In the Santa Rosa fire December 2017, the fire was hot enough to burst the pipes. Water flowed freely and uselessly in burnt out homes. I suspect this was the problem.
"Rick Caruso, the real estate developer and former L.A. mayoral candidate, hired private firefighters to save his upscale shopping center in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday night.
The question is: did he use public water for this"
I copied this from another post. I think it will answer your question
The answer is lots of hydrants used at once, plus the physics of getting water uphill with that much drain on the water pressure. This isn't unique and not down to just one rich asshole
It’s pretty clear that these are beyond design basis events for the water delivery system.
In general, we design systems for the most likely situations they will encounter out to a certain degree of unlikelihood, it’s the design basis, and the real limitation is cost for construction and keeping.
There's no design that can or should protect homes on the side of a canyon wall wedged against a forest. Many of the Palisades homes should not be rebuilt - or if they are they should include significant hardening against fires. Also the taxpayer should not foot the bill for dangerous construction.
If 3 million gallons of water isn't enough -- what is enough? And who should pay to increase the capacity? And is this even the way to manage a firestorm of this magnitude? Putting fire fighters in danger for private property? Asking the city to subsidize the cost? We have to rethink this.
So much of our infrastructure is built with the assumption of 20th Century normal, not the wacked out normal we've got coming our way. But hey, mass chaos and societal collapse is a small price to pay for 1 or 2 generations of lower taxes on the wealthy.
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The question is: did he use public water for this"
I copied this from another post. I think it will answer your question
In general, we design systems for the most likely situations they will encounter out to a certain degree of unlikelihood, it’s the design basis, and the real limitation is cost for construction and keeping.