LOS ANGELES : Proposal Would Equip Pools for Firefighting

A proposed ordinance would require owners of new residential swimming pools in Los Angeles to install piping that would allow firefighters to tap the miniature reservoirs in an emergency.

The Los Angeles City Council’s Public Safety Committee asked city attorneys Monday to draft such a measure, but Chairman Marvin Braude conceded that the full council might not pass it.

“If you can afford to buy a home and build a swimming pool, the question is, should you be required to contribute to the public safety of your neighborhood by having the pool water available for firefighting purposes?” Braude said. “That’s the moral question.”

Braude made the proposal last year after brush fires devastated Malibu, Laguna Beach and Altadena. The disaster highlighted the tinderbox vulnerability of hillside areas to loss of water pressure.