Los Angeles' water boss who makes $750,000 a year couldn't quite explain why fire hydrants have run dry during the disastrous wildfires in a bumbling video.
During a press conference Wednesday, Janisse Quiñones, the newly appointed chief executive officer and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said all water storage tanks in the Pacific Palisades area 'went dry' as flames continue to rage on.
At least seven people have been killed and almost 180,000 forced to leave their homes amid the most destructive blaze in the county's history.
Quiñones, who previously worked for PG&E prior to being appointed in May, said the third water tank ran out at about 3am local time Wednesday, after the first tank ran out around 4.45pm, and the second at approximately 8.30pm - each at about 1,000,000 gallons each.
'Those tanks help with the pressure on the fire hydrants in the hills of Palisades, and because we were pushing so much water in our trunk line, and so much water was being used before it can get to the tanks - we were not able to fill the tanks fast enough,' she explained.
'So the consumption of water was faster than we can provide water in our trunk line,' she continued, adding that there is water in the truck line, but it 'cannot get up the hill because we cannot fill the tanks fast enough.'
After someone asked her for the number of hydrants that cannot get water because of these issues, Quiñones started to stumble on her words.