The wildfire season in Los Angeles has barely begun, yet the hills of the Pacific Palisades are already ablaze, forcing thousands to flee their homes. With relentless Santa Ana winds driving flames across dry, brittle brush, firefighters face a herculean battle to keep the inferno at bay.

By the weekend, the Palisades Fire alone had charred over 36,000 acres and claimed at least 25 lives, while smoke choked the skies above neighborhoods on edge. Resources are stretched thin, hydrants have run dry, and questions loom over whether freshwater supplies can hold out.

Amid the chaos, one question persists: with the Pacific Ocean just miles away, why isn’t its vast water supply being used to extinguish the flames?

The answer, it turns out, is more complex than it appears.

Why not just use the ocean?

In the Pacific Palisades, where some of the fiercest blazes tore through neighborhoods, hydrants ran out of water entirely, leaving crews scrambling to save homes and lives.

“How do you fight a fire with no water?” asked Ryan Babroff, a volunteer firefighter battling the Eaton Fire, speaking to The Washington Post. The scope of the problem stunned officials. Governor Gavin Newsom, speaking to CNN, described the county’s resources as “completely depleted.”

By Thursday, up to 20% of the city’s hydrants had gone dry, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Fire officials had stopped using them entirely.

“We pushed the system to the extreme,” admitted Janisse Quiñones, chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). The strain exposed vulnerabilities in a patchwork water system designed for urban fires, not for megafires moving as fast as five football fields per minute.

Water is the main tool in any firefighter’s toolkit. Water cools hot materials and dampens areas to prevent new sparks. Whether the water is salty or fresh doesn’t change this basic principle. But saltwater brings a host of complications that make it more trouble than it’s worth.

“Saltwater is a soil sterilizer,” said Tim Chavez, a former assistant chief for Cal Fire and retired fire analyst. When seawater evaporates after being dumped on fires, it leaves behind salt, which accumulates in the soil. This process, known as salinization, makes it harder for plants to absorb water and nutrients. Such long-term damage could transform already-scorched land into barren wastelands.

“If you add salt to the soil, you’re not going to be able to grow anything there the next year,” Chavez explained during an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Salt can also disrupt the movement of nutrients in the soil and prove toxic to less salt-tolerant vegetation like boxwood and dogwood trees.

The environmental concerns don’t stop at the soil. Salt dumped onto land can wash into nearby bodies of fresh water, spoiling the water supply and disrupting ecosystems.

Corrosive costs

The equipment firefighters rely on — hoses, pumps, tanks — is typically made from iron and steel. These metals corrode when exposed to saltwater. “Salt can weaken and damage firefighting equipment,” noted Ping Furlan, a chemist and professor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. While marine-grade steel and anticorrosion treatments can mitigate this, retrofitting an entire fleet for saltwater use would be prohibitively expensive.

Despite these risks, fire officials sometimes use seawater in dire circumstances. Los Angeles County deployed its specialized Bombardier CL-415 “super scooper” planes during the recent Palisades fire. These planes, designed to resist corrosion, scoop water directly from the ocean and drop it on fires. But they are the exception, not the rule. Helicopters and other aircraft often rely on safer, closer freshwater sources like reservoirs.

Even when seawater is available, accessing and transporting it presents enormous logistical hurdles. Firetrucks and land-based equipment can’t draft water from the ocean because the coastline isn’t designed for such operations. “I don’t think anybody would draft out of the ocean because you can’t drive close enough to it,” said Chavez.

Transporting seawater inland would require additional steps, like pumping it into holding tanks and transferring it to fire engines. According to Captain Larry Kurtz of California Fire, this process would be time-intensive and resource-heavy, especially during fast-moving fires.

Safety is another concern. Helicopters must hover close to the ocean to fill their tanks, a maneuver complicated by rough waves. “I’m sure you could imagine what could happen if an extra-large swell or rough wave suddenly struck the side of the aircraft,” Kurtz told The Orange County Register.

Yes, sometimes seawater is used — but it’s more of an exception

Despite these challenges, seawater has been used in some cases. During the Palisades fire, super scoopers retrieved ocean water to fight the flames. Each plane carried 1,600 gallons per trip, flying rapid loops between the ocean and the fire.

But even this solution has its limits. Strong winds can scatter the water before it reaches its target, and firefighters must be careful not to drop large amounts over buildings or cars that aren’t burning, as the weight of the water can cause damage.

“Water weighs roughly 8 pounds a gallon, and you’re dropping a thousand gallons,” said Thomas. Aerial drops are typically reserved for wildland and brush areas, where the risks to infrastructure are minimal.

The road ahead

The crisis has sparked calls for systemic change. Governor Newsom ordered an independent investigation to ensure future preparedness. Meanwhile, critics have politicized the chaos. Former President Donald Trump blamed state policies, while Elon Musk pointed to environmental regulations. However, the crisis is far more complex, rooted in infrastructure challenges and the unprecedented scale of the wildfires.

“There’s no reason to think that [the Department of Water and Power] was particularly ill-prepared,” said Greg Pierce, director of the UCLA Water Resources Group. “This caught everyone off guard.”

As California faces a future of more frequent and severe wildfires, officials are grappling with how to adapt. Investing in redundant water systems, upgrading aging infrastructure, and rethinking wildfire management strategies are just some of the measures being discussed.

For now, the blazes rage on, and Los Angeles firefighters continue their desperate battle against the flames — with or without the water they need.