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LA Fires Check In - Threats in our Water and Information Streams [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-01-14

The overall good news is that so far this Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) Red Flag Warning has not produced a huge uptick in fire growth or new fire creation. As I reported last evening in an update to my post LA Fires Check In NEW AUTO FIRE in Ventura Co. Most Serious Wind early Tues AM (updated late Mon nt), a new fire flared up in Ventura County last evening but was contained quickly.

The big fear since these events began a week ago has been going to bed. What will we wake up to in the morning? Several mornings there we woke up to new terrifying realities. Throughout the day and evening many small fires broke out (including one near me) and were put out. Soon their flames on the Watch Duty app/site turned grey and then disappeared. I have forgotten the names of more fires in the past week than I think I ever remembered before.

Juggling all these names and locations in one’s mind, along with all the people we know in each area, has been stressful and traumatic since we’ve lost people and people have lost so much in several of the areas.

This is a Disaster Check In site. We are concerned with sharing information helpful to our immediate survival. Please leave political discussions, which includes discussions of “what these people should have done,” for other posts. Disinformation is quickly spread through the self-certainty of safe individuals.

We are trying to help each other survive here, as well as dealing with ongoing, daily trauma, so thank you for being thoughtful. Help share resources, information, and experiences related to the immediate danger and ongoing crisis.

Thank you.

UPDATE 4:16pm

There was a fire outbreak near Dodger Stadium (just to the south of me) but it seems to have been contained.

Michael Silvester • Staff Reporter 7 minutes ago · Jan 14 at 4:10 PM The fire is being left w/ 1 brush patrol LAFD unit & Park Rangers, all other resources are in the process of being released per radio traffic. Final update unless conditions change. Watch Duty Buena Vista Fire Map event page

Resuming story:

Today I will not focus so much on the winds and the fires, but here is a recap of some information. We are under Red Flag Warnings and the danger of high winds in the mountains and canyons is still present through tomorrow at least, so the danger of new fires igniting and rapid fire growth remain.

Here is the National Weather Service site for Los Angeles where you can read more.

Here is the LA Times Live Updates page Live updates: ‘Particularly dangerous’ weather warning for L.A. fires are in effect, gusts of up to 72 mph reported. They have lifted their paywall so that’s a good page to go to for updates.

Here is the NBC News Los Angeles Live Updates site Live updates: 88,000 remain under evacuation orders in LA County fires.

Water

The Air and Fire have been after us. Dirt played a part (in the shape of the canyons and so on). And now we have Water saying, “Hold my beer.”

Contaminated drinking water is a growing concern for cities facing wildfires LOS ANGELES -- As fires continue to burn across Los Angeles, several utilities have declared their drinking water unsafe until extensive testing can prove otherwise. **** When large fires burn in towns and cities, rather than forests and grasslands, infrastructure can be heavily damaged. When drinking water systems are damaged in a fire, "we can have ash, smoke, soot, other debris and gases get sucked into the water piping network," said Andrew Whelton, a Purdue University engineering professor who researches water contamination in communities hit by fire. **** Toxic chemicals in drinking water after a fire pose risks ranging from temporary nausea to cancer, experts say. "In Paradise (California), there were benzene levels high enough to acutely give a child a blood disorder" said Dr. Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, referring to the 2018 Camp Fire that burned most of the city. Even very low levels of some chemicals can be a concern. In California, state regulators say only one part per billion of benzene - a known carcinogen - is considered a safe level in drinking water, calculating for 70 years of exposure. The national recommendation is no more than five parts per billion. ABC News Los Angeles

There is more information at that article, including how chemicals get into the water and a little about what comes next.

Besame brought this article from Wired to my attention.

The Los Angeles Wildfires Have Created Another Problem—Unsafe Drinking Water Melted plastic pipes and drastic water-pressure drops are potentially leaching toxic chemicals and contaminants into local supplies. Multiple water authorities in north Los Angeles have issued Do Not Drink notices. **** Initially, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) issued a “boil water” advisory on Wednesday January 8 that allowed residents in fire-affected and fire-adjacent areas to drink water after boiling it. By Friday, however, it was upgraded to a “Do Not Drink” alert. While boiling water kills viruses and bacteria, it will not protect against common chemical contaminants often introduced during wildfires, says Daniel McCurry, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southern California. **** According to the City of Pasadena, where the Eaton Fire is burning, you should not try to treat the water yourself. “Boiling, freezing, filtering, adding chlorine or other disinfectants, or letting water stand will not make the water safe to drink,” reads the alert. The advisory also warns residents not only to avoid drinking the water, but to limit hot water activities such as bathing, dishwashing, and laundry, which can release chemicals into the air. Wired

That’s an informative article. It also describes the problems of depressurization, which we are familiar with being a problem for the firefighters last week but also can lead to safety problems.

Depressurization, the other big contributor to contamination, occurs when firefighting efforts draw massive amounts of water from the system in a short period. “A water line that connects to a house can generally put out about 9 gallons per minute,” says Whelton.“Firefighters can draw 500 gallons or up to 1,500 gallons of water per minute. So if you were to run five or six pumper trucks off of a water line, you’re looking at thousands of gallons of water being extracted from the water system in a very short period.” When that happens, water pressure plummets, and the system becomes vulnerable to bacteria or chemicals entering the system from the surrounding environment. Usually, the high pressure of the water inside the system prevents any outside contaminants—such as soil or groundwater—from being able to find their way inside the system’s components. (From Wired, link in above quote)

In previous posts about these fires I mentioned accessibility issues that impact people with disabilities differently. I am disabled with mobility issues but also hand mobility issues which dictate what devices I’m able to use. Consequently, the systems are not set up to allow us all to get notices and so on. With that in mind:

It’s vital for residents to stay informed about recovery efforts, because alert systems can be complicated, and many residents may not even receive them, says Kearns. People should “proactively seek out any boil or Do Not Drink water alerts from your water provider, your city, your county,” she advises. “Share those with your neighbors and make sure any folks who might have languages other than English as a first language get those alerts and understand what’s happening.” (Also from Wired article, link above)

Please also share those articles or mine with people throughout LA. It’s so difficult to think about all the threats in this ongoing situation.

Resources

I’m exhausted. In the various posts below I included many resources.

Today I’m adding:

Per Besame above: “N95 masks are available for the public at all LAPL locations while supplies last. Visit http://lapl.org/branches for hours and updates.

Other Reading

If you haven’t already, you may wish to visit my earlier posts LA Fires Check In NEW AUTO FIRE in Ventura Co. Most Serious Wind early Tues AM (updated late Mon nt) from yesterday, LA Fires Check In - FEMA Locations Mandeville Canyon/Palisades Fire update and Wind Forecast from Sunday, and LA Fires Check In, Resource Sharing (Between the Storms), and a bit about Altadena (w/updates) from Friday. There is information there (in these posts and comments) that may be helpful and informative, including links about FEMA locations, donation locations, and so on.

I also wrote about the California Insurance Commission’s moratorium on dropping coverage in impacted areas at One Year Moratorium set by Cal Insurance Commissioner (protecting homeowners who lost homes to fire).

Also, on Thursday I wrote about my experience trying to figure out whether fires had actually advanced based on a fake/AI photo shared here at DK and left up for many hours at Please don't share AI/fake photos of LA icon sites burning (we're trying to survive here).

I hope everyone will read this. I wrote it to provide a meaningful example of the immediate harm and threat to survival spreading misinformation via AI/fake photos here.

UPDATE: And here is a Google Doc with resources.

Please let me know if any of these links do not work.

Please be thoughtful and avoid spreading Mis/Disinformation

This is a Disaster Check In post specifically for those of us trying to survive.

Please, if possible, try to keep politics out of this blog. This includes any comments about what people “should” do and other second guessing.

There are overt disinformation campaigns going on at the local and national level from Republicans. We have this disinformation invading our local neighborhood chats. It’s awful.

In addition, some people here at DK are also blowing in the wind a bit, some sharing and repeating various Caruso-driven talking points designed to vaguely criticize Democratic leaders and all of us who attempt to subscribe to reality-based discussions.

Some of the comments I’ve seen, very judgmental, were also debunked by the LA Times and Mother Jones articles I shared in yesterday’s post. I’m not going to get into arguments of this nature because it isn’t helpful.

I would just hope that people who are so self-certain about things would read a bit more, you know? We have scientists. We have experts.

Please, if possible, try to regard this post as an information sharing post for those of us trying to survive.

Thank you.

Final request

My internet may go down today so I may be out of touch.

Please be safe. Please share information that can be helpful to our survival in the coming days.

Also, if anyone finds these posts useful, I would appreciate if you would share my latest LA Fires Check In post in any open post threads.

And please feel free to add tags that you deem appropriate to this and my other posts.

Thank you and be safe.

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