they aren’t bigger.
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