At 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday evening, the first of three municipal water tanks in Los Angeless Pacific Palisades neighborhood ran dry, as emergency responders stretched the system to its limits in combatting the widespread wildfires. The second water tank was empty by 8:30 p.m. that night, followed by the third at 3 a.m. on Wednesday, according to local officials.The depletion of the three tanks, each with a storage capacity of about a million gallons of water, led to fire hydrants in the area ultimately running dry, which, in turn, sparked concern from citizens and public figures over the citys handling of its response to the fires. On X, Elon Musk retweeted a post stating, We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. And in several live interviews, former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso argued that the empty hydrants were a window into a systemic problem of the city.However, according to several experts, the Pacific Palisades fire hydrants were never going to be sufficient to fight a wildfire of this scalenor were they designed to be.Generally, fire hydrants are designed to counteract everyday fires, like isolated incidents from faulty electrical lines, explainsGreg Pierce, director of UCLAs Human Right to Water Solutions Lab. In fact, [L.A.] already overdesigns our water system significantly, purely to have the pressure and the water there when there is an urban fire, adds Pierce, who is also co-executive director of the universitys Luskin Center for Innovation. But that doesnt address even your standard wildfire, much less a wildfire that came this quickly, this ferociously, and in multiple points. The Pacific Palisades neighborhood, specifically, presents several additional challenges to supplying water through the municipal system during an emergency. The whole zone is supplied by the aforementioned three water tanks. And because the area is hilly, water needs to be pumped manually from those three local tanks to fire hydrantsmeaning that power is required to produce the pressure needed to move the supply. During a wildfire, power lines are often destroyed or even purposefully cut off by providers to try to prevent worsening the spread. On top of that, if the nearby tanks cant be replenished fast enough, their pressure levels wont be sufficient to pump water.At a news conference Wednesday, LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP) CEO Janisse Quiones said that 3 million gallons of water were available when the fires began, but the demand greatly outpaced the systems capacity. We pushed the system to the extreme, Quiones said. Four times the normal demand was seen for 15 hours straight, which lowered our water pressurewater pressure needed for the water to travel uphill. I want to make sure that you understand theres water on the trunk line, it just cannot get up the hill because we cannot fill the tanks fast enough. Musk reposted several tweets on X claiming that the LADWP didnt fill the reservoirs, and President-elect Donald Trump took to Truth Social claiming that Governor Gavin Newsom prevented water from entering the state to protect an endangered fish. But L.A.s reservoirs have no bearing on the fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades region, Pierce explains, given that the immediate water supply is provided by the three nearby water tanks.The larger reservoir water supply stuff that Trump and Musk are talking about is not related and wouldnt have done any good in the really short term where the water was needed, says Pierce. You may have all the water in the world in reservoirs, but if theyre fairly far awaywhich most are, from this neighborhoodyou cant move the water quickly, even if all the infrastructure is working well. Generally, aerial firefighting is the approach for fighting wildfires. Helicopter teams drop water on affected areas (water sourced from reservoirs, not tanks). Unfortunately, high wind and low visibility during the Palisades Fires have grounded most aerial firefighting teams.In the future, Pierce says, the LADWP could look into incorporating more holding water tanks around the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. But even that concept has its downsides.In theory, the region or areas could have more of the infrastructure to hold water itself and to hold power, he says. But thats not been an expectation, historically. Im not sure that would have made a difference in this case. Besides, the cost to rebuild that infrastructure, incorporating more local water tanks, would be prohibitive, Pierce adds. Whos going to pay for that when people cant afford the regular cost of water?