The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has fixed or replaced most of the fire hydrants flagged for repairs last year’s inspection after the LA Fire Department was delayed for long delays in transferring test results, officials confirmed this week.
According to a 2024 inspection, LAFD had contracted to inspect 66,000 fire hydrants in the city each year, but had identified at least 1,350 fire hydrants that needed repairs.
However, the department did not properly send data to DWP in August. This is a lapse that only became apparent after LAFD fired its firing when it shared test data from a year ago with KCBS-TV. DWP finally received the data on February 14th.
“Reports we received [Feb. 14] DWP CEO and Chief Engineer Janice Keignons said at a meeting of the Electric Power Committee in late February. “That’s the first time I’ve seen “repairing a need.”
Once DWP staff received a list of 1,350 fire hydrants, the utility dispatched crews from the city. As of Tuesday, the utility had dealt with 1,289 fire hydrants, according to data shared by DWP spokesman Ellen Cheng.
Of this, the utility replaced 148 fire hydrants and performed minor repairs on 805 fire hydrants. Six fire hydrants were working, but we had to turn on the water at a nearby valve, but the 186 fire hydrants didn’t need repairs despite being tagged as potentially damaged.
An additional 143 fire hydrants were privately owned to the LAFD list and fell outside the DWP range.
Firefighters suffered from low water pressure during the Palisade fire, but it is unclear whether the damaged fire hydrant played a role.
Recent weeks – After a major failure via fire hydrant inspection data, LAFD has changed how frequently it warns DWPs to damaged fixtures.
Quiñones was working with interim LAFD chief Ronnie Villanueva to say “so that there will be no such failures in the future” in the new “quality control” process.
Joe Ramallo, DWP’s Chief of Communications and Customer Service, said the fire inspector will send out a new list of fire hydrants that require repairs every 1-2 weeks, based on the results of recent inspections.
These inspections have flagged at least 300 fire hydrants that require repairs, and these are ongoing, Lamaro said.
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