Los Angeles water chief Janisse Quiñones knew the Santa Ynez Reservoir was empty and that many fire hydrants in the city were broken, a new report claims.

Sources from within the LA Fire Department told The Daily Mail that Quiñones, who is paid $750,000 a year by the city, is being blamed by firefighters for leaving the Reservoir disconnected and allowing broken fire hydrants to go unfixed.

Quiñones directly “oversaw the shutdown and emptying of a reservoir in the Pacific Palisades during brushfire season.” The reservoir was apparently due to undergo maintenance.

Details of her past employment have also raised eyebrows, when it was revealed she was embroiled in other fire scandals.

She was previously a high-flying executive at electricity company PG&E, which went bankrupt over its liability for a number of huge wildfires in California.

She also served as senior vice president at Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) from 2021 to 2023, which caused the second-largest wildfire in California history, in 2021. The company was forced to pay $13.5 billion to settle its liability for the 2018 Camp Fire.

California governor Gavin Newsom has called for an investigation into the emptying of the Santa Ynez reservoir.

It’s also been revealed that Newsom slashed the state firefighting budget by $100 million just months before the wildfires.

According to Newsweek, Newsom approved cuts totalling $101 million from seven “wildfire and forest resilience” programs.

The reductions were part of last year’s state budget, and were signed into law by Newsom in June.

The cuts included $28 million from state conservancies that increase resilience to wildfires; $12 million from a project to protect homes from wildfires; $8 million from wildfire monitoring and research; $4 million from a forest legacy program that encourages landowners to protect their properties; and $5 million from programs for vegetation management.

In response to the revelations, Newsom took to Twitter to claim that he had in fact increased state funding to fight wildfires.

“A ridiculous lie,” wrote Newsom.

“We have doubled the size of our firefighting army, built the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet, and increased the forest management ten-fold since taking office.

“Time to serve these folks the facts.”