There are three key components to making water systems more resilient, Pierce said: increasing water supply, improving local infrastructure, and bolstering power.
After a 2008 fire that destroyed 280 homes, Yorba Linda Water District in California addressed all three. It added backup generators at water pump stations that had failed during the fire, added a long-planned underground reservoir, and installed a first-of-its-kind water tank called a Heli-Hydrant.
That $70,000 tank can automatically refill itself and is reserved for helicopters to dip from, reducing the length of flight times between water pickups and drops. It was used to quickly stop the Blue Ridge Fire in 2020.