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California Gov. Gavin Newsom passed the blame onto “local folks” when grilled over fire hydrants running out of water during the raging Pacific Palisades fire — and said he couldn’t even respond to President-elect Donald Trump’s accusations he mismanaged the state’s water supply.
Newsom, in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, said local officials need to figure out why the hydrants in Los Angeles ran dry and left firefighters helpless as countless homes burned down in the ritzy neighborhood overnight into Wednesday.
“Look, the local folks are trying to figure that out,” he told Cooper who asked about the hydrant situation.
“I mean when you have a system — but it’s not dissimilar from what we’ve seen in other extraordinarily large-scale fires, whether it be pipe, electricity, or whether it just be the complete overwhelm of the system,” Newsom rambled on.
“I mean those hydrants are typical for two or three fires — maybe one fire and you have something of this scale, but again that’s gonna be determined by the local.”
All three of the 1 million-gallon water tanks that supply hydrants in Pacific Palisades were empty by 3 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Fueled by the Santa Ana winds, the Palisades fire and two other massive blazes have devoured full neighborhoods, leveling thousands of homes, businesses and schools in their paths.
Both Newsom and local government officials, like Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, have been blasted for alleged mismanagement that may have worsened the devastation.
Trump blamed Newsom for the out-of-control fires Wednesday, claiming the Democratic governor chose to protect an endangered fish species instead of sending badly needed water to southern California.
The president-elect said Newsom blocked a federal order that would have diverted more water from northern California, a wetter climate, to the Golden State’s parched regions “including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.”
“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt… but didn’t care about the people of California,” the incoming president ranted on his Truth Social Platform.
“Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is to blame for this.”
Cooper asked Newsom to respond to Trump’s criticism Wednesday night.
“One can’t even respond to it,” Newsom replied. “People are literally fleeing, people lost their lives, kids lost their schools, families completely torn asunder, churches burned down. This guy wanted to politicize it.”
“I have a lot of thoughts and I know what I want to say — I won’t,” he added.
While Newsom came under fire for blocking the water relocation order, Mayor Bass was slammed for cutting $17.6 million off the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, instead prioritizing funding for homeless services.
She was trashed by her own constituents for being 7,400 miles away in Africa to attend the inauguration of Ghana’s president as wildfires engulfed her city.
