Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, the real-life couple who rose to fame on hit reality series The Hills, are suing the City of Los Angeles and its Department of Water and Power (LADWP) after losing their Pacific Palisades home in the Los Angeles wildfires on Jan. 7.
The couple filed the lawsuit Tuesday in California’s Superior Court in Los Angeles County along with more than 20 other property owners and residents who were affected by the Palisades fire. Pratt’s mother, Janet Pratt, is among the property owners listed as a plaintiff.
“The Palisades Fire was an inescapable and unavoidable consequence of the egregious failure of the water supply system servicing areas in and around Pacific Palisades, including having an empty water reservoir,” the couples’ lawyer, Peter McNulty, said in a statement. “This failure was a substantial factor in causing my clients and others to suffer enormous losses.”
The suit claims the water issues hampered firefighting efforts and ultimately led to the damage to their properties, according to court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. (Global News has not independently viewed the documents as of this writing.)
The Eaton and Palisades fires, ignited by strong winds during one of the region’s driest years on record, have killed 28 people and destroyed more than 12,000 structures, putting them among the most destructive fires in California history.
There has been intense scrutiny over hydrants running dry and problems with water pressure, leading to a barrage of lawsuits against the city and the LADWP. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for an independent investigation into the L.A. water utility over the issues.
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The lawsuit mentions that the Santa Ynez Reservoir, which services the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, was offline and had “been out of commission since February 2024” while awaiting repairs.
“With the Santa Ynez Reservoir effectively out of commission, hydrants in Pacific Palisades failed after three tanks each holding one million gallons [3.7 million litres] of water went dry within a span of 12 hours,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that the water system was designed for public use, but didn’t have enough water pressure to fight major fires. “Defendants deliberately designed and maintained this water supply system in this way, despite Los Angeles being in a fire-prone area,” the lawsuit alleges.
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It also cites Gus Corona, business manager of IBEW Local 18, which is the employee union for LAWDP. The lawsuit mentions a Los Angeles Times article from Jan. 10, in which Corona said it was “completely unacceptable that this reservoir was empty for almost a year for minor repairs.”
“This work should have been done in-house, and they shouldn’t have depended on a contractor to do it; I truly believe it’s something that could have been avoided,” Corona said.
The defendants, who are seeking an amount in damages to be determined by trial, want to recover the costs of repairing or replacing lost or destroyed property, any lost wages or business profits and living expenses stemming from loss of use of their homes. They are also seeking coverage of lawyer fees and a trial by jury, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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Pratt and Montag have appeared on many shows and spoken to multiple news outlets about the devastating fire that resulted in the couple losing all of their material possessions.
In an interview with Good Morning America last week, Montag said that when her husband told her to grab anything she wanted to keep, her mind went blank.
“I was like, ‘How do you choose?’ You know? My brain stopped working because I was so overwhelmed with so many things you can’t replace. So I grabbed my kids’ teddy bears,” a tearful Montag said.
Pratt shared the emotions he felt watching his children’s bedroom burn on the cameras in their home.
“The worst was like our kid’s room that was so magical,” Pratt said. “We do story time each night, it’s like our routine, so much love is in there. Our son’s bed started just burning in the shape of a heart. The fire started in the shape of a heart. I was like, ‘This is like, out of body insane.’”
They also shared that their home and their belongings were not insured due to their insurance company dropping them from their policy.
“It’s a place that you love, that you live, it’s a refuge from the world. And to have that be gone, it’s a really difficult concept to continue to daily deal with,” Montag said on X. “We were house poor as they call it. We have a house and everything else is a hustle, is a grind. So yeah, we’re definitely counting every dollar that we make. We’re working really hard to take one trip a year.”
— With files from The Associated Press
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