Twenty-five victims of the Palisades Fire victims filed an inverse condemnation lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court against the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, alleging the entities failed to maintain an adequate water supply and fire hydrant system.
“LADWP and the City of Los Angeles had a duty to properly construct, inspect, maintain and operate its water supply system,” stated Peter McNulty of the McNulty Law Firm, attorney for the fire victims. “The system necessarily failed, and this failure was a substantial factor in causing my clients to suffer catastrophic losses.”
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The suit alleges the city and LADWP’s “facilities, reservoir, water supply system, hydrants, infrastructure and other public improvements, as deliberately designed and constructed, presented an inherent danger and risk of fire to private property.”
The Palisades Fire burned in conjunction with several fires that hit the L.A. area in January. The other major fire was the Eaton Fire.
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Los Angeles County sued Edison International to recoup its losses from the fire, which was one of the most destructive in California history.