“Residents have pumps and are protecting homes. But they are out of water,” he warned. “Winds ramping. Homes burning and fire spreading again. Pools empty. We are SITTING DUCKS unless we get water to refill the pools that residents have been pumping to supplement the fire response.”
But now the pools and pipes are running dry.
Another neighbor, Andrew Hires, implored any private water tankers in Los Angeles to be dispatched to Palisades Highlands immediately.
Golling’s husband and two sons joined other neighbors to battle fires at their houses on their own. At their home, they had a pool pump that fed into what she described as “like a mini fireman hose.”
She shared a hand-drawn map of the neighborhood the group has been collaboratively maintaining to show which of the 100 or so of their neighborhood’s houses had burned — and which still stood. Dozens of large red circles dotted the map, each representing a confirmed loss of a home.
Golling seemed taken aback at the lack of public resources coming into her area to fight the flames. Neighbors are sending appeals for help on social media as they see their hopes diminishing while firetrucks are pulled to other locations.
“I can barely talk,” she told HuffPost via text message. “I’m really a nervous wreck.”