A revised lawsuit filed Wednesday on behalf of thousands of Palisades Fire victims said new information gleaned from official records shows the city of Los Angeles and its Department of Water and Power should have been better prepared for a wildfire.
The amended complaint in Grigsby, et al. vs. City of Los Angeles includes allegations that the DWP failed to inspect a 117-million-gallon reservoir in the Palisades highlands between 2021 and 2023, allowing a tear in its cover to grow undetected, which eventually became so large the reservoir had to be drained in 2024 and was still empty when the fire ignited on Jan. 7, depriving firefighters of a key water source.
“The city’s own manual says that when a tear is discovered in its early stages, it can be repaired without draining the reservoir, and that’s what should have happened had they done their job,” said attorney Alexander “Trey” Robertson, who represents more than 3,300 plaintiffs in the case against the City.
Some of the fire hydrants ran dry during the first day of the fire, and by the second day, the Palisades’ three smaller, 1-million-gallon water supply tanks had run out and were unable to be refilled fast enough to be effective, officials have said.
The Santa Ynez reservoir was one of several alleged missteps outlined in the updated lawsuit, in which Robertson said he hopes to demonstrate that the city failed to take necessary action to protect the safety of the neighborhood, even if it’s determined some other person or event ignited the fire.
“Under California law, as long as we can prove that DWP was a contributing cause, not the sole cause, but a contributing cause to the property damage and the loss of life, we can hold them accountable,” he said.
The DWP has several weeks to respond in court to the updated complaint and said in a statement late Wednesday it was aware of the new filing.
“Our hearts remain with all who have impacted by the Palisades Fire and we are working tirelessly to rebuild and recover from this terrible tragedy,” a spokesperson emailed.
“As we have said previously, LADWP understands the enormous destruction caused by the fires and the rights of affected property owners to seek compensation for damages from insurers and responsible parties. But there is no evidence to support claims, nor does this complaint allege, that LADWP equipment played a role in starting the Palisades Fire, and we are confident that LADWP was not responsible for any of the tragic losses that the fire caused,” the statement said.
The information behind some of the expanded claims filed by the fire victims this week emerged from thousands of pages of DWP, city, and State records Robertson said he obtained through requests made under the California Public Records Act, including a log that he said showed the DWP didn’t disconnect electricity in part of the Palisades for many hours after the fire started, an assertion disputed by the DWP.
“We have transformers exploding; we have power lines slapping together and arcing, sending showers of sparks to the ground all while civilians are trying to evacuate on foot and by car,” said Robertson the series of devastating events increased the possibility energized lines ignited additional fires within the burn zone before power was disconnected.
The DWP said in response electricity to the area was shut off much earlier than is alleged in the court filing and said it specially armed the circuits in the area to remain disconnected if a short or other fault was detected in the high winds.
“Most of the allegations in the amended complaint are not new and run contrary to information and data that we have shared with the plaintiffs over the past few months,” the DWP said in the statement.
The amended complaint also alleged the drained reservoir caused water-dropping helicopters to fly farther from the firefight to reload, reducing their effectiveness, and that the city failed to follow brush clearance rules on some public property, which allegedly fueled some of the fire’s spread.
“People are so angry, and that anger hasn’t gone away over the past six months. It’s only worsened because they’re not seeing anybody held accountable, they’re not getting answers,” Robertson told NBC LA Wednesday.
He said many of his clients had their homeowners insurance policies cancelled in the months before the fire, while others were under-insured, considering the current cost of rebuilding, and said resolution of the lawsuit with a financial recovery or settlement could be their only path to being made whole.
“Nobody that lived in the Palisades expected the entire town to burn down over a three-day period and have the fire hydrants run dry, have the firefighters standing idly by saying, there’s nothing we can do to save your home, to save your business,” he said.
“This particular fire, I’ve never seen the outrage from the community as high as it is here.”