Fire Threat in Dry Year : Police Join Fight to Protect Brushlands

Alarmed by a lack of rain and more fires in six months than occurred all last year, fire and police officials Tuesday announced an unprecedented joint offensive in Orange County to prevent brushland fires.

“This year is very well ripe (for fires),” Orange City Fire Department Chief Martel Thompson said at a press conference. “It’s like waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

County Fire Chief Larry Holms said the threat is exacerbated by the presence of fireworks this week, but even after July 4, “the fire problem is going to continue on until we get winter rains.”

Thompson, Holms and police and fire representatives from Brea, the California Highway Patrol and the Sheriff’s Department joined Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez in announcing what Vasquez called a “war on the county wild lands fire threat.”

Vasquez’s district covers much of northern and eastern Orange County, including Santa Ana, Silverado, Modjeska and other canyons and parts of the Cleveland National Forest.

In May, the county Fire Department declared about 175,000 acres of wild lands off-limits to the public, and cities have closed another 25,000 acres.

Police will enforce the bans, “the first time where we have had law enforcement and fire together taking a united front” on such a large scale to prevent fires, Holms said.

Holms said unusually light rainfall this year, Southern California’s desert climate and combustible roofs combine to present a “potential for conflagration.”

The county Fire Department reported 92 brush fires that burned 156 acres in all of last year. From January through May of this year, 100 brush fires burned more than 200 acres in unincorporated areas.

Holms said authorities would work to keep four-wheel-drive vehicles, motorcycles and other off-road vehicles out of wild lands closed to the public.

In Orange, patrols consisting of a firefighter and police officer riding together will watch for dangerous situations, including fireworks.

“Fireworks and the brushlands do not mix,” Holms said. “They are a prescription for disaster.”