Yeah, not the video I wanted to make. Honestly debating taking it down. It's not what this channel is about, and not something I particularly want to be involved in. I'm just a guy that flies his airplane around to land in cool places so I can share them with other people that want to see those cool places. Too much these days involves politics, and that's just not me.
I can understand your predicament. We make our videos for interest and entertainment and you just happened to film the area. In the video you pointed out that you were not making a political point simply sharing some content. Living here in the UK it is always good to see how different the landscapes compare and as such you always do exactly that!
@@AdventureAK Thank you for putting this out. It’s the right thing. In response to you not wanting to get involved in politics-Bad things happen when good men do nothing, so thank you! You did your part. God Bless!
The head of LA Water and Power gets paid $750,000 a year and that empty reservoir should have had 117 million gallons of water in it. And fewer people would have lost their lives. Unforgivable.
@@sprezzatura8755 Trump is probably the last person in the world you would ask about fire fighting. His Trump Tower in NYC was built without sprinklers in the residential areas, and a person died two floors below his living quarters in a fire.
If it's not clear to you by now, let me make it clearer - it was a setup. They wanted to start these fires deliberately. This event has ties to what is going on in the Diddy case. The public can't remain oblivious any longer to what is being planned, the media cannot be easily able to pull the wool over so many any longer
Thanks, it's been a few years since I've been down in the area flying around. Last time I went by it I swear it was full, but it's been probably 10 years since I've flown that route.
1961 Bel Air fire 1993 Laguna Beach Fire 2024 LaHaina Fire 2024 North Carolina Hurricane (sorry, caused by democrats seeding clouds, right?) 2025 LA Fire Sometime, its not mismanagement, its just nature. The mismanagement came when people started building in these zones
Jenisse Quinones The woman who was in charge of the reservoir and hydrants. Was also The second top executive at PG&E during the largest and scandalous Dixie fire in California history. She was hired by Karen bass in May of 24. At the same time, State farm was dropping fire insurance from homeowners in those areas. It's more than a coincidence I believe
Hard to keep up with all the government officials moving their people around after these disasters. Couldn't believe that the former Las Vegas Chief of Police was Maui's Police Chief 🤔
Between this comment and one about 100+ fire trucks waiting to be repaired, for over a year, I also suspect this was surreptitious planning by nefarious characters. PG&E, on its own, is bad news, but if you add in city planners or others who can be bought off, made to focus on other projects, etc. Yikes. I hope the Palisades ppl are able to find some transparency, that, sadly, the Lahaina residents weren't able to find.
Thank you. I really appreciate the positivity. Reading the comments has been a bit of a rollercoaster for me. I'm just out here to make cool flying videos. Thanks for taking the time to watch and send some positive vibes my way. I appreciate you.
Grew up spending so much time with friends who live/lived in palisades. After moving out of state it was my home away from home. The devastation is insane!
What does POITICS have to do with it!! NEGLIGENCE IS NEGLIGENCE!!! THE NERVE!!! I hope the responsible are held accountable and good on you for sharing this!!! Be well out there!!
I hear ya. I also heard about how all of this was planned to make another land grab without paying for it. Just like in Maui! People still believe the government is here to help us?! NOPE. Just to control and manipulate regardless of what side of the fence they are on. THE BIG BUCKS are what make the difference. This is why we need to abandon this fake mob rule and come up with a better plan. To keep things like this from happening.
I’m a student pilot out of KSMO in nearby Santa Monica. I got to fly over the burn area (had to stay out of TFR) w/ my instructor on Tuesday. It was insane to see the level of devastation. Thanks so much for your video.
@@AdventureAK I went 2 days after it was extinguished on a clear day, but yep it was extremely smoky last week due to multiple fires in LA county. That coupled with so many firefighting aircraft in the area is why hardly anybody was flying GA during those days.
You can remain non-political, I on the other hand will not. This is a blatant failure of the Governor, Mayor and the Fire Chief. The Fire Chief says it isn't her responsibility to know if there's water in the reservoir. FAIL. The Mayor was too busy partying in Africa to stick around even after she was warned of the high potential for fire due to the Santa Ana winds. FAIL. And the Governor has allowed brush and kindling to build up so bad it was just a matter of time and opportunity. And having no water in the reservoir available is criminal. FAIL. California needs to ditch their Woke agenda and get their heads out of their asses before the entire state becomes a third world wasteland.
The people behind this entire catastrophe want nothing more than for you to blame their cardboard cutout puppet actors instead of questioning the actual cause and nature of this firestorm that burned most of these structures from the inside out. Yes, you read that last part correctly.
Thank you. I appreciate you. Reading the comments has been a bit of a rollercoaster for me. I've seriously considered pulling the video due to the insane amount of negativity. I'm just out here trying to make cool aviation videos, guess I kinda accidentally opened pandoras box on this one.
@@DRventura333 domestic water supply/pressure was never intended for 300 fire engines pumping 400-1000 gallons a minute. 30 fire engines Will tax that system. In my area. In your area. No water system can handle that many fire engines. The engines close to the supply tank will get water. Everyone else is sucking air. 1961 Bel Air. 1970 Laguna Mountain. 1993 Laguna Beach. 2023 Hawaii.
@bwro66 117,000,000 gallons of water which directly fed the Palisades sure would have helped with the supply + pressure. Naive to claim otherwise. This was deliberate.
@ disinformation to say that. But I expect nothing less from the racist in you. They didn’t run out of water supply. They ran out of flow. There is only so much water a 10” main can deliver. It doesn’t matter if there is 2 mil or 90 mil gallons. Only so much water can fit. Go back to hydraulics 101. When 100 fire engines draw on that water built for 50 engines… 50 will go without or, they all get half of what they are hoping for. Go help somewhere else prick.
@ and just think, if a city ONLY HAD ONE tank/reservoir, then they could NEVER do maintenance on it for fear the city would not have ANY way to drink or fight fires. It’s a redundant system. It’s what responsibility is. Having back ups and redundancy.
Two separate cities 10 miles east of altadena Azusa CA and glendora CA currently also have empty reservoirs. Something tells me these fires aren't over
@@Omar-n6p2u those reservoirs aren’t the only domestic supply for those cities. A city can not have a single source of water. That source is used for drinking and fire suppression. They have water somewhere other than your empty reservoir. Be part of the solution. Not the racist problem.
@ you will STILL run out of water at the hydrant. For the hydrants to “catch-up”, you have to shut down nozzles. And very few nozzles were doing ANY interior attack. No one is going to put firefighters inside a house fire during a fire like this. The goal is to get people out of the way. And use your deck gun (1000 gpm) to try to stop fires from spreading to more structures. These fires we can’t train for. Interior firefighting we can use concrete buildings and build actual fires. We train on these type of interior attack fires. Wind and topography driven fires is all theory. We don’t get to practice with these.
@ it would help? But you’ll still un out of water at the hydrant. The system is not built for a fire like this. It’s like fire sprinklers in a warehouse type building. Look at Lowe’s or Home Depot. The system is not built for ALL the sprinklers to open and flow at once. Most fires are put out with less than 5 sprinklers. The system built for about times that amount. Anything more, the system is gonna struggle. The sprinklers might dribble. And not spray. You know about that right? Same principle. Water is there. But not enough pressure to reach opening at hydrant.
KUDOS TO YOU, SIR! Excellent presentation, too - very simple & w/o opinion or controversey - just you sharing because you are the only one who can & it's just the dang right thing to do!
I used to live in Santa Monica back in the mid eighties. Everyone who knows the area knows exactly what went on and how the ball was dropped. That was great footage you posted and vibration free which is so hard to get on wing mounted cameras. Thanks for sharing. 😃👍
I searched and searched for your video because it came up on my feed and I couldn’t find it. I went onto Firefox couldn’t find it because I remember the word somewhere anyway I’m glad it popped up again. This is absolutely unbelievable please secure that SD card make backups of this because this is so vital important. Totally amazing all the lies oh my goodness. It would not surprise me if somebody tried to take this down, and I won’t mention any names because of the algorithms
Interesting video and excellent coverage of the reservoir. I also like that you pointed out that neither the Santa Ana winds or wildfire are new phenomenon in this area. My wife grew up in nearby Ventura and she has often told me about the Santa Ana winds this time of the year and the wildfires she remembers as a kid 50 years ago. In fact, it was around 20 years ago that her parent's retirement home in Ojai was "bombed" with Phos-Chek to protect it and nearby homes from a wildfire then. Fortunately the fire didn't get that close to their home, so the only damage they needed to recover from was getting the crusty pink stuff removed from their house and car, which wound up requiring replacement of the roof and repainting the car. They agree that this was but a minor inconvenience compared to what could have happened. Their insurance paid for most of the work.
I am from the Palisades. The 117 Million gallon reservoir was empty. 17 Million dollar budget cut last year to the LAPD and 40 fire trucks sitting in a lot needing repairs are a total lack of accountability from the Governor and Mayor.
Your images in motion help me put in perspective how much water the reservoir contains. I imagine a bathtub in every home compared to the visible size of each home in the video. Each one is just a drop in that reservoir. Obviously a bathtub amount of water isn't enough to douse a house fire, but each bathtub amount is certainly enough to put out many small starts and aid in the overall spread. If full, it may have had a significant impact on how devastating the fire could have been.
Thanks so much for posting this, I have shared with a few friends. I too grew up in SoCal, specifically the San Fernando Valley, and remember the Santa Ana winds being hot, and arriving in the Autumn, definitely not January and not cold air. The American writer and journalist, Joan Didion wrote a poem about the winds in 1969, titled The Santa Ana's, interesting read after this horrific incident.
Palisades reservoir was empty because there was a tear in the cover that protected the water, as that water is also used for domestic use. They had taken a year and still the cover was not repaired!
Thank you for doing this, it’s a public service. I just found you recently but I was wondering how this played out for you. As a TH-camr myself I was hoping that you had some delay and got out before. It boggles the mind how they could drop the ball like that. I’m close enough to the many NorCal fires to see the results first hand and know it’s no joke.
I'm going to be honest, I really didn't want to post this. I don't enjoy this kind of content, and I don't want to get involved in the politics of it. I'm just a pilot that wants to fly his aircraft around to cool places and show what I see. There's already been a lot of negativity pointed toward me for showcasing this, which isn't what this channel is about, and seriously makes me regret posting it.
@@AdventureAK I’m sorry that’s the case. To me it was just footage that you happened to capture that verified a situation after the fact. All you did is make the information available to the public. You didn’t try to offer an opinion, change anyone’s mind, or promote yourself. I don’t see any reason to throw shade.
I appreciate that. We'll see if I keep it up. The comments are getting overly political, which distracts from the other content that I do love to make. I'm really torn here.
You can also see it on Google Earth, and you can use the time feature to see its been empty for a while (06/2009). You can also see it looks to not be operational after the 2009 pic? It looks like they removed some parts of it.
First time I've viewed your channel, thanks for sharing this. P.S. I learned to fly in a Cessna 140 up in Lincoln LHM! So that was very cool to see your plane lots of memories came from this!
Thank you so much. I really appreciate the positivity. This isn't what I normally cover on this channel, so I'm not use to the amount of negativity flowing from my videos. Seriously, thank you for taking the time to watch and post. I appreciate you.
@@AdventureAK You are empowering people by sharing not merely your opinion, but factual information. Your willingness and courageousness to share is a service and inspiration to your fellow countrymen. Thank YOU sir.
Sadly people have been in command of all these important issues that were promoted on the wave of identity politics that’s been fashionable for to long already , But this time thousands of lives have been impacted ,
FAILURE in a dam? That is what they told you. And you believed them? No Evacuations or alerts were sent out in NC, even though it been raining days prior to the storm passing by. If the dams had been opened days prior to the storm, people might have been aware of possible flooding.
The Head of LADWP Janisse Quinones made that decision. She was hired to that position last year in May. And one of her first projects was to empty that reservoir for "maintenance" at the worst possible time. Btw she left as Head of PG&E to start this position. PG&E is the largest publicly traded power utility company that was found responsible for the Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise CA. Prior to this, that was the largest fire in CA history.
I noticed this too. Although supposedly there is a cover, which may or may not account for this. Also, I just noticed today that if you go to the time feature there is updated satellite imagery post fire. It is not the default you have to scroll forward in time.
It's really good that you did this, my first look ever at your channel, liked it, liked you, you seem very genuine which is refreshing... please turn that music down.. a notch or two... so we don't get distracted by it and can hear all wat you say😊
Thank you. Seriously. I appreciate it. Lots of negativity being thrown my way for this video, I appreciate the positivity. I'll bring the volume down on the music, still figuring out this whole youtube thing. Thanks for watching.
This is also not political: the max pop of CA was estimated to be approximately 25 million based on water. We’ve said that for decades. Between exceeding that and altered fire prep funding, the state had been at risk year after year. LA is a desert. Period. And winds have always been an issue. Mix human encroachment, lack of water, diminished preparedness, and actually typical weather and you have this debacle. Year after year.
LA is not a desert technically it's coastal chaparral. The elephant in the room has nothing to do with water, DEI Bs, politics, population or the climate......it is that people continue to build their homes with wood frame construction. In areas where homes have been built with steel frame construction and concrete block...guess what? They don't burn.
1961 Bel Air fire 1993 Laguna Beach Fire 2024 LaHaina Fire 2024 North Carolina Hurricane (sorry, caused by democrats seeding clouds, right?) 2025 LA Fire Sometime, its not mismanagement, its just nature. The mismanagement came when people started building in the zones
This past year was an El Nino year. Less rain for the West Coast. Usually, wet winter La Ninas and El Ninos alternate years. But the three prior years/winters were La Ninas. A triple dip La Nina system bringing 3 rainier winters. The brush grew heavily. Newsom and the recent idea to not do controlled burns and manage all of the accumulated fuel has led these horrible fires!
The rainfall has been higher all along the west coast of the US. It's just that in SoCal, we have droughts every summer to dry out the brush. I've lived here since 1964.
LADWP drained it for maintenance, supposedly a liner leak. Outstanding foresight of management to drain it during the Santa Ana wind season. You can also see the absolute lack of defensible clearance on the majority of the properties in the video. Also, LAFD has over 100 pieces of equipment parked and unusable. Seems they have a shortage of mechanics. I assume their DEI policies preclude hiring more male mechanics and females for the job are scarce.
Your low effort opinion is not equally valid compared to that of the DWP management my little axe grinder. But sure, have it your way; it would be much better to drain it for repair during the non-Santa Ana months of June through August, when it regularly gets hotter than 100 degrees and water usage in Los Angeles is three times as high, and despite what he claims in the video contain the actual "prime fire season" months in SoCal.
@@modsurgeon Then, explain why the news media claims it was filled. Why the lie? Why didn't they just say "emptied for repairs?" if that was the truth? Well, I'll just give you my 'low level opinion'... because as regards this horrific event, they're hiding something much, much bigger than an emptied reservoir. Period.
1961 Bel Air fire 1993 Laguna Beach Fire 2024 LaHaina Fire 2024 North Carolina Hurricane (sorry, caused by democrats seeding clouds, right?) 2025 LA Fire Sometime, its not mismanagement, its just nature. The mismanagement came when people started building in these zones. You spouting off about the DEI crap makes you seem a little racist. OK, alot
My understanding is this reservoir had been empty for a year. Pretty blatent misinformation from my perspective, this begs the question of what else have regulators and authorities been lying about?
That has nothing to do with the reservoirs being empty and not managing the forests + underbrush properly. There is plenty of publicly owned water the Gov't refuses to capture.
According to the L.A. Times, the 117 million gallon reservoir, has been empty since March 2024. There is a $130,000 contract that has been let, but no repair has commenced. Now that tens of billions worth of real estate and many lives have been lost, I'll bet they expedite that project timeline. Oh, it would not have made a difference, they say.
That was the Santa Ynez reservoir. It was dry because maintenance was being done to insure drinking quality. Had it been full, the outcome would not have differed. The parched chaparral combined with the strong Santa Ana winds made it virtually impossible to stop. The water tanks that service the area were full, but the sudden surge in demand depleted the water level which reduced water pressure - the demand overwhelmed the pumps trying to replenish the water tank levels. Adding to the problem was people not shutting off water to their homes when they evacuated - as the homes burned to the ground water pipes were exposed and ruptured adding to lost water. Doubling or even tripling the number of fire fighting personnel and equipment would not have altered the outcome. As long as people”e continue to build and live in these fire corridors history will continue to repeat itself, no matter who is in charge. Look at the history of fires here going back to 1955.
wow, I can feel a BIG netflix show thats going to expose this fire and what made it worse, just like the bad Paradise Camp Fire doco. And that area never recovered, just empty blocks of land everywhere now. I shared this video with my big network of friends but I bet the 'system' does everything it can to suppress whats exposed here
@@Plutogalaxy Exactly, proved my point. 15000 houses were destroyed. 7 years since that fire and the area is struggling to recover. It's scared for life.
Why hasn't Lahaina, Hawaii been rebuilt yet? Hurricane Helene survivors are still living in tents! More privatization, less social safety net. This is what demolished our middle class these past 50 years.
Good on you for providing this footage. Newsome needs to resign and be investigated for criminal charges. I am a lifelong California resident, we all know fires and Santa Anna winds come every year. No surprise. I also suggest reading: The Ecology of Fear, written by Mikes Davis in 1998. There is a particular chapter that is very revealing.
From the air, the houses near the reservoir, looks like an area that should never have houses. There looks like no sufficient escape route during a fire.
Key element in your video at 3:47. Makes me question why build in such a venerable location? Not only due to the Santa Winds but also topography and foliage. Should the area be rebuilt?
1961 Bel Air fire 1993 Laguna Beach Fire 2024 LaHaina Fire 2024 North Carolina Hurricane (sorry, caused by democrats seeding clouds, right?) 2025 LA Fire Sometime, its not mismanagement, its just nature. The mismanagement came when people started building in these zones
Prescribed burns can easily start a fire. They probably were concerned without rain for 8 months it was dangerous to light any prescribed burns. I was near one that got out of control once.
Coming across your channel for the first time. Thank you you for your work. You did a great job documenting the terrain before the fire. The public service you provided to victims of the fires is astronomical! Thank you for your public service. 🙏 To anyone giving you a hard time for showing the facts, they can kiss off!
California keeps talking about this is the results of global warming. Say that's true. Why hasn't Cal. made changes on how they fight fires or prevent them. Newsom and others need to be held accountable.
My thoughts exactly. Their own excuses don't make sense and work against them because they keep saying it was predictable but yet they weren't prepared.
Not knowing much about this reservoir, is there a feeder pipe into it from somewhere? Where does the water come from to feed the reservoir? And was it low because of the lack of rain this year?
Rather than one 9-acre reservoir with a floating, removable, cover; they should make three, 3-acre, compartments of the reservoir; with one or more permanent covers; and rotate maintenance; always keeping two-thirds filled. If they cannot keep the reservoir operating as 'potable' water they should declare it 'non-potable' water.
Come to find out, several others in LA are also empty. The Rancho Palos Verdes reservoir is empty & out of service. They spend $40 million just 5-6 years ago to refurbish and fill it. Shortly after, they emptied it. Someone should look into the money being wasted!
Newsom and his type should not be only sacked, but also rot in prison for the rest of their days! Such negligence, so many people dead, so many homes gone and so many's lives ruined. Unthinkable!
Probably ran of $$ to fix the liner or cover to allocating it to other needs such as hotels/motels, food, phones, close, cash, etc for the sanctuary city “new” illegal residents. Same with over 100 fire vehicles needing repairs as I heard their maintenance contract was cancelled because the $$$ was needed elsewhere. What a way to run a city…
@ From North Pole here my sister has been in Anchorage sense 1992…. Miss the Alaska way. Hey thanks for your time, really. Love you matching white walls to the blue on you craft!
Not in California but I have heard who different things from elected officials in that area. They said they had water and then backtrack and said oh well we have to empty it for repairs. But wasn’t there record snowfall and rain. Just trying to picture if they drain it. What do they do with the water. And if that reservoir is empty, they don’t have any water to fight fires? And I know you don’t want to get political about it but it’s a very questionable. Some reports are suggesting powerlines may have caused the first fire. Some people say they were huge budget cuts, and the elected officials say no we only cut 2%. Either way, really hoping praying for those affected.
Interesting video Brett. Sad to see all the news reports but good to hear that you are safe.
Yeah, not the video I wanted to make. Honestly debating taking it down. It's not what this channel is about, and not something I particularly want to be involved in. I'm just a guy that flies his airplane around to land in cool places so I can share them with other people that want to see those cool places. Too much these days involves politics, and that's just not me.
I can understand your predicament. We make our videos for interest and entertainment and you just happened to film the area. In the video you pointed out that you were not making a political point simply sharing some content. Living here in the UK it is always good to see how different the landscapes compare and as such you always do exactly that!
@@AdventureAK Thank you for putting this out. It’s the right thing. In response to you not wanting to get involved in politics-Bad things happen when good men do nothing, so thank you! You did your part. God Bless!
@@AdventureAKfacts need to be shared!
Governments that lie need to be replaced and prosecuted fully.
Could use your footage in court just to confirm the level of negligence isn’t fiction , well done mate
The head of LA Water and Power gets paid $750,000 a year and that empty reservoir should have had 117 million gallons of water in it. And fewer people would have lost their lives. Unforgivable.
What the heck does the head of LA water do all day? Selfies??
@bonnie3232 my question as well! Trump is coming on Friday, I'm hoping he gives them a what fer.
@@sprezzatura8755 Trump is probably the last person in the world you would ask about fire fighting. His Trump Tower in NYC was built without sprinklers in the residential areas, and a person died two floors below his living quarters in a fire.
And to put that in perspective, that is $62,500 per MONTH of pay!
Trump hater?@@howardj602
No not neglegence. Criminal abandonment of duty of care !!!!!!
They should be made to pay their salaries back. A pack of self-obsessed amateurs.
If it's not clear to you by now, let me make it clearer - it was a setup. They wanted to start these fires deliberately. This event has ties to what is going on in the Diddy case. The public can't remain oblivious any longer to what is being planned, the media cannot be easily able to pull the wool over so many any longer
Then what about the home owners? Very few did anything to fireproof their houses, despite living in a wildfire-prone area.
@@pauloconnor7951 word salad bro.
The reservoir has been empty for almost a year.
Thanks, it's been a few years since I've been down in the area flying around. Last time I went by it I swear it was full, but it's been probably 10 years since I've flown that route.
1961 Bel Air fire
1993 Laguna Beach Fire
2024 LaHaina Fire
2024 North Carolina Hurricane (sorry, caused by democrats seeding clouds, right?)
2025 LA Fire
Sometime, its not mismanagement, its just nature.
The mismanagement came when people started building in these zones
I hear a " couple" own a great portion of the water. Talk about beyond evil
@@souzanemayes5670 I "hear" -- come on man- don't repeat BS
Google earth has a thing called "historical data"... the last picture of the dam having water is 2009.. check it out yourself
You have a very valuable video of great historical value!
Jenisse Quinones The woman who was in charge of the reservoir and hydrants. Was also The second top executive at PG&E during the largest and scandalous Dixie fire in California history. She was hired by Karen bass in May of 24. At the same time, State farm was dropping fire insurance from homeowners in those areas. It's more than a coincidence I believe
Hard to keep up with all the government officials moving their people around after these disasters. Couldn't believe that the former Las Vegas Chief of Police was Maui's Police Chief 🤔
Between this comment and one about 100+ fire trucks waiting to be repaired, for over a year, I also suspect this was surreptitious planning by nefarious characters. PG&E, on its own, is bad news, but if you add in city planners or others who can be bought off, made to focus on other projects, etc. Yikes. I hope the Palisades ppl are able to find some transparency, that, sadly, the Lahaina residents weren't able to find.
@@VagaBond-m6wgood luck with that!
Your a hero brother for truth sakes, let’s hope TH-cam doesn’t take it down, it definitely does not violate any platform rules 👍
Thank you. I really appreciate the positivity. Reading the comments has been a bit of a rollercoaster for me. I'm just out here to make cool flying videos. Thanks for taking the time to watch and send some positive vibes my way. I appreciate you.
You earned your halo!
Grew up spending so much time with friends who live/lived in palisades. After moving out of state it was my home away from home. The devastation is insane!
What does POITICS have to do with it!! NEGLIGENCE IS NEGLIGENCE!!! THE NERVE!!! I hope the responsible are held accountable and good on you for sharing this!!! Be well out there!!
It’s because it’s all on the dems
Great coverage of insight into the LA fire situation, this deserves a boost!
For the record, this man is not suicidal.
I hear ya. I also heard about how all of this was planned to make another land grab without paying for it. Just like in Maui! People still believe the government is here to help us?! NOPE. Just to control and manipulate regardless of what side of the fence they are on. THE BIG BUCKS are what make the difference. This is why we need to abandon this fake mob rule and come up with a better plan. To keep things like this from happening.
I’m a student pilot out of KSMO in nearby Santa Monica. I got to fly over the burn area (had to stay out of TFR) w/ my instructor on Tuesday. It was insane to see the level of devastation. Thanks so much for your video.
Whoa, that would’ve been an interesting flight. Has it really impacted the conditions down there with the smoke?
@@AdventureAK I went 2 days after it was extinguished on a clear day, but yep it was extremely smoky last week due to multiple fires in LA county. That coupled with so many firefighting aircraft in the area is why hardly anybody was flying GA during those days.
Good catch of the dry reservoir.
As a skateboarder I can confirm that the pool is empty
You can remain non-political, I on the other hand will not. This is a blatant failure of the Governor, Mayor and the Fire Chief. The Fire Chief says it isn't her responsibility to know if there's water in the reservoir. FAIL. The Mayor was too busy partying in Africa to stick around even after she was warned of the high potential for fire due to the Santa Ana winds. FAIL. And the Governor has allowed brush and kindling to build up so bad it was just a matter of time and opportunity. And having no water in the reservoir available is criminal. FAIL. California needs to ditch their Woke agenda and get their heads out of their asses before the entire state becomes a third world wasteland.
The people behind this entire catastrophe want nothing more than for you to blame their cardboard cutout puppet actors instead of questioning the actual cause and nature of this firestorm that burned most of these structures from the inside out. Yes, you read that last part correctly.
Water is an essential fire fighting tool....
@@marklnzAIN'T IT JUST AIN'T IT..... you said a mouthful 😮
you do understand that this is agenda 2030 that they are executing, don't you? this was NOT negligence but a PLAN
@@marklnz It's a comment section and yes, a lot of people should have their keyboards taken away.
I'm glad you and your family are safe. Good observation on the reservoir. It's a major point of contention during this whole debacle...
Thank you. I appreciate you. Reading the comments has been a bit of a rollercoaster for me. I've seriously considered pulling the video due to the insane amount of negativity. I'm just out here trying to make cool aviation videos, guess I kinda accidentally opened pandoras box on this one.
Confirmed, as the residents and firefighters had been saying from the onset, "there was no water" "coming from the fire hydrants."
@@DRventura333 domestic water supply/pressure was never intended for 300 fire engines pumping 400-1000 gallons a minute. 30 fire engines Will tax that system. In my area. In your area. No water system can handle that many fire engines. The engines close to the supply tank will get water. Everyone else is sucking air. 1961 Bel Air. 1970 Laguna Mountain. 1993 Laguna Beach. 2023 Hawaii.
Thankyou @bwro66
@bwro66 117,000,000 gallons of water which directly fed the Palisades sure would have helped with the supply + pressure. Naive to claim otherwise. This was deliberate.
@ disinformation to say that. But I expect nothing less from the racist in you. They didn’t run out of water supply. They ran out of flow. There is only so much water a 10” main can deliver. It doesn’t matter if there is 2 mil or 90 mil gallons. Only so much water can fit. Go back to hydraulics 101. When 100 fire engines draw on that water built for 50 engines… 50 will go without or, they all get half of what they are hoping for. Go help somewhere else prick.
@ and just think, if a city ONLY HAD ONE tank/reservoir, then they could NEVER do maintenance on it for fear the city would not have ANY way to drink or fight fires. It’s a redundant system. It’s what responsibility is. Having back ups and redundancy.
Two separate cities 10 miles east of altadena Azusa CA and glendora CA currently also have empty reservoirs. Something tells me these fires aren't over
@@Omar-n6p2u those reservoirs aren’t the only domestic supply for those cities. A city can not have a single source of water. That source is used for drinking and fire suppression. They have water somewhere other than your empty reservoir. Be part of the solution. Not the racist problem.
@bwro66 so if a fire broke out it wouldn't help to have those reservoirs full?
@ you will STILL run out of water at the hydrant. For the hydrants to “catch-up”, you have to shut down nozzles. And very few nozzles were doing ANY interior attack. No one is going to put firefighters inside a house fire during a fire like this. The goal is to get people out of the way. And use your deck gun (1000 gpm) to try to stop fires from spreading to more structures. These fires we can’t train for. Interior firefighting we can use concrete buildings and build actual fires. We train on these type of interior attack fires. Wind and topography driven fires is all theory. We don’t get to practice with these.
@bwro66 so then why is everyone complaining about the reservoirs being empty for the Palisades and Eaton fires?
@ it would help? But you’ll still un out of water at the hydrant. The system is not built for a fire like this. It’s like fire sprinklers in a warehouse type building. Look at Lowe’s or Home Depot. The system is not built for ALL the sprinklers to open and flow at once. Most fires are put out with less than 5 sprinklers. The system built for about times that amount. Anything more, the system is gonna struggle. The sprinklers might dribble. And not spray. You know about that right? Same principle. Water is there. But not enough pressure to reach opening at hydrant.
KUDOS TO YOU, SIR! Excellent presentation, too - very simple & w/o opinion or controversey - just you sharing because you are the only one who can & it's just the dang right thing to do!
Interestingly there was no water in the Eaton reservoir either. And there has been no water in the Palos Verdes reservoir for about 9 years already.
Wow. Are there any footages from the air?
@@alesh2275 Google Earth?
Not true. It has been empty for about ten months.
@@JamesMcGillis Daily Breeze keeps writing on this since 2015. I commute in the area.
@@JamesMcGillis Based your answers on this channel, your goal is covering up for blue by disinformation.
I used to live in Santa Monica back in the mid eighties. Everyone who knows the area knows exactly what went on and how the ball was dropped. That was great footage you posted and vibration free which is so hard to get on wing mounted cameras. Thanks for sharing. 😃👍
Thank you for sharing your video.
Thanks for sharing 🙏
My thoughts and prayers for all affected by these fires.
Blessings from Georgia USA 🪶✨
Good looking out for your neighbors, brother. Thank you!
I searched and searched for your video because it came up on my feed and I couldn’t find it. I went onto Firefox couldn’t find it because I remember the word somewhere anyway I’m glad it popped up again.
This is absolutely unbelievable please secure that SD card make backups of this because this is so vital important.
Totally amazing all the lies oh my goodness.
It would not surprise me if somebody tried to take this down, and I won’t mention any names because of the algorithms
Interesting video and excellent coverage of the reservoir. I also like that you pointed out that neither the Santa Ana winds or wildfire are new phenomenon in this area. My wife grew up in nearby Ventura and she has often told me about the Santa Ana winds this time of the year and the wildfires she remembers as a kid 50 years ago. In fact, it was around 20 years ago that her parent's retirement home in Ojai was "bombed" with Phos-Chek to protect it and nearby homes from a wildfire then. Fortunately the fire didn't get that close to their home, so the only damage they needed to recover from was getting the crusty pink stuff removed from their house and car, which wound up requiring replacement of the roof and repainting the car. They agree that this was but a minor inconvenience compared to what could have happened. Their insurance paid for most of the work.
thank you for sharing this!
Just a beautiful tour of south west California.
Recall
Mayor
Karen Bass
How dare you tell the truth!
Just had the footage from one of my flights. If it can help get people answers, I'm good with that.
@@AdventureAKthat’s wonderful
La times reported this as well. Gavin newsome still has on his website that all reservoirs were full.
Newson is nothing but big liar.
@@AdventureAKHe was joking, dude. 🙂
I am from the Palisades. The 117 Million gallon reservoir was empty. 17 Million dollar budget cut last year to the LAPD and 40 fire trucks sitting in a lot needing repairs are a total lack of accountability from the Governor and Mayor.
The Governor double the firefighting budget between 2020 and 2023. He also hired an addition 5,000 firefighting personnel.
Appreciate your honesty
Your images in motion help me put in perspective how much water the reservoir contains. I imagine a bathtub in every home compared to the visible size of each home in the video. Each one is just a drop in that reservoir. Obviously a bathtub amount of water isn't enough to douse a house fire, but each bathtub amount is certainly enough to put out many small starts and aid in the overall spread. If full, it may have had a significant impact on how devastating the fire could have been.
Kudos bud 👍🏼 what a shame! 🙏🏼 Thanks for your video proof!
Well done very good deeds 👏❤️
Honorable work, Thank you!
Thanks so much for posting this, I have shared with a few friends. I too grew up in SoCal, specifically the San Fernando Valley, and remember the Santa Ana winds being hot, and arriving in the Autumn, definitely not January and not cold air. The American writer and journalist, Joan Didion wrote a poem about the winds in 1969, titled The Santa Ana's, interesting read after this horrific incident.
That's what I've been saying such cold air didn't feel right or come in the right direction to be called Santa Ana winds.
Growing up in the valley I also remember them being warm winds in the fall.
Great video mate, cheers
Palisades reservoir was empty because there was a tear in the cover that protected the water, as that water is also used for domestic use. They had taken a year and still the cover was not repaired!
Thank you for doing this, it’s a public service.
I just found you recently but I was wondering how this played out for you. As a TH-camr myself I was hoping that you had some delay and got out before.
It boggles the mind how they could drop the ball like that. I’m close enough to the many NorCal fires to see the results first hand and know it’s no joke.
I'm going to be honest, I really didn't want to post this. I don't enjoy this kind of content, and I don't want to get involved in the politics of it. I'm just a pilot that wants to fly his aircraft around to cool places and show what I see. There's already been a lot of negativity pointed toward me for showcasing this, which isn't what this channel is about, and seriously makes me regret posting it.
@@AdventureAK I’m sorry that’s the case. To me it was just footage that you happened to capture that verified a situation after the fact. All you did is make the information available to the public. You didn’t try to offer an opinion, change anyone’s mind, or promote yourself.
I don’t see any reason to throw shade.
I appreciate that. We'll see if I keep it up. The comments are getting overly political, which distracts from the other content that I do love to make. I'm really torn here.
Thank you for posting
You want water? That's extra.
You can also see it on Google Earth, and you can use the time feature to see its been empty for a while (06/2009). You can also see it looks to not be operational after the 2009 pic? It looks like they removed some parts of it.
Thank you for the footage you definitely open an eye-opener
Great video. Thank you. Joe
You are a legend. Good work.
First time I've viewed your channel, thanks for sharing this. P.S. I learned to fly in a Cessna 140 up in Lincoln LHM! So that was very cool to see your plane lots of memories came from this!
Good guy. MUCH respect.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate the positivity. This isn't what I normally cover on this channel, so I'm not use to the amount of negativity flowing from my videos. Seriously, thank you for taking the time to watch and post. I appreciate you.
@@AdventureAK You are empowering people by sharing not merely your opinion, but factual information. Your willingness and courageousness to share is a service and inspiration to your fellow countrymen. Thank YOU sir.
Sadly people have been in command of all these important issues that were promoted on the wave of identity politics that’s been fashionable for to long already , But this time thousands of lives have been impacted ,
The reservoir should had been repaired asap what was the problem ? o vacations
Love the white-letter tires on your little plane..; great documentation that Mayor K. Bass should take a look at.
Maui, California, Asheville…there’s a plan. Two are fires, one is a failure in a dam.
FAILURE in a dam? That is what they told you. And you believed them? No Evacuations or alerts were sent out in NC, even though it been raining days prior to the storm passing by. If the dams had been opened days prior to the storm, people might have been aware of possible flooding.
The footage also provides a great visual of how rugged and isolated the hills are surrounding neighborhoods and a factor in fighting wildfires.
How long does it take to fill one of those reservoirs? Who made the decision to perform maintenance during fire season?
The Head of LADWP Janisse Quinones made that decision. She was hired to that position last year in May. And one of her first projects was to empty that reservoir for "maintenance" at the worst possible time.
Btw she left as Head of PG&E to start this position. PG&E is the largest publicly traded power utility company that was found responsible for the Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise CA. Prior to this, that was the largest fire in CA history.
That’s an interesting fact!
@ th-cam.com/video/qiCQShX_1rs/w-d-xo.htmlsi=VSITp024SLkooBT2
They need the San Francisco type of hydrant that pumps sea water up hill as a back up system
Love your 170 !
Thank you!
I noticed this too. Although supposedly there is a cover, which may or may not account for this. Also, I just noticed today that if you go to the time feature there is updated satellite imagery post fire. It is not the default you have to scroll forward in time.
Glad your safe
THANK YOU.
another nice video THANKS ; canyou get a googe image of what it looks like now?
I'm going to fly back over at some point once the TFR's are gone, but for now, it looks like this: tinyurl.com/4dkmf4fk
It's really good that you did this, my first look ever at your channel, liked it, liked you, you seem very genuine which is refreshing... please turn that music down.. a notch or two... so we don't get distracted by it and can hear all wat you say😊
Thank you. Seriously. I appreciate it. Lots of negativity being thrown my way for this video, I appreciate the positivity. I'll bring the volume down on the music, still figuring out this whole youtube thing. Thanks for watching.
@@AdventureAK Thank you for your efforts and love.❤
Any news-updates on the Moss Landing Monterey County lithium plant fire?
This is also not political: the max pop of CA was estimated to be approximately 25 million based on water. We’ve said that for decades. Between exceeding that and altered fire prep funding, the state had been at risk year after year. LA is a desert. Period. And winds have always been an issue. Mix human encroachment, lack of water, diminished preparedness, and actually typical weather and you have this debacle. Year after year.
LA is not a desert technically it's coastal chaparral. The elephant in the room has nothing to do with water, DEI Bs, politics, population or the climate......it is that people continue to build their homes with wood frame construction. In areas where homes have been built with steel frame construction and concrete block...guess what? They don't burn.
@@Sugarsail1 most of those houses have been there for decades
1961 Bel Air fire
1993 Laguna Beach Fire
2024 LaHaina Fire
2024 North Carolina Hurricane (sorry, caused by democrats seeding clouds, right?)
2025 LA Fire
Sometime, its not mismanagement, its just nature.
The mismanagement came when people started building in the zones
@@BillLouis-b7c you mean had been.
@@Sugarsail1 flammable tar shingles and plastic guttering too from what I can see. Just absolutely crazy.
Interesting video. 2.6K likes vs 25 dislikes. I wonder why 25 people disliked the video. Any ideas?
good data ...thank you. is that winter fog normal there?
I think you're right that it was empty, but when it's full it looks the same. It has a cover on it.
Awesome job thanks.
California needs to maintain its forests. Cut brush. Floor maintenance. Otherwise the state is a Roman candle.
At the risk of heavy fines or arrest....
@ californias elected officials are responsible for public safety. Basic.
Damn it's crazy to see my house and neighborhood before most of it burned down.
It’s interesting that the rainfall in La has been almost double the average in the last 2 years 🤔
There has been nearly no rain since last May!
This past year was an El Nino year. Less rain for the West Coast. Usually, wet winter La Ninas and El Ninos alternate years. But the three prior years/winters were La Ninas. A triple dip La Nina system bringing 3 rainier winters. The brush grew heavily. Newsom and the recent idea to not do controlled burns and manage all of the accumulated fuel has led these horrible fires!
The rainfall has been higher all along the west coast of the US. It's just that in SoCal, we have droughts every summer to dry out the brush. I've lived here since 1964.
After a 20 year drought . The rainfall did not replenish the ground water supply.
@@howardj602 at the end of the day it’s still called water management/ poor water management
LADWP drained it for maintenance, supposedly a liner leak. Outstanding foresight of management to drain it during the Santa Ana wind season. You can also see the absolute lack of defensible clearance on the majority of the properties in the video.
Also, LAFD has over 100 pieces of equipment parked and unusable. Seems they have a shortage of mechanics. I assume their DEI policies preclude hiring more male mechanics and females for the job are scarce.
Your low effort opinion is not equally valid compared to that of the DWP management my little axe grinder.
But sure, have it your way; it would be much better to drain it for repair during the non-Santa Ana months of June through August, when it regularly gets hotter than 100 degrees and water usage in Los Angeles is three times as high, and despite what he claims in the video contain the actual "prime fire season" months in SoCal.
@@modsurgeon Then, explain why the news media claims it was filled. Why the lie?
Why didn't they just say "emptied for repairs?" if that was the truth? Well, I'll just give you my 'low level opinion'... because as regards this horrific event, they're hiding something much, much bigger than an emptied reservoir. Period.
@@modsurgeonit's been empty for 11 months champ, which means it went through the previous fire season empty. Nice try.
they emptied it a year ago and never repaired it... DEI failure
1961 Bel Air fire
1993 Laguna Beach Fire
2024 LaHaina Fire
2024 North Carolina Hurricane (sorry, caused by democrats seeding clouds, right?)
2025 LA Fire
Sometime, its not mismanagement, its just nature.
The mismanagement came when people started building in these zones. You spouting off about the DEI crap makes you seem a little racist. OK, alot
My understanding is this reservoir had been empty for a year.
Pretty blatent misinformation from my perspective, this begs the question of what else have regulators and authorities been lying about?
Don't worry folks, the pistachios, almonds, and halo oranges are safe and well hydrated.
That has nothing to do with the reservoirs being empty and not managing the forests + underbrush properly. There is plenty of publicly owned water the Gov't refuses to capture.
They stopped in mid October executing prescribed burns , you can google searched this fact , the low wind months should have been the time
Who started the fires?
It'd be great if you mentioned the exact date (timestamp) of the original video so there's no argument to the fact that the reservoir was not filled.
I agree. I should've done that on this video. I do have the raw data with the metadata still attached, so it can be used if needed by anyone.
L A N D G R A B 100%
Conspiracy! Conspiracy! That simply must be the answer.
@@JamesMcGillis looked into Maui James?
According to the L.A. Times, the 117 million gallon reservoir, has been empty since March 2024. There is a $130,000 contract that has been let, but no repair has commenced. Now that tens of billions worth of real estate and many lives have been lost, I'll bet they expedite that project timeline. Oh, it would not have made a difference, they say.
It's not a failure at all
😊
I read the only thing wrong with the reservoir was the cover had a tear. The structure itself was okay.
Thank You Sir
That was the Santa Ynez reservoir. It was dry because maintenance was being done to insure drinking quality. Had it been full, the outcome would not have differed. The parched chaparral combined with the strong Santa Ana winds made it virtually impossible to stop. The water tanks that service the area were full, but the sudden surge in demand depleted the water level which reduced water pressure - the demand overwhelmed the pumps trying to replenish the water tank levels. Adding to the problem was people not shutting off water to their homes when they evacuated - as the homes burned to the ground water pipes were exposed and ruptured adding to lost water. Doubling or even tripling the number of fire fighting personnel and equipment would not have altered the outcome. As long as people”e continue to build and live in these fire corridors history will continue to repeat itself, no matter who is in charge. Look at the history of fires here going back to 1955.
Not the case at all
@ Prove me wrong MAGA girl
what about before 1955? Whats the history in the area 100 years back or 200 years back?
@ same thing. There were wild fires.
wow, I can feel a BIG netflix show thats going to expose this fire and what made it worse, just like the bad Paradise Camp Fire doco. And that area never recovered, just empty blocks of land everywhere now. I shared this video with my big network of friends but I bet the 'system' does everything it can to suppress whats exposed here
@@Plutogalaxy Exactly, proved my point. 15000 houses were destroyed. 7 years since that fire and the area is struggling to recover. It's scared for life.
Why hasn't Lahaina, Hawaii been rebuilt yet? Hurricane Helene survivors are still living in tents! More privatization, less social safety net. This is what demolished our middle class these past 50 years.
The TRUTH needs to be told.
Good on you for providing this footage. Newsome needs to resign and be investigated for criminal charges. I am a lifelong California resident, we all know fires and Santa Anna winds come every year. No surprise. I also suggest reading: The Ecology of Fear, written by Mikes Davis in 1998. There is a particular chapter that is very revealing.
This video is solid evidence .
From the air, the houses near the reservoir, looks like an area that should never have houses. There looks like no sufficient escape route during a fire.
Large rescue ships. Desalination tanks should've been built decades ago.
But Bill Burr said they did a great job
Key element in your video at 3:47. Makes me question why build in such a venerable location? Not only due to the Santa Winds but also topography and foliage. Should the area be rebuilt?
Might be the only place they had? I dunno, I'm just a pilot, it's way above my pay grade.
There hasn't been any fires in that area for over 50 years. Without prescribed burns this was a disaster waiting to happen.
1961 Bel Air fire
1993 Laguna Beach Fire
2024 LaHaina Fire
2024 North Carolina Hurricane (sorry, caused by democrats seeding clouds, right?)
2025 LA Fire
Sometime, its not mismanagement, its just nature.
The mismanagement came when people started building in these zones
Prescribed burns can easily start a fire. They probably were concerned without rain for 8 months it was dangerous to light any prescribed burns. I was near one that got out of control once.
Coming across your channel for the first time. Thank you you for your work. You did a great job documenting the terrain before the fire. The public service you provided to victims of the fires is astronomical! Thank you for your public service. 🙏
To anyone giving you a hard time for showing the facts, they can kiss off!
California keeps talking about this is the results of global warming. Say that's true. Why hasn't Cal. made changes on how they fight fires or prevent them. Newsom and others need to be held accountable.
My thoughts exactly. Their own excuses don't make sense and work against them because they keep saying it was predictable but yet they weren't prepared.
TY DEW
Not knowing much about this reservoir, is there a feeder pipe into it from somewhere? Where does the water come from to feed the reservoir? And was it low because of the lack of rain this year?
Rather than one 9-acre reservoir with a floating, removable, cover; they should make three, 3-acre, compartments of the reservoir; with one or more permanent covers; and rotate maintenance; always keeping two-thirds filled. If they cannot keep the reservoir operating as 'potable' water they should declare it 'non-potable' water.
At 3:47, across the gorge from PP, it appears they are flattening out areas for more still more homes.
Come to find out, several others in LA are also empty. The Rancho Palos Verdes reservoir is empty & out of service. They spend $40 million just 5-6 years ago to refurbish and fill it. Shortly after, they emptied it. Someone should look into the money being wasted!
Newsom and his type should not be only sacked, but also rot in prison for the rest of their days! Such negligence, so many people dead, so many homes gone and so many's lives ruined. Unthinkable!
Newsom doubled the firefighting budget since 2020 and hired and additional 5000 fire department personnel.
Probably ran of $$ to fix the liner or cover to allocating it to other needs such as hotels/motels, food, phones, close, cash, etc for the sanctuary city “new” illegal residents. Same with over 100 fire vehicles needing repairs as I heard their maintenance contract was cancelled because the $$$ was needed elsewhere. What a way to run a city…
What part of Alaska?
Anchorage. :)
@ From North Pole here my sister has been in Anchorage sense 1992…. Miss the Alaska way. Hey thanks for your time, really. Love you matching white walls to the blue on you craft!
Not in California but I have heard who different things from elected officials in that area. They said they had water and then backtrack and said oh well we have to empty it for repairs. But wasn’t there record snowfall and rain. Just trying to picture if they drain it. What do they do with the water. And if that reservoir is empty, they don’t have any water to fight fires? And I know you don’t want to get political about it but it’s a very questionable. Some reports are suggesting powerlines may have caused the first fire. Some people say they were huge budget cuts, and the elected officials say no we only cut 2%. Either way, really hoping praying for those affected.