This reservoir was built to save Pacific Palisades. It was empty when the flames came
By 1964, city leaders had added 13 fire stations, mapped out fire hydrants, purchased helicopters and dispatched more crews to the Santa Monica Mountains. To accommodate growth in Pacific Palisades, they built a reservoir in Santa Ynez Canyon, as well as a pumping station “to increase fire protection,” as the L.A. Department of Water and Power’s then-chief water engineer, Gerald W. Jones, told The Times in 1972.
Some Palisades residents had initially fought having a reservoir so close, fearing a repeat of the 1963 Baldwin Hills disaster when a reservoir failed, killing five people and destroying about 280 homes.
“I used to say all the time, ‘Boy, I know one thing that will never happen is our place will burn down,’” said Peggy Holter, who in 1978 purchased a town house in Palisades Highlands, just a stone’s throw from the reservoir. “It was the one thing I was never worried about.”
But on Jan. 7, the reservoir that had long been a lifeline was empty when Palisades residents needed it most, as a wildfire spread rapidly amid dangerously high winds.
