Reality Star Spencer Pratt Sues City Of L.A. After His Home Burns Down

[Ubiquitous]

Former reality star Spencer Pratt and his wife, former “The Hills” alum Heidi
Montag, have made good on their promise to sue the City of Los Angeles for
the destruction of their $3 million home in the wildfires earlier this month.

The 41-year-old filed the lawsuit in California’s Superior Court in Los
Angeles County on Tuesday, saying the house fire was “an inescapable and
unavoidable consequence” of the city’s alleged mismanagement of water, per
People. Other plaintiffs besides Pratt and Montag include Pratt’s mother,
Janet Pratt, and someone named William Pratt.

The former reality stars are alleging “inverse condemnation” in the lawsuit.
This allows property owners to seek compensation for damages caused by the
government.

Pratt’s lawsuit mentions the Santa Ynez Reservoir, described as being “out of
commission since February 2024.” The suit alleges that the City of Los
Angeles and the Department of Water and Power (LADWP) decided to “operate the
water supply system” despite the drained reservoir to save money. The
reservoir is reportedly awaiting repairs.

“With the Santa Ynez Reservoir effectively out of commission, hydrants in
Pacific Palisades failed after three tanks each holding one million gallons
of water went dry within a span of 12 hours,” the document states.

“Defendants deliberately designed and maintained this water supply system in
this way, despite Los Angeles being in a fire-prone area,” it said.

Pratt and his fellow plaintiff’s lawsuit also notes criticism previously
stated by a union employee.

“It’s completely unacceptable that this reservoir was empty for almost a year
for minor repairs,” Gus Corona told The Los Angeles Times in an article
published January 10, which the lawsuit references. “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.”

They are suing for an undisclosed amount and are also seeking attorneys’ fees
and trial by jury, the outlet noted. Damages are noted to be their destroyed
properties, loss of enjoyment of their properties, and loss of wages and
earning capacity.

The Eaton and Palisades fires alone killed 28 people and destroyed more than
12,000 structures, making them among the most destructive fires in California
history, per AP News.

Pratt and Montag have been vocal about the loss of their home, frequently
posting about it on social media and keeping their followers updated.

“I’m watching our house burn down on the security cameras,” Pratt told fans
in a Snapchat video taken from inside a car right after the fires broke out.

The father of two told blogger Perez Hilton earlier this month that he was
planning to sue the city, noting how he was unable to get help from the Los
Angeles Fire Department as his house went up in smoke.

“They never came. The gate was still locked,” Pratt said. “They never came. I
watched from my security cameras until our house burned down. There were no
fire trucks.”

--
Don't jump!

[Rhino]

Former reality star Spencer Pratt and his wife, former “The Hills” alum Heidi
Montag, have made good on their promise to sue the City of Los Angeles for
the destruction of their $3 million home in the wildfires earlier this month.
The 41-year-old filed the lawsuit in California’s Superior Court in Los
Angeles County on Tuesday, saying the house fire was “an inescapable and
unavoidable consequence” of the city’s alleged mismanagement of water, per
People. Other plaintiffs besides Pratt and Montag include Pratt’s mother,
Janet Pratt, and someone named William Pratt.
The former reality stars are alleging “inverse condemnation” in the lawsuit.
This allows property owners to seek compensation for damages caused by the
government.
Pratt’s lawsuit mentions the Santa Ynez Reservoir, described as being “out of
commission since February 2024.” The suit alleges that the City of Los
Angeles and the Department of Water and Power (LADWP) decided to “operate the
water supply system” despite the drained reservoir to save money. The
reservoir is reportedly awaiting repairs.
“With the Santa Ynez Reservoir effectively out of commission, hydrants in
Pacific Palisades failed after three tanks each holding one million gallons
of water went dry within a span of 12 hours,” the document states.
“Defendants deliberately designed and maintained this water supply system in
this way, despite Los Angeles being in a fire-prone area,” it said.
Pratt and his fellow plaintiff’s lawsuit also notes criticism previously
stated by a union employee.
“It’s completely unacceptable that this reservoir was empty for almost a year
for minor repairs,” Gus Corona told The Los Angeles Times in an article
published January 10, which the lawsuit references. “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.”
They are suing for an undisclosed amount and are also seeking attorneys’ fees
and trial by jury, the outlet noted. Damages are noted to be their destroyed
properties, loss of enjoyment of their properties, and loss of wages and
earning capacity.
The Eaton and Palisades fires alone killed 28 people and destroyed more than
12,000 structures, making them among the most destructive fires in California
history, per AP News.
Pratt and Montag have been vocal about the loss of their home, frequently
posting about it on social media and keeping their followers updated.
“I’m watching our house burn down on the security cameras,” Pratt told fans
in a Snapchat video taken from inside a car right after the fires broke out.
The father of two told blogger Perez Hilton earlier this month that he was
planning to sue the city, noting how he was unable to get help from the Los
Angeles Fire Department as his house went up in smoke.
“They never came. The gate was still locked,” Pratt said. “They never came. I
watched from my security cameras until our house burned down. There were no
fire trucks.”

If ever there was a situation that called for a huge class action suit,
this is it. Thousands of people impacted and 28 dead with incompetence
and malfeasance rife within the political/bureaucratic class just
screams for a court to award massive damages to those affected. Criminal
charges should also be sought for all those "leaders" whose incompetence
- or outright malfeasance - contributed enormously to this disaster.

And, of course, voters need to massively rethink who they are electing
to office to ensure that they choose people who put competence ahead of
woke nonsense.

[BTR1701]

Former reality star Spencer Pratt and his wife, former THE HILLS alum Heidi
Montag, have made good on their promise to sue the City of Los Angeles for
the destruction of their $3 million home in the wildfires earlier this month.
The 41-year-old filed the lawsuit in California’s Superior Court in Los
Angeles County on Tuesday, saying the house fire was "an inescapable and
unavoidable consequence" of the city's alleged mismanagement of water, per
People. Other plaintiffs besides Pratt and Montag include Pratt's mother,
Janet Pratt, and someone named William Pratt.
Pratt's lawsuit mentions the Santa Ynez Reservoir, described as being "out of
commission since February 2024". The suit alleges that the City of Los
Angeles and the Department of Water and Power (LADWP) decided to "operate the
water supply system" despite the drained reservoir to save money.

The 'progressives' aren't interested in saving money per se. They're happy to
spend billions upon billions of tax dollars. It's just that they don't want to
waste it on something as boring and (to them) unnecessary as public safety.
They'd much prefer to take that money and spend it on vagrants or hand it over
to illegals.

"With the Santa Ynez Reservoir effectively out of commission, hydrants in
Pacific Palisades failed after three tanks each holding one million gallons
of water went dry within a span of 12 hours," the document states.
"Defendants deliberately designed and maintained this water supply system in
this way, despite Los Angeles being in a fire-prone area," it said.
Pratt and his fellow plaintiff's lawsuit also notes criticism previously
stated by a union employee.
"It's completely unacceptable that this reservoir was empty for almost a year
for minor repairs," Gus Corona told The Los Angeles Times in an article
published January 10, which the lawsuit references. "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."

Except they couldn't do it in-house. They were forced by Karen Bass's DEI
policies to hire outside contractors that support DEI.

According to a LAFD firefighter, "the city will only purchase from vendors
that support DEI. So when we're repairing critical infrastructure or
purchasing necessary equipment so that we can do our jobs, we have to
patronize vendors that charge twice as much for the products and services
and/or take twice as long to deliver those products and services because they
practice DEI, rather than go with a vendor that saves taxpayers significant
money or can get us our equipment to us tomorrow.

This is a firefighter. He's talking about ordering fire equipment. You know,
the stuff they use to save lives. But because of the DEI obsession in the
Karen Bass administration, the DEI vendors trump all others, no matter the
cost to taxpayers, no matter the amount of time firefighters have to go
without critical equipment. And how does a vendor even prove their DEI bona
fides to qualify under these idiotic rules? Do they have to send in a
spreadsheet of all their employees and which DEI boxes they check?

The firefighter goes on to say, "DEI programs also put both firefighters and
the public in actual danger. I've personally witnessed in my own drill tower,
training officials passing women who couldn't meet the physical criteria that
the men did so that LAFD DEI goals were met regarding percentage of women
firefighters. They couldn't perform the required number of push-ups, hold a
hose line of a required size, throwing up a ladder of the required size. We no
longer require two firefighters to be able to throw up a 35-foot ladder
because of the number of women who were failing that requirement. So now a
35-foot ladder is designated for three firefighters, not two."

Yep, this is what I want outside my house if it's on fire and I'm trapped
inside. I want them to hold a committee meeting down below to see if they have
enough men on the brigade to throw up the ladder with only two firefighters.

Anyone who implements such policies should be immediately removed from office.
That person is obviously not just incompetent, but borderline insane.

Of the leftists here on RAT, one of you please justify why a policy like this
should exist. Why critical fire equipment should be held hostage and cost the
taxpayer significantly more because of DEI; why abilities critical to saving
lives are being eliminated from the LAFD training requirements in service to
DEI.

"They never came. The gate was still locked," Pratt said. "They never came. I
watched from my security cameras until our house burned down. There were no
fire trucks."

Meanwhile, the fire department is doing now in anticipation of more high winds
what they didn't do back in early January and pre-positioning firefighters and
equipment in areas of high fire risk.

That's gotta be giving their lawyers heartburn, because by doing so, they're
tacitly admitting it's what they should have done in the first place and
failed to do, which isn't going to be good for them when all the lawsuits
start hitting the courts.

[Rhino]

Post by BTR1701

Former reality star Spencer Pratt and his wife, former THE HILLS alum Heidi
Montag, have made good on their promise to sue the City of Los Angeles for
the destruction of their $3 million home in the wildfires earlier this month.
The 41-year-old filed the lawsuit in California’s Superior Court in Los
Angeles County on Tuesday, saying the house fire was "an inescapable and
unavoidable consequence" of the city's alleged mismanagement of water, per
People. Other plaintiffs besides Pratt and Montag include Pratt's mother,
Janet Pratt, and someone named William Pratt.
Pratt's lawsuit mentions the Santa Ynez Reservoir, described as being "out of
commission since February 2024". The suit alleges that the City of Los
Angeles and the Department of Water and Power (LADWP) decided to "operate the
water supply system" despite the drained reservoir to save money.

The 'progressives' aren't interested in saving money per se. They're happy to
spend billions upon billions of tax dollars. It's just that they don't want to
waste it on something as boring and (to them) unnecessary as public safety.
They'd much prefer to take that money and spend it on vagrants or hand it over
to illegals.

"With the Santa Ynez Reservoir effectively out of commission, hydrants in
Pacific Palisades failed after three tanks each holding one million gallons
of water went dry within a span of 12 hours," the document states.
"Defendants deliberately designed and maintained this water supply system in
this way, despite Los Angeles being in a fire-prone area," it said.
Pratt and his fellow plaintiff's lawsuit also notes criticism previously
stated by a union employee.
"It's completely unacceptable that this reservoir was empty for almost a year
for minor repairs," Gus Corona told The Los Angeles Times in an article
published January 10, which the lawsuit references. "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."

Except they couldn't do it in-house. They were forced by Karen Bass's DEI
policies to hire outside contractors that support DEI.
According to a LAFD firefighter, "the city will only purchase from vendors
that support DEI. So when we're repairing critical infrastructure or
purchasing necessary equipment so that we can do our jobs, we have to
patronize vendors that charge twice as much for the products and services
and/or take twice as long to deliver those products and services because they
practice DEI, rather than go with a vendor that saves taxpayers significant
money or can get us our equipment to us tomorrow.
This is a firefighter. He's talking about ordering fire equipment. You know,
the stuff they use to save lives. But because of the DEI obsession in the
Karen Bass administration, the DEI vendors trump all others, no matter the
cost to taxpayers, no matter the amount of time firefighters have to go
without critical equipment. And how does a vendor even prove their DEI bona
fides to qualify under these idiotic rules? Do they have to send in a
spreadsheet of all their employees and which DEI boxes they check?
The firefighter goes on to say, "DEI programs also put both firefighters and
the public in actual danger. I've personally witnessed in my own drill tower,
training officials passing women who couldn't meet the physical criteria that
the men did so that LAFD DEI goals were met regarding percentage of women
firefighters. They couldn't perform the required number of push-ups, hold a
hose line of a required size, throwing up a ladder of the required size. We no
longer require two firefighters to be able to throw up a 35-foot ladder
because of the number of women who were failing that requirement. So now a
35-foot ladder is designated for three firefighters, not two."
Yep, this is what I want outside my house if it's on fire and I'm trapped
inside. I want them to hold a committee meeting down below to see if they have
enough men on the brigade to throw up the ladder with only two firefighters.
Anyone who implements such policies should be immediately removed from office.
That person is obviously not just incompetent, but borderline insane.
Of the leftists here on RAT, one of you please justify why a policy like this
should exist. Why critical fire equipment should be held hostage and cost the
taxpayer significantly more because of DEI; why abilities critical to saving
lives are being eliminated from the LAFD training requirements in service to
DEI.

"They never came. The gate was still locked," Pratt said. "They never came. I
watched from my security cameras until our house burned down. There were no
fire trucks."

Meanwhile, the fire department is doing now in anticipation of more high winds
what they didn't do back in early January and pre-positioning firefighters and
equipment in areas of high fire risk.
That's gotta be giving their lawyers heartburn, because by doing so, they're
tacitly admitting it's what they should have done in the first place and
failed to do, which isn't going to be good for them when all the lawsuits
start hitting the courts.

Have the reservoirs been refilled yet? If not, I'm not sure what good
pre-positioning firefighters and gear is going to do since they can't do
much without water.

Also, is anyone giving thought to converting the equipment so that it
works with sea water? According to an article I read, they can't really
use sea water because it damages the equipment, at least in the long
term. I can't help but wonder if the equipment could be coated or
treated with something so that it better resists the damage caused by
salt water.

I don't know if that is realistic though. Has anyone looked at the
consequences of dumping large quantities of salt water on the ground? Is
it going to kill the grass and trees and even make it impossible for
things to grow where the salt water has been? Somebody needs to find
existing research or even do new research to figure out if salt water is
ever going to be a reasonable solution to large forest fires.

[anim8rfsk]

Post by Rhino

Post by BTR1701

Former reality star Spencer Pratt and his wife, former THE HILLS alum Heidi
Montag, have made good on their promise to sue the City of Los Angeles for
the destruction of their $3 million home in the wildfires earlier this month.
The 41-year-old filed the lawsuit in California’s Superior Court in Los
Angeles County on Tuesday, saying the house fire was "an inescapable and
unavoidable consequence" of the city's alleged mismanagement of water, per
People. Other plaintiffs besides Pratt and Montag include Pratt's mother,
Janet Pratt, and someone named William Pratt.
Pratt's lawsuit mentions the Santa Ynez Reservoir, described as being "out of
commission since February 2024". The suit alleges that the City of Los
Angeles and the Department of Water and Power (LADWP) decided to "operate the
water supply system" despite the drained reservoir to save money.

The 'progressives' aren't interested in saving money per se. They're happy to
spend billions upon billions of tax dollars. It's just that they don't want to
waste it on something as boring and (to them) unnecessary as public safety.
They'd much prefer to take that money and spend it on vagrants or hand it over
to illegals.

"With the Santa Ynez Reservoir effectively out of commission, hydrants in
Pacific Palisades failed after three tanks each holding one million gallons
of water went dry within a span of 12 hours," the document states.
"Defendants deliberately designed and maintained this water supply system in
this way, despite Los Angeles being in a fire-prone area," it said.
Pratt and his fellow plaintiff's lawsuit also notes criticism previously
stated by a union employee.
"It's completely unacceptable that this reservoir was empty for almost a year
for minor repairs," Gus Corona told The Los Angeles Times in an article
published January 10, which the lawsuit references. "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."

Except they couldn't do it in-house. They were forced by Karen Bass's DEI
policies to hire outside contractors that support DEI.
According to a LAFD firefighter, "the city will only purchase from vendors
that support DEI. So when we're repairing critical infrastructure or
purchasing necessary equipment so that we can do our jobs, we have to
patronize vendors that charge twice as much for the products and services
and/or take twice as long to deliver those products and services because they
practice DEI, rather than go with a vendor that saves taxpayers significant
money or can get us our equipment to us tomorrow.
This is a firefighter. He's talking about ordering fire equipment. You know,
the stuff they use to save lives. But because of the DEI obsession in the
Karen Bass administration, the DEI vendors trump all others, no matter the
cost to taxpayers, no matter the amount of time firefighters have to go
without critical equipment. And how does a vendor even prove their DEI bona
fides to qualify under these idiotic rules? Do they have to send in a
spreadsheet of all their employees and which DEI boxes they check?
The firefighter goes on to say, "DEI programs also put both firefighters and
the public in actual danger. I've personally witnessed in my own drill tower,
training officials passing women who couldn't meet the physical criteria that
the men did so that LAFD DEI goals were met regarding percentage of women
firefighters. They couldn't perform the required number of push-ups, hold a
hose line of a required size, throwing up a ladder of the required size. We no
longer require two firefighters to be able to throw up a 35-foot ladder
because of the number of women who were failing that requirement. So now a
35-foot ladder is designated for three firefighters, not two."
Yep, this is what I want outside my house if it's on fire and I'm trapped
inside. I want them to hold a committee meeting down below to see if they have
enough men on the brigade to throw up the ladder with only two firefighters.
Anyone who implements such policies should be immediately removed from office.
That person is obviously not just incompetent, but borderline insane.
Of the leftists here on RAT, one of you please justify why a policy like this
should exist. Why critical fire equipment should be held hostage and cost the
taxpayer significantly more because of DEI; why abilities critical to saving
lives are being eliminated from the LAFD training requirements in service to
DEI.

"They never came. The gate was still locked," Pratt said. "They never came. I
watched from my security cameras until our house burned down. There were no
fire trucks."

Meanwhile, the fire department is doing now in anticipation of more high winds
what they didn't do back in early January and pre-positioning firefighters and
equipment in areas of high fire risk.
That's gotta be giving their lawyers heartburn, because by doing so, they're
tacitly admitting it's what they should have done in the first place and
failed to do, which isn't going to be good for them when all the lawsuits
start hitting the courts.

Have the reservoirs been refilled yet? If not, I'm not sure what good
pre-positioning firefighters and gear is going to do since they can't do
much without water.
Also, is anyone giving thought to converting the equipment so that it
works with sea water? According to an article I read, they can't really
use sea water because it damages the equipment, at least in the long
term. I can't help but wonder if the equipment could be coated or
treated with something so that it better resists the damage caused by
salt water.
I don't know if that is realistic though. Has anyone looked at the
consequences of dumping large quantities of salt water on the ground? Is
it going to kill the grass and trees and even make it impossible for
things to grow where the salt water has been? Somebody needs to find
existing research or even do new research to figure out if salt water is
ever going to be a reasonable solution to large forest fires.

You can’t use sea water because it will destroy the endangered Triffid
population.

[BTR1701]

Post by Rhino

Post by BTR1701
Meanwhile, the fire department is doing now in anticipation of more high winds
what they didn't do back in early January and pre-positioning firefighters and
equipment in areas of high fire risk.
That's gotta be giving their lawyers heartburn, because by doing so, they're
tacitly admitting it's what they should have done in the first place and
failed to do, which isn't going to be good for them when all the lawsuits
start hitting the courts.

Have the reservoirs been refilled yet?

Nope. Still empty. No one will say why.

Post by Rhino
If not, I'm not sure what good
pre-positioning firefighters and gear is going to do since they can't do
much without water.

The three million-gallon tanks they initially used have been refilled but the
Santa Ynez reservoir is still empty. That means they'll have another 17 hours
of water in case of another fire before the hydrants run dry again.

Post by Rhino
Also, is anyone giving thought to converting the equipment so that it
works with sea water? According to an article I read, they can't really
use sea water because it damages the equipment, at least in the long
term. I can't help but wonder if the equipment could be coated or
treated with something so that it better resists the damage caused by
salt water.

Sea water isn't ideal because pouring it all over the hills kills the soil so
nothing will regrow and it damages things like stormwater drains. When you
have an absolute emergency, like they did several weeks ago, and all the
freshwater options are gone because of Karen Bass's spectacular incompetence,
then yes, dipping one of those superscooper planes into the ocean might be
your last resort, but it should never come to that.

What needs to happen is that a desalination plant needs to be constructed
somewhere along the coast near where these fires occur (Point Mugu or Point
Dume would be ideal) and a pumping station built so that freshwater can be
sent from it up to existing reservoirs. This is what a government actually
concerned with mitigating fires would do. Not hand out billions of dollars to
the drug addicts and mental patients who *start* 14,000 fires/year in L.A.

[Rhino]

Post by BTR1701

Post by Rhino

Post by BTR1701
Meanwhile, the fire department is doing now in anticipation of more high winds
what they didn't do back in early January and pre-positioning firefighters and
equipment in areas of high fire risk.
That's gotta be giving their lawyers heartburn, because by doing so, they're
tacitly admitting it's what they should have done in the first place and
failed to do, which isn't going to be good for them when all the lawsuits
start hitting the courts.

Have the reservoirs been refilled yet?

Nope. Still empty. No one will say why.

Post by Rhino
If not, I'm not sure what good
pre-positioning firefighters and gear is going to do since they can't do
much without water.

The three million-gallon tanks they initially used have been refilled but the
Santa Ynez reservoir is still empty. That means they'll have another 17 hours
of water in case of another fire before the hydrants run dry again.

Post by Rhino
Also, is anyone giving thought to converting the equipment so that it
works with sea water? According to an article I read, they can't really
use sea water because it damages the equipment, at least in the long
term. I can't help but wonder if the equipment could be coated or
treated with something so that it better resists the damage caused by
salt water.

Sea water isn't ideal because pouring it all over the hills kills the soil so
nothing will regrow and it damages things like stormwater drains. When you
have an absolute emergency, like they did several weeks ago, and all the
freshwater options are gone because of Karen Bass's spectacular incompetence,
then yes, dipping one of those superscooper planes into the ocean might be
your last resort, but it should never come to that.

Thank you. Now I understand that sea water is only ever going to be a
last resort.

Post by BTR1701
What needs to happen is that a desalination plant needs to be constructed
somewhere along the coast near where these fires occur (Point Mugu or Point
Dume would be ideal) and a pumping station built so that freshwater can be
sent from it up to existing reservoirs. This is what a government actually
concerned with mitigating fires would do. Not hand out billions of dollars to
the drug addicts and mental patients who *start* 14,000 fires/year in L.A.

Maybe Karen Bass can get her many friends in Africa to build that
desalination plant and pumping station using all that amazing technology
the Africans figured out many centuries ago? I have it on good (?)
authority that the African cultures were far more advanced before the
Europeans colonized Africa than even the best Western tech is today so
we might as well use her connections to get out of this situation....