Here’s why firefighters can’t use ocean water to put out the deadly LA wildfires

More than 130,000 people have been forced to evacuate as wildfires continue to rip through Los Angeles, causing devastation across many neighbourhoods.

Firefighters across Los Angeles are doing their best to put out the deadly blaze which has sadly killed five people, but why don’t they use ocean water?

The city is right on the coast next to the Pacific Ocean, so you’d think siphoning water from the sea would be the quickest and easiest way to put out the fire.

As explained by Technology.org, seawater can put out fires just as well as fresh water, but there are a few different reasons why firefighters don’t do it.

Firstly, the water tanks and other equipment that firefighters use is made from metals that will corrode when salt water touches it.

That means of all their expensive equipment would be totally destroyed if they used it to put out the wildfires.

On top of that, saltwater also harms plant life and can make the entire area of land it’s dumped on completely barren for many years.

The salt seeps into the ground and makes water less available to plants, so they are unable to grow, which would cause issues years into the future.

PALISADES FIRE | 2921 acres 0% containment. Extreme fire behavior, short & long-range spotting, continues to challenge firefighting efforts for the Palisades Fire. Winds gusts up to 60 MPH are expected to continue through Thursday. pic.twitter.com/QHKIh6u6FD

— L.A. County Fire Department (@LACoFDPIO) January 8, 2025

It would also be incredibly difficult to draw the water of out the ocean, load it onto trucks and transport it to the necessary location. They wouldn’t be able to use helicopters either as this would pose a safety issue.

“If we used seawater for all inland fires, we would have to draw it out of the ocean, transport it by truck to a location, dump it into some kind of portable holding pool, and then draw it into our pumps for use on the fire,” California Fire Captain Larry Kurtz told The Orange County Register.

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“As for using seawater for firefighting helicopters or ‘super scooper’ fixed-wing aircraft, the problem is safety Our helicopters hover approximately three, four feet above the water’s surface to use its suction hose to draw up water.”

“I’m sure you could imagine what could happen if an extra-large swell or rough wave suddenly struck the side of the aircraft. The lakes and reservoirs are much safer (and for most brush fires, a lot closer) than our Pacific Ocean.”

So, while getting water from the ocean would solve one problem and put out the fires in the short term, it would create lots more issues in the long term.

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Featured image by: Canva