Wildfires: Did low water pressure hinder the fight?

In both areas, residents and some officials were openly discussing whether the lack of water pressure complicated the already monumental task that firefighters faced.

Fire officials in Sylmar are checking to see if their department had inspected the mobile home park hydrants as required in the last year, said Craig Fry, assistant fire marshal for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said he was at the mobile home park after the fire burned through on Saturday, and firefighters told him that hydrants had stopped working and they were forced to use their water tenders instead.

"We would have had a fair shot if the pressure hadn't gone down," said Battalion Chief Fred Mathis, as he sat in his firetruck in the mobile home park Saturday.

A representative of the company that owns the park, Continental Mobile Housing, said he was busy at Oakridge and did not have time to talk.

Farther south, Ken Vecchiarelli, assistant general manager of the Yorba Linda Water District, said its hydrant system was built to fight fires involving a few houses, not a firestorm.

"This was the type of thing any system in any community was not designed for," he said.

At a packed meeting at Yorba Linda City Hall on Tuesday night, residents, many of whose homes had burned, expressed anger.

"I was told when they [firefighters] got to the top of our street, they turned back because there was no water pressure," said Diane Manista, whose house burned down in the hard-hit neighborhood of Hidden Hills.

"The fire hydrant in front of our house has a bag on it and wasn't even working. It's beyond words."

Water district officials acknowledged a lack of water pressure and were investigating the problem.

Orange County Fire Authority Batallion Chief Kris Concepcion said Manista's neighborhood did go without water in the hydrants, but firefighters were able to overcome the problem with fire tenders that carry water.

"Did it hamper firefighting? Not really," he said.

"Did additional homes burn as a result? That's hard to say."

But in the Vista Bel Aire subdivision of Yorba Linda, situated at the top of a hill against the open brush of Chino Hills State Park, several residents said that for years they have been phoning in complaints to the water district about poor pressure.

One man said he had had spent thousands of dollars to buy a pump to increase water flow from his faucets, hoses and shower heads.

And in one neighborhood that was evacuated Saturday, at least 125 homeowners have been battling low water pressure for several years, according to East Lake Village Community Assn. General Manager Susan Janowicz.

"Some people couldn't even take a shower and wash their dishes at the same time," she said.