As wildfires roar into residential neighborhoods, firefighters in California and elsewhere are finding that water systems can’t keep up with the demand.

As devastating wildfires raged across Los Angeles County this week, firefighters battling the blazes encountered fire hydrants that had no water. Why it matters: The dry fire hydrants sparked political outrage and illustrated just how unprepared municipal water systems are to combat the sorts of large-scale urban wildfires that have become more frequent with climate change.

Some Los Angeles fire hydrants ran dry in recent days as demand soared for water to quell fast-moving wildfires.

Other fires, like the 2023 Maui fires and the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Northern California, have caused hydrants to go dry in the past, and it seems L.A. will need to go back to the drawing board if these kinds of wildfire-scale urban blazes become the new normal.

Fire hydrants in Los Angeles ran dry in parts of the city when firefighters needed them most, and some of the problems came from pumping water. The problems with the water pressure running dry in the hydrants,

The series of fires that started spreading on Tuesday continue to ravage southern California, leaving a trail of devastation across LA, home to Hollywood.

Martin Adams, former general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, blows up some right-wing myths about the water supply in Pacific Palisades, and talks with Alex Wagner about the realities of municipal water systems and ideas for adapting a system built for occasional residential fires to deal with a large scale,

Dry conditions across Southern California set the stage for a series of deadly wind-driven wildfires that burned thousands of homes in the Los Angeles area in early January 2025. Ming Pan, a hydrologist at the