LAGUNA BEACH : Fire Victims’ Water Bills to Evaporate

Residents who lost their homes in the Oct. 27 firestorm will have one less thing to worry about for the time being: their water bills.

The Laguna Beach County Water District will waive the water bills for all people who lost their homes in the disaster, as well as provide free water as they rebuild and landscape their homes, district General Manager Joseph Sovella said.

“We are going to forgive the water bills until they are moved back in,” he said.

In addition, the water district won’t charge residents who live in the immediate burn areas for excess water they may have used during the fire to protect their homes, such as hosing down their roofs, Sovella said.

The owners of two homes in Orange that were seriously damaged by a separate wildfire last month will also receive free water as they rebuild, according to the city water department.

Water districts in Orange County can expect similar breaks.

The Metropolitan Water District, which supplies water to agencies throughout Southern California, recently announced it will waive charges for water used to fight the fires.

“We’re sorry to have seen the devastation,” MWD spokesman Rob Hallwachs said. “We don’t want the cost (of water) to be any additional burden on anyone.”

While not all the water to fight the wildfires came from MWD, the agency did supply as much of 50 acre-feet, or 16.3 million gallons, Hallwachs said. An acre-foot of water, enough to supply the typical needs of two households during a year, costs $318.

In Laguna Beach, Sovella estimates the district used about 16 million gallons of water, worth about $16,000, to battle the Laguna wildfire, which destroyed 366 homes and caused more than $400 million in damage. Water district coverage includes Emerald Bay and El Moro Beach Mobile Home Park, areas both hit hard by the fire.