Reality stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are joining over 20 other property owners in suing the City of Los Angeles and the LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP), claiming that the entities made decisions that ultimately led to the destruction of their homes in the ongoing Palisades wildfire.
Filed on Tuesday, January 21st, the complaint alleges that LADWP made a “conscious decision” to leave a critical water source empty: the 117 million-gallon Santa Ynez Reservoir, which was drained in early 2024 for repairs. Upon the outbreak of the Palisades fire earlier this month, it remained empty.
The complaint claims that the city and LADWP kept the Santa Ynez Reservoir drained in part due to desire “to seek contractor bids rather than using in-house personnel to repair” it, and that as a result of the reservoir being empty, the tanks that fed fire hydrants went unreplenished, causing the hydrants to “fail… within a span of 12 hours.”
As the suit puts it: “The degree of damage that resulted from the Palisades Fire far outweighed any benefit that could have been realized by outsourcing and delaying repairs to the Santa Ynez Reservoir.”
Beyond the reservoir, the suit — which names officials like Los Angeles County Public Works director Mark Pestrella and others — alleges that the water supply system was poorly-structured for the possibility of wildfires in the region.
“Defendants also designed the water system for public use such that it would not have enough water pressure to fight an urban fire,” the suit reads, highlighting that the threat of fires was well-known in the area. “The Palisades Fire was an inescapable and unavoidable consequence of the water supply system operated by LADWP and City of Los Angeles as it was planned and constructed. The system necessarily failed, and this failure was a substantial factor in causing Plaintiffs to suffer the losses alleged in this Complaint.”
Now, Montag, Pratt, and the others involved in the suit are seeking damages on all lost property, as well as repair costs, loss of wages, and more.
Meanwhile, the Palisades fire, the Eaton fire, and several other fires are still active in the Los Angeles area. In addition to Montag and Pratt, many other celebrities have lost their homes, including John Goodman, Anthony Hopkins, Billy Crystal, Eugene Levy, and many more.
Here at Consequence, we’ve launched a special “All for LA” edition of our Protect Live Music t-shirts, where 100% of proceeds will go to MusiCares’ Los Angeles Fire Relief Effort. Find additional ways to support and donate here.