President-Elect Donald Trump is blaming California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) for the nightmarish fires engulfing parts of Southern California.
"Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way," Trump said in a post on Truth Social Wednesday.
"He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn't work!), but didn't care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid," Trump added.
The president-elect said he will "demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this."
Newsom has proclaimed a state of emergency in response to the fires.
A "high number" of California residents have reportedly been injured and at least two have perished in the devastating fires that spread to more than 5,000 acres overnight.
Multiple fires raged across Southern California overnight, engulfing Palisades, Eaton, Altadena, Pasadena and Sylmar as powerful wind gusts reached to up to 99 mph. An estimated 1,000 structures had been destroyed as of Wednesday morning, and the fire continued to grow with zero containment.
The Eaton fire, which broke out Tuesday evening, had burned more than 2,200 acres near Altadena and Pasadena, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during a news conference Wednesday morning.
Two people have died in the Eaton fire and several others have been seriously injured. More than 100 structures have been destroyed, Marrone said.
The Palisades fire, which started around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, forced thousands to evacuate, with many leaving their cars on the side of the road in their attempt to escape. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. The blaze has moved westward toward the hills, fueled by whipping winds.
As of Wednesday morning, the fire had burned 2,921 acres in Palisades.
According to Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna, "about 37,000 residents are under evacuation orders and 15,000 structures are at risk." The sheriff added that about 20,000 residents are currently under evacuation warnings.
Firefighters battling the blaze Tuesday were reportedly stymied by dry hydrants.
"The hydrants are down," said one firefighter on the department's internal radio system. "Water supply just dropped," said another.
L.A. developer and former mayoral candidate Rick Caruso compared the Pacific Palisades to a "third-world country" in an interview with Fox 11 Tuesday night.
Caruso, who owns Palisades Village in the heart of the Westside neighborhood, accused leaders of mismanaging the city.
"Most concerning to me is, our first responders and our firefighters were trying to battle this [but] there's no water in the Palisades," he said. "There's no water coming out of the fire hydrants. This is an absolute mismanagement of the city."
Caruso stressed that the failure was not the fault of the firefighters, who are doing the best they can under the circumstances.
"I'm gonna be very honest. We've got a mayor that's out of the country, and we've got a city that's burning, and there's no resources to put out a fire," he said, adding that the reason there are no firefighters in any of the images coming out of Palisades is because "there's nothing they can do."
"It looks like we're in a third world country," the billionaire added.
Trump also addressed the lack of water issue in his statement on Truth Social.
"On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not(sic) firefighting planes. A true disaster!" he wrote.
Caruso told the LA Times that the out of control fire should never have happened. "We've got neighborhoods burning, homes burning, and businesses burning," he lamented.
A spokesman for the Department of Water and Power acknowledged reports of diminished water flow from hydrants but did not have details on the number of hydrants without water or the scale of the issue.
In a statement, the DWP said water crews were working in the neighborhood "to ensure the availability of water supplies."
"This area is served by water tanks and close coordination is underway to continue supplying the area," the DWP said in its statement.
It's unclear how widespread the hydrant issues were or their precise cause. In November, the lack of water from hydrants hurt the effort to combat the Mountain fire in Ventura County, when two water pumps became inactive, slowing the process to deliver hillside water.
Caruso, who evacuated his home in Brentwood on Tuesday, contended that the problem is related to issues with the reservoirs that feed the neighborhood's hydrants.
He said his daughter's home was destroyed in the blaze and his family was waiting to hear if one of his sons had also lost his home.
"We are feeling the very personal effects of this," Caruso said.
"It's a disaster to the hundredth degree," he added. "It's beyond anything I think any of us could have ever imagined."