California's Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered an investigation into reports of water supply problems that are hindering firefighting efforts.
Our correspondent Ediz Tiyansan meets the victims of the fire as emotions run high.
Our correspondent Ediz Tiyansan meets the victims of the fire as emotions run high.
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00:00After evacuating his wife and children, Nick Pemberton was home alone, and among only a few who stayed behind in his Altadena neighborhood when the flames reached his street.
00:13Because there were no firefighters here, there was no, there's just too many fires everywhere, they had no, you know, not enough presence.
00:19Working at a construction firm, Nick was lucky to be able to get his hands on a water tank with a generator.
00:26We were at least able to stop it here, and then when the fire trucks showed up on Mar Vista, one street over, they ran out of water because all the fire hydrants were down.
00:35The firefighter came over and asked us for water from our water truck, so he took it from the swimming pools.
00:40He managed to keep his neighbor's house from burning down, but he was too late for others.
00:46People we've spoken to say there were not enough fire crews on the ground when this house got burned.
00:53On the day of the fire, many say that even when they arrived, they actually ran out of water, so many residents here were actually left to their own devices.
01:02Los Angeles Fire Department acknowledges it does not have sufficient staffing to contain simultaneous fires of this magnitude.
01:10And it soon became clear that the city's water systems aren't equipped to deliver such large volumes of water over several hours.
01:19The reality is that we have urban water systems that are not designed to fight wildfires or put out entire sort of, you know, mountainsides that are on fire.
01:31And we are having, you know, very high severity events that are unprecedented.
01:39While fire crews are busy trying to contain active flames elsewhere, people like Nick are using their own means to put out the embers that have arrived at their doorstep.
01:50But definitely not having the fire hydrants still even turned on and not being able to hose down yards and rooftops and things like that.
02:00But thank God we were able to get the pumps and the hoses and start pumping out swimming pools.
02:04And it was amazing, every neighbor with a swimming pool was running up, saying, use our water.
02:12Tough times called for tough decisions in Los Angeles, with brave neighbors coming together to protect each other's homes.
02:20It is Tian Shan, CGTN, Altadena, California.