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A fire truck makes its way down Woodland Hills Drive on Friday, Sept. 14, 2018, in Woodland Hills.

Evan Cobb, Daily Herald file photo

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Smoke from the mountainside clouds the air among homes in Woodland Hills as the Pole Creek and Bald Mountain fires burn Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018.

Isaac Hale, Daily Herald file photo

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A fire hydrant is shown Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Provo.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald

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BYU professor Rob Sowby is pictured.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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In the wake of devastating fires in Maui in 2023 and Los Angeles in 2024, Brigham Young University civil and construction engineering professor Rob Sowby sought to solve a pressing debate: What is the responsibility of public water systems when it comes to combating wildfires?

His findings, which he published in a recent study, were that municipal water is inadequate to combat large-scale wildfires and that expectations otherwise are unrealistic.

“Public water systems have limitations, and they should not be the only line of defense for fires of any kind,” Sowby said.

City fire hydrants use the same water that comes out of people’s showers and sinks, and there is only so much of it. Sowby said the average fire hydrant can provide up to 1,000 to 2,000 gallons per minute to fight a house fire or warehouse fire for a few hours, but that’s no match against a wildfire that can burn for days and impact thousands of acres.

“In the case of the Los Angeles fire, you look at the news and see there’s so many million gallons over so many hours,” he said. “It’s about 10 times more than what a water system would be designed for. You might be able to open one or two or three fire hydrants and get more flow, but beyond that, that’s just not something that a system can sustain for very long, and you quickly run out of water.”

The conclusion has implications for cities across the Wasatch Front, where similar to California and Hawaii, there are communities adjoined to dry mountains that are vulnerable to wildfires.

One Utah County fireman with first-hand experience combating wildfires near his city is Woodland Hills Fire Chief Ted Mickelson.

Mickelson, who is also a civil engineer who specializes in water, called it an “interesting topic” that Sowby brought up, and said not all fires are created equal.

Structural fires, he said, are typically “quick-hit fires” that take one to four hours to fight, while some wildfires are considered “long-term fires.”

As Mickelson views it, municipal water’s relationship with wildfires isn’t cut-and-dried.

“Are hydrants designed for wildfire? Should they be designed for wildfire? Wildfires are kind of a different animal,” he said. “Hydrants are meant more for structure fire. But the interesting thought is, could we use them in a wildfire? I guess that depends on the wildfire.”

When the Bald Mountain Fire threatened Woodland Hills in 2018, Mickelson said there were several strategies to fight it off, including helicopters dumping water and wildfire crews blazing fire lines.

Public water did play a role, though. The fire department hooked its hydrants to a tank, which helicopters used to fill up water in a bucket. Fire hydrants were also the “first line of defense” if they were to hit homes, Mickelson said, and the department lined the entire street with hoses hooked to hydrants. They were prepared to utilize their full capacity of 3,000 gallons per minute for three hours — higher than the average municipality range.

“You’re trying to protect a house that the wildfire may be coming towards, and that’s what you’re going to be using a municipal system for,” he said.

In his published research, Sowby said certain fortifications using public water, such as pipes, tanks and pump stations, may be warranted but that public water could never meet the demand of a fire the scale of the one in Los Angeles.

Mickelson, who sent a Woodland Hills fire crew down to the California Palisades fire, agreed with that point.

“That was so fast moving, so large, there’s no way a municipal system could be designed to try and suppress a fire like that,” Mickelson said.

Sowby believes an understanding of public water’s limitations is important and suggested improved communication between public water’s stakeholders and better land-use planning.

“Defensible space, fire resistant materials and enhanced building codes can minimize that risk,” he said.

Mickelson warned that with growth rates pushing more people near the wilderness, these incidents may become more frequent.

“The better educated we in the public can be and more strategies we can find to fight them, I think the better off we’ll all be,” he said.