2-Mile Fire Planned as Ban Ends : Calabasas-Agoura Burn Gets OK

A weeklong moratorium on firebreak burning ended Wednesday as state forestry officials agreed to let Los Angeles County firefighters set a two-mile controlled fire across parts of Calabasas and Agoura.

The state action clears the way for the county to begin torching a 100-yard-wide safety strip next to the Ventura Freeway between Mureau and Chesebro roads as soon as Monday, said Capt. Scott Franklin, head of Los Angeles County’s “prescribed burn” brush clearance program.

A 30-day ban on such burning had been imposed by state forestry officials a week ago. State experts said at the time that weather conditions were too dangerous for fires to be used to create firebreaks in Southern California.

The moratorium caused county firefighters to scrap plans to begin burning July 25.

In place of the fire, county officials arranged for a rancher to move cattle into one field opposite homes in Agoura’s Liberty Canyon that is vulnerable to brush fires. Firefighters agreed to provide water for the cattle as long as they munched on flammable grass.

Cattle to Be Moved

Franklin said he must now ask rancher Al McLauren to round up the cattle and move them out so the field can be torched.

“We’re back in business. But I’m not going to enjoy telling that poor rancher that we’re going to burn his grass after all,” Franklin said.

According to Franklin, forestry officials informed the county that the burning ban was necessary because the state was temporarily without liability insurance. He said $6 million in insurance coverage is now available to the state in case a firebreak fire leaps unexpectedly out of control.

Forestry officials in Sacramento could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.

County officials said the new burning effort cannot be started this week because weather forecasts call for mild Santa Ana winds through the weekend.

About 100 firefighters will be used to control the firebreak blaze, officials said. An area along the north side of the freeway between Chesebro and Mureau roads and on the south side between Las Virgenes and Mureau roads will be burned.

The county’s brush-thinning effort was started after a 1978 Agoura wildfire raced through to the ocean. It killed one man, burned 26,000 acres and destroyed more than 200 homes.