<a class="post__byline-name-unhyphenated" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/jeff-cercone-politifact" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" itemprop="author"> <span itemprop="name">Jeff Cercone, PolitiFact</span> </a> <a class="post__byline-name-hyphenated" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/jeff-cercone-politifact"> Jeff Cercone, PolitiFact </a> <br> <a class="post__byline-name-unhyphenated" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/caleb-mccullough-politifact" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" itemprop="author"> <span itemprop="name">Caleb McCullough, PolitiFact</span> </a> <a class="post__byline-name-hyphenated" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/caleb-mccullough-politifact"> Caleb McCullough, PolitiFact </a> <br>Leave your feedback<br><em>This fact check originally appeared on <a href="https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/jan/10/fact-check-los-angeles-fires-fuel-falsehoods-inclu/">PolitiFact</a>.</em><br>President-elect Donald Trump and some social media users and pundits blamed Los Angeles’ deadly fires on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, saying the Democrat’s environmental policies enabled the blazes’ danger and wreckage.<br>As of Jan. 12, authorities counted at least 16 people dead, more than 35,000 acres burned and thousands of structures damaged or destroyed.<br><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/residents-reel-from-los-angeles-fires-as-deaths-rise-and-high-winds-threaten-to-return"><strong>WATCH:</strong> Residents reel from Los Angeles fires as deaths rise and high winds threaten to return</a><br>Some social media users reposted Trump’s 2018 and 2019 criticism of California’s forest management policies, including <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jan/09/donald-trump/trump-repeats-overly-simplistic-false-claim-califo/">false</a> statements the then-president posted as firefighters battled previous wildfires.<br>It is not uncommon for Trump to make false claims about his political opponents during natural disasters. In 2018, he <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2018/sep/18/donald-trump/trump-lacks-proof-puerto-rico-hurricane-death-toll/">falsely</a> said “Democrats” had inflated Hurricane Maria’s death toll in Puerto Rico. In October 2024, he <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/oct/12/donald-trump/trump-said-north-carolina-gov-cooper-democrats-blo/">fabricated a claim</a> that North Carolina’s Democratic governor had blocked federal aid from flowing into the state after Hurricane Helene.<br>As Los Angeles wildfire victims reeled from the destruction, we fact-checked these viral claims to see how, or if, California water policy and forest management factored this disaster.<br>As Los Angeles firefighters raced to contain blazes in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood Jan. 7 and Jan. 8, the area’s hydrant water pressure ran low, and some hydrants stopped producing water.<br>Trump, in a Jan. 8 <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113793724958051185" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Truth Social post</a>, blamed Newsom’s management for the water issues, and said Newsom had refused to allow “beautiful, clean, fresh water to flow into California.”<br>“Governor Gavin (Newsom) 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. “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.”<br>Trump’s posts seemed to blame the water constraints on statewide water management plans that capture rain and snow as it flows from Northern California. But experts said those plans would not have affected the fire response.<br>Southern California has <a href="https://cdec.water.ca.gov/reportapp/javareports?name=RESSW" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">plenty of water</a> stored, said Mark Gold, the water scarcity solutions director at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a Southern California Metropolitan Water District board member.<br>The local water shortages happened because the city’s infrastructure wasn’t designed to respond to a fire as large as the one that broke out in the Palisades and elsewhere, experts said.<br>“It doesn’t matter what’s going on at the Bay-Delta or the Colorado (River) or Eastern Sierra right now,” Gold said. “We have all this water in storage right now. The problem is, when you look at something like firefighting, it’s a more localized issue on where your water is. Do you have adequate local storage?”<br>Trump’s reference to a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113793724958051185" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“water restoration declaration”</a> that Newsom refused to sign is puzzling, as such a document does not appear to exist. Newsom’s press team <a href="https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/1877067195043221875" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said on social media</a>, “There is no such document as the water restoration declaration – that is pure fiction.”<br>Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to an email asking for clarification; after publication, a Trump spokesperson emailed PolitiFact referring to a <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/water-and-drought/article240437356.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">plan</a> from Trump’s first term that would have directed more water from the federal Central Valley Project to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley.<br>Newsom and then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-files-lawsuit-challenging-trump-administration%E2%80%99s-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sued</a> the Trump administration over the plan, which they said violated protections for endangered species, including Chinook salmon and Delta smelt — a slender, 2- to 3-inch fish that is considered endangered under <a href="https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Fishes/Delta-Smelt" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">California’s Endangered Species Act</a>.<br>But here’s the kink in Trump’s logic: The <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Central Valley Project</a> provides no water to Los Angeles. The regional water district receives some water from the State Water Project, which also collects water from the Delta-Bay area and shares some reservoirs and infrastructure with the Central Valley Project. But most of the extra water from Trump’s plan would have been sent to the San Joaquin Valley, and it’s wrong to connect water management further north to the firefighting challenges in Los Angeles.<br>The local water system failed because the city’s infrastructure was built to respond to routine structure fires, not massive wildfires across multiple neighborhoods, experts told us. Ann Jeffers, a University of Michigan civil and environmental engineering professor who studies fire engineering, said she doesn’t know of any industry standard for designing city water supplies to fight the kind of fire that erupted in the Palisades.<br>Dryness and high winds meant that “these fire events would be likely to exceed a given design basis, if one even existed,” Jeffers said. Chris Field, a Stanford University professor and climate scientist, said climate change worsens these conditions.<br><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/warming-climate-created-perfect-storm-for-catastrophic-fires-nasa-researcher-says"><strong>WATCH:</strong> Warming climate created ‘perfect storm’ for catastrophic fires, NASA researcher says</a><br>Three main water tanks near the Palisades, each holding about 1 million gallons, <a href="https://www.ladwpnews.com/5pm-wednesday-january-8-ladwp-windstorm-and-fire-response/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">were filled in preparation</a> of the fire because of dangerous weather. The tanks were all depleted by 3 a.m. on Jan. 8, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power CEO and Chief Engineer Janisse Quiñones said during a Jan. 8 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/5krJuhoke0U?si=TPd6V7MQvesw4sW1&t=2947" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">press conference</a>. Although water continued to flow to the affected areas, demand for water rose faster than the system could deliver it.<br>“There’s water in the trunk line, it just cannot get up the hill, because we cannot fill the tanks fast enough,” Quiñones said. “And we cannot lower the amount of water that we provide to the fire department in order to supply the tanks, because we’re balancing firefighting with water.”<br>A reservoir near the Pacific Palisades that is part of the city’s water supply had been closed for repairs when the fires broke out which may have slowed the water pressure issues had it been operable, the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-10/as-flames-raged-in-palisades-a-key-reservoir-nearby-was-offline" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Los Angeles Times</a> reported Jan 10.<br>Other social media users claimed slow construction of California’s reservoir led to the hydrants running dry. But local infrastructure failures, not regional water storage, caused the hydrant problems, so it’s wrong to blame them on these projects’ construction timeline.<br>“In 2014, Californians overwhelmingly voted to spend billions on water storage and reservoirs,” the conservative account <a href="https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1877022460752674874" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Libs of Tiktok</a> posted Jan. 8. “Gavin Newsom still hasn’t built it. Now no water is coming out of the fire hydrants.”<br>California voters approved a 2014 ballot measure to spend $2.7 billion on <a href="https://cwc.ca.gov/Water-Storage" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">water storage projects</a> — and, to date, none have been completed. Only one of those projects is a <a href="https://cwc.ca.gov/Water-Storage/WSIP-Project-Review-Portal/All-Projects/Sites-Project" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new reservoir</a>, based in the Sacramento Valley about 450 miles from Los Angeles. It’s set to begin operating in 2033.<br>A closer project, the <a href="https://cwc.ca.gov/Water-Storage/WSIP-Project-Review-Portal/All-Projects/Chino-Basin-Conjunctive-Use-Environmental-Water-Storage-Exchange-Program" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chino Basin Program</a>, will improve storage capacity in a system about 60 miles west of Los Angeles.<br>Trump in 2018 and 2019, blamed California’s forest management for deadly wildfires those years. In a <a href="https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1190995034163892226" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2019 X post</a>, Trump said Newsom must “clean” forest floors. In <a href="https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1083022011574747137" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">another 2019 post</a>, Trump wrote that “Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen,” and threatened to withhold FEMA money.<br>Social media who reshared the claim in the context of the Los Angeles disaster <a href="https://x.com/_johnnymaga/status/1876857629714051238" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">shared</a> a 2018 video of Trump with then Gov.-elect Newsom at the scene of a destroyed mobile home park in Northern California. In the video, Trump spoke of the need to rake and clean forest floors to prevent wildfires.<br>“Trump warned him about this years ago,” Fox News host Jesse Watters said in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=575750095381821" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jan. 8 segment </a>about the Los Angeles fires. “Is Trump ever wrong?” one <a href="https://x.com/MilaLovesJoe/status/1876902726770069740" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">social media user asked</a>.<br>In a September 2020 appearance with Trump after other California wildfires, Newsom <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/cgD-5L02acw?feature=shared&t=2587" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> the state in the past had “not done justice in our forest management” and thanked Trump for supporting and funding a new “first-type commitment over the next 20 years, to double our vegetation management and forest management.” Newsom also noted that the federal government owns 57 percent of California’s forest land versus 3 percent owned by the state, and that climate change plays a role in wildfires. Forest <a href="https://ucanr.edu/sites/forestry/Ecology/#:~:text=Of%20the%20approximately%2033%20million,19%20million%20acres%20(57%25)." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">researchers</a> <a href="https://www.forestunlimited.org/resources/california-forest-statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">confirm</a> the forest land ownership statistics.<br>A <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/01/08/california-forest-management-hotter-drier-climate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jan. 8 post</a> on Newsom’s website said that California has “dramatically ramped up state work to increase wildland and forest resilience” treating more than 700,000 acres of land for wildfire resilience in 2023. That’s up from about 572,000 acres in 2021, according to a <a href="https://interagencytrackingsystem.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">state dashboard</a> tracking fire prevention work.<br>Prescribed fires (a controlled burn used to control wildfires) more than doubled from 2021 to 2023, the governor’s post said. Newsom’s <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/01/08/california-forest-management-hotter-drier-climate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">press office said</a> the state invests $200 million annually for healthy forest and fire prevention programs, and that his budget commits $4 billion more in prior and future investments in wildfire resilience over the next several years.<br>Stanford University’s Field said factors controlling California’s fire risk and spread vary from place to place.<br>Fuel management in the Sierra mountain range forest is important, but less so near Southern California’s coast, Field said. Property owners and fire professionals can assist with fuel management, mostly by <a href="https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_marshall-fire-mat-homeowners-guide-defensible-space.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">clearing flammable materials and vegetation</a> around homes to create a buffer zone. In general, homeowners and homeowner associations would be responsible for that, he said.<br>Field said the wildland areas that have burned in Los Angeles cover areas that have many different owners. The federally owned Angeles National Forest neighbors Altadena, where the Eaton wildfire is burning. The Pacific Palisades blaze includes state and national parkland.<br>“California is fortunate to have a wide range of spectacular natural landscapes, but the state is struggling with how to manage those landscapes to manage fire risk,” Field said, though he added that all government parties have started “ambitious” fire risk reduction programs in recent years.<br>Field said it’s important for property owners to create buffer zones against wildfires, but said he doesn’t see evidence “that fuel management (or the lack of fuel management) played a role in the LA fires.”<br>Robert York, co-director of Berkeley Forests and a Rausser College of Natural Resources professor, said wildfires behave differently depending on whether they start in forests or in brush vegetation.<br>The Pacific Palisades fire, the largest of the state’s current wildfires, for example, began <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/weather/wildfires/california-wildfires-los-angeles-palisades-fire-evacuations-maps-what-rcna186879" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">as a brushfire</a> and <a href="https://vocal.media/earth/the-palisades-fire-a-sobering-reminder-of-nature-s-fury" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spread</a> through the area’s dense <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-08/inside-the-desperate-chaotic-escape-from-pacific-palisades-if-you-go-any-further-you-will-die" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">chaparral</a>, a shrubland plant community common to the state. Chaparral is more easily overwhelmed by strong winds, limiting prefire management’s effectiveness, whereas forest-centered efforts to reduce tree density and underbrush are “well-known to reduce fire intensity,” York said.<br>State and private landowners have worked to improve forest management, he said, but more needs to be done.<br><em>PolitiFact Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman contributed to this report.</em><br> <svg class="svg"><use xlink:href="#arrow-left"></use></svg><span>Left:</span> A firefighter removes a hose from a hydrant that run out of water while fighting the Eaton Fire, as powerful winds fueling devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area force people to evacuate, in Altadena, California, Jan. 9, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves/Reuters <br><span>By</span> Christopher Weber, Holly Ramer, Associated Press<br><span>By</span> Ali Rogin, Claire Mufson, Andrew Corkery<br><span>By</span> Andrew J. Whelton, The Conversation<br><span>By</span> Stephanie Sy, Sam Weber, Karina Cuevas<br><span>By</span> Jon Keeley, The Conversation<br> <a class="post__byline-name-unhyphenated" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/jeff-cercone-politifact" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" itemprop="author"> <span itemprop="name">Jeff Cercone, PolitiFact</span> </a> <a class="post__byline-name-hyphenated" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/jeff-cercone-politifact"> Jeff Cercone, PolitiFact </a> <br> <a class="post__byline-name-unhyphenated" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/caleb-mccullough-politifact" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" itemprop="author"> <span itemprop="name">Caleb McCullough, PolitiFact</span> </a> <a class="post__byline-name-hyphenated" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/caleb-mccullough-politifact"> Caleb McCullough, PolitiFact </a> <br> <span>Support Provided By:</span> <a href="https://help.pbs.org/support/solutions/articles/5000677869" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Learn more</a> <br>Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else.<br>Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.<br>© 1996 - 2025 NewsHour Productions LLC. All Rights Reserved.<br>PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.<br>Sections<br>About<br>Stay Connected<br>Subscribe to Here's the Deal with Lisa Desjardins<br>Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.<br>Learn more about Friends of the News Hour.<br>Support for News Hour Provided By<br><br><a href="https://news.google.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?oc=5">source</a>