Program may give residents a role in fighting wildfires

Officials are debating a possible “paradigm shift” in firefighting policies that would allow residents to remain in fire zones and defend their homes. (Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)

Sept. 15, 2014 12:23 PM PT

Jay Patel and his wife Janki spray water under the eaves of their house on Cardiff Drive in Yorba Linda. The house next-door burned to the ground in the Freeway Complex fire. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A resident passes burned-out homes in Yorba Linda. (Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)

Johnny Maloet,18, right, and Corey Muir,19, help put out a fire in a home in their Yorba Linda neighborhood. Firefighters left a hose so that the two young men could finish putting out hot spots. (Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)

Jim Phung watches helplessly as his neighbor’s ridge-top home burns to the ground on Heather Ridge Drive. Before firefighters arrived, Phung and his son had tried in vain to extinguish embers with fire hoses. By the time help arrived, it was too late. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Mike Postikian uses his garden hose to battle flames coming close to his home in Granada Hills. Postikian and his family evacuated the night of Nov. 14, but returned the next morning to find their home undamaged. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

Residents along Glen Oaks Boulevard cover their mouths as smoke fills the air in Sylmar. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Robert Haroutounian walks past a message written on the wall of his brother’s home in Yorba Linda, which was devastated by the Freeway Complex fire. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)