Small canvas bags that Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) firefighters used as makeshift water containers to quickly put out a trash fire have been misdescribed on social media as women’s handbags, suggesting the LAFD is under-resourced because of budget cuts and donations of firefighting supplies to Ukraine.

It would take four days before firefighters could establish even a short line of containment around it. And yet, well before the Palisades Fire ignited Tuesday morning, preparations had begun for aggressive firefighting.

As wildfires roar into residential neighborhoods, firefighters in California and elsewhere are finding that water systems can’t keep up with the demand.