Fire hydrants ran dry in Pacific Palisades as a major wildfire raged

A firefighter battles the advancing Palisades Fire as it burns a structure in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Tuesday. Etienne Laurent/AP hide caption

toggle caption

Etienne Laurent/AP

Hydrants ran dry overnight Tuesday in Pacific Palisades, California, because of the enormous demand for water to battle the destructive wildfire there and low water pressure.

That wildfire and others have engulfed thousands of acres in Southern California, leaving two dead and many others injured while chasing tens of thousands from their homes and destroying countless buildings.

Janisse Quiñones, CEO of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said the fight to contain the flames has put immense strain on the system.

"We pushed the system to the extreme," she said during a Wednesday news conference. "Four times the normal demand was seen for 15 hours straight."

She is pleading with residents to conserve water. "Not just in the Palisades area, but the whole system," she said. "Because the fire department needs the water to fight the fire, and we're fighting a wildfire with an urban water system. And that is really challenging."

Quiñones says her department is working to make sure it can get water to first responders, in part by sending them water tanks and pulling water from other parts of the system.

The fires have also fed ash into the water supply, leading to a boil order notice.