With more fires burning across Los Angeles, residents were already on edge, and four days later have shocked millions who feel there is no end in sight.
Then, on Thursday afternoon, another shock came in the form of a text notification.
The message was mistakenly sent to every cellphone in the county of about 10 million people, warning people to prepare to evacuate as fires were approaching.
Rebecca Alvarez-Petit was on a video call when her phone started ringing.
“An evacuation warning has been issued for your area,” the text message read.
The sound echoed around her as all of her colleagues received the same surprising message.
“It was like absolute panic watching it live,” she said.
She and her colleagues began investigating and finding out if they were in imminent danger.
There was immediate relief in the form of revised warnings telling people to ignore them, but this soon gave way to renewed anger, she said.
“We’re all cornered, anxious, sitting next to our phones, looking at TV, playing the radio,” said Alvarez. “We’re trying to get as much information as possible because there’s no good system in place.” -Petit, who lives in West Los Angeles.
“And this. It’s like – you’re joking.”
The death toll from the bushfires continues to rise, with at least 10 people reportedly killed and the death toll could rise further.
For many, anxiety about saving lives and property gave way to frustration with handling the fire.
market frustration
Officials acknowledged some of the complaints, ranging from depleted hydrants hindering firefighting efforts to questions about preparedness and fire mitigation investments.
But when asked about the warning message mistake, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was largely evasive, saying she planned to visit as many affected areas as possible and talk to residents to rebuild trust.
“We are doing everything we can and we are reporting success,” she said, urging Los Angeles residents to trust their officials.
The mayor went on the defensive again when pressed more broadly on the city’s response.
“We will not allow politics to interfere, we will not allow politics to divide us,” she said.
Bass returned to the city from a pre-planned trip to Africa to discover it had caught fire. She faced intense questions Thursday about the region’s preparedness, her leadership in this crisis and the water issues where firefighters failed.
Asked about the water issue and whether the region was adequately prepared, Mayor Bath said, “Of course I’m frustrated.” She noted that this was an “unprecedented event.”
Like other officials, she stressed that strong winds could have allowed the fire to spread on Tuesday. Those same winds prevented aircraft from dropping water or fire retardants on the flames. She said the city’s water system and nearby fire hydrants were not built to handle a fire that spreads across thousands of acres.
She noted that there will be a review of how the incident unfolded and an investigation into how officials and agencies handled the incident.
“After lives have been saved and families have been saved, we will absolutely conduct an evaluation to look at what worked and what did not and to correct or hold every agency, department and individual accountable,” she said.
“My focus now is on life and family.”
water shortage question
The evolving disaster has translated into a need to understand why this happened and how it escalated into the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history.
When one of five fires currently burning in Los Angeles County approached Larry Villeskas’ home Tuesday, he grabbed the only tool he had at his disposal: a garden hose.
He and his neighbors quickly dealt with embers from the Eaton fire that landed on their home and ignited their lawn.
Then the hose dried.
He watched his neighbor’s house in Altadena catch fire. Then I heard a loud noise. A nearby house caught fire and it sounded like it was exploding. He had to leave.
As he drove away, he watched his garage catch fire.
“If we had had water pressure, we could have fought back,” Mr. Villeskas said, standing in front of the charred remains of his home.
He remembered seeing firefighters sitting in their trucks unable to help as their community burned that night.
“I remember the anger, it was like, ‘Do something,’ but they can’t do it. There’s no water pressure,” he said. “It’s just really frustrating. How can this happen?”
Some experts say the water shortage is due to unprecedented demand, not mismanagement.
“The problem is that the scope of the disaster is so large that it takes thousands of firefighters and hundreds of fire trucks to haul water,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the California Institute for Water Resources, told the BBC.
“Ultimately, there is only a limited amount of water that can flow through a pipe at any one time.”
Other neighbors shared the feeling that the state was unprepared, despite seeing destructive fires on a daily basis.
Hipolito Cisneros, who was surveying the remains of now-destroyed homes, said public facilities in the area have been in need of upgrades for years.
“We’ve lived here 26 years and I’ve never seen it tested,” he said of a fire hydrant at the end of his block that failed to draw water when it was most needed.
Down the street, Fernando Gonzalez helped his older brother sift through the remains of their home of 15 years.
He noted that his home in Santa Clarita, about 45 minutes away in Los Angeles County, is also threatened by other wildfires.
“We were just on high alert,” he said. “It’s all around us.”
