Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, the real-life couple who rose to fame on hit actuality sequence The Hills, are suing the Metropolis of Los Angeles and its Division of Water and Energy (LADWP) after dropping their Pacific Palisades house within the Los Angeles wildfires on Jan. 7.
The couple filed the lawsuit Tuesday in California’s Superior Court docket in Los Angeles County together with greater than 20 different property homeowners and residents who have been affected by the Palisades hearth. Pratt’s mom, Janet Pratt, is among the many property homeowners listed as a plaintiff.
“The Palisades Fireplace was an inescapable and unavoidable consequence of the egregious failure of the water provide system servicing areas in and round Pacific Palisades, together with having an empty water reservoir,” the {couples}’ lawyer, Peter McNulty, mentioned in an announcement. “This failure was a considerable think about inflicting my purchasers and others to endure monumental losses.”
The go well with claims the water points hampered firefighting efforts and in the end led to the harm to their properties, in response to courtroom paperwork obtained by the Los Angeles Instances. (International Information has not independently seen the paperwork as of this writing.)
The Eaton and Palisades fires, ignited by robust winds throughout one of many area’s driest years on report, have killed 28 folks and destroyed greater than 12,000 buildings, placing them among the many most harmful fires in California historical past.
There was intense scrutiny over hydrants operating dry and issues with water stress, resulting in a barrage of lawsuits towards town and the LADWP. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has referred to as for an unbiased investigation into the L.A. water utility over the problems.
Get breaking Nationwide information
For information impacting Canada and around the globe, join breaking information alerts delivered on to you once they occur.
The lawsuit mentions that the Santa Ynez Reservoir, which providers the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, was offline and had “been out of fee since February 2024” whereas awaiting repairs.
“With the Santa Ynez Reservoir successfully out of fee, hydrants in Pacific Palisades failed after three tanks every holding a million gallons [3.7 million litres] of water went dry inside a span of 12 hours,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that the water system was designed for public use, however didn’t have sufficient water stress to struggle main fires. “Defendants intentionally designed and maintained this water provide system on this approach, regardless of Los Angeles being in a fire-prone space,” the lawsuit alleges.
It additionally cites Gus Corona, enterprise supervisor of IBEW Native 18, which is the worker union for LAWDP. The lawsuit mentions a Los Angeles Instances article from Jan. 10, through which Corona mentioned it was “utterly unacceptable that this reservoir was empty for nearly a yr for minor repairs.”
“This work ought to have been accomplished in-house, they usually shouldn’t have relied on a contractor to do it; I actually consider it’s one thing that might have been averted,” Corona mentioned.
The defendants, who’re looking for an quantity in damages to be decided by trial, wish to get better the prices of repairing or changing misplaced or destroyed property, any misplaced wages or enterprise income and residing bills stemming from lack of use of their houses. They’re additionally looking for protection of lawyer charges and a trial by jury, in response to the Los Angeles Instances.
Pratt and Montag have appeared on many reveals and spoken to a number of information retailers in regards to the devastating hearth that resulted within the couple dropping all of their materials possessions.
In an interview with Good Morning America final week, Montag mentioned that when her husband instructed her to seize something she wished to maintain, her thoughts went clean.
“I used to be like, ‘How do you select?’ You recognize? My mind stopped working as a result of I used to be so overwhelmed with so many issues you possibly can’t exchange. So I grabbed my children’ teddy bears,” a tearful Montag mentioned.
Pratt shared the feelings he felt watching his youngsters’s bed room burn on the cameras of their house.
“The worst was like our child’s room that was so magical,” Pratt mentioned. “We do story time every evening, it’s like our routine, a lot love is in there. Our son’s mattress began simply burning within the form of a coronary heart. The fireplace began within the form of a coronary heart. I used to be like, ‘That is like, out of physique insane.’”
Additionally they shared that their house and their belongings weren’t insured on account of their insurance coverage firm dropping them from their coverage.
“It’s a spot that you simply love, that you simply reside, it’s a refuge from the world. And to have that be gone, it’s a very troublesome idea to proceed to day by day cope with,” Montag mentioned on X. “We have been home poor as they name it. We now have a home and every thing else is a hustle, is a grind. So yeah, we’re positively counting each greenback that we make. We’re working actually onerous to take one journey a yr.”
— With information from The Related Press
© 2025 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.