Officials Warn of Fire Danger Due to Huge Buildup of Brush : Peninsula: Three blazes in a week have made residents fearful. The dense brush in inaccessible canyons has sparked the greatest concern.

In the wake of three brush fires on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in less than a week--including one Wednesday--city and fire officials are warning that a massive brush buildup in the past few years poses a serious threat to houses, though they are hundreds of feet from wooded areas.

The most recent fire charred about two acres of grassy hillside in the gated community of Rolling Hills on a hot but windless morning. It caused about $3,000 in damage to a barn and resulted in a minor injury to a horse named Lucky. Firefighters surrounded the blaze just as it was heading into a deep canyon filled with years of accumulated, highly incendiary sage brush.

“If there were wind, God knows what could have happened,” said Councilwoman Gordana Swanson.

Swanson added that the three fires--and the Santa Barbara fires that destroyed hundreds of homes--have raised fears among her neighbors that the Palos Verdes Peninsula might be the next hot spot.

Los Angeles County Fire Battalion Chief Rene Rigaud urged homeowners in the exclusive peninsula communities to clear brush beyond the 100- or 130-feet perimeter required by city ordinances.

“We are informing people that they may need 200 feet of clearance,” Rigaud said. “We find that cooperation has increased since the Santa Barbara fire and the three fires in the area. We are getting phone calls from people for us to come out and inspect.”

Citing a recently completed Fire Department survey of brush conditions on the peninsula, he said that brush is now so high and dense that a fire “can develop flame lengths of 70 feet when it is going up slope. With wind, from 70 to 100 feet.”

Typical winds can carry flying embers much farther, he added.

“Last month, we had a fire on the Palos Verdes Estates golf course, in a small canyon in some heavy brush, with just a little bit of wind, the ocean breeze. We had five (fire) starts on a wood roof 600 feet away. That is what worries us.”

In 1973, 13 homes in Rolling Hills were destroyed in the worst fire on the Palos Verdes Peninsula within memory.

The Wednesday morning fire was caused when live wires from an exploding transformer landed in dry grass, Rigaud said. Fire investigators suspect firecrackers as the cause of a Saturday blaze that burned about four acres in Rancho Palos Verdes.

The largest fire on the peninsula this season, which burned 10 acres near the Palos Verdes Golf Course last Thursday, was started by children playing with matches, Rigaud said.

“We have been able to hit them hard and heavy with a lot of manpower and surround them,” Rigaud said. About 120 firefighters responded to the most recent blaze. Two helicopters hovered overhead but were not used.

Palos Verdes Estates Councilwoman Ruth Gralow said that the ability of the county Fire Department to overwhelm a fire with heavy concentrations of personnel and equipment was a major reason the seaside municipality switched from its own Fire Department to the larger county unit four years ago.

She said the county department’s success during the last week shows that the city made the right choice.

But, despite success in battling the fires so far, Rigaud said he worries about sage brush--20 tons per acre--lying in inaccessible canyons that might form a route for fire between neighborhoods. Sage is particularly combustible because of its high oil content. “The brush gets to seven to eight feet high” in some canyons, he said.

Rolling Hills Councilwoman Ginny Leeuwenburgh, who observed the Wednesday fire, said that canyon is a particular concern because it is loaded with brush and runs from land-locked Rolling Hills Estates clear to the ocean.

Fire officials are conducting a detailed survey of the property lines and brush concentrations in an effort to work out an abatement program with the peninsula municipalities, which pride themselves on a natural, rustic look.

Walter Warriner, Rancho Palos Verdes superintendent of parks and Palos Verdes Estates city forester, said officials are putting fire safety above preserving the pristine conditions in undeveloped areas.

“We do have natural parkland areas in Rancho Palos Verdes and Palos Verdes Estates,” he said. “However, we do have a very aggressive weed abatement program. We respond to any and all requests from the Fire Department.”

“In our city, where a quarter of our area is parkland,” said Gralow, “our maintenance guys are working all the time to keep the brush down to Fire Department standards.”

In addition to brush concentrations, Rigaud said that many houses with wood shake roofs pose an extreme risk in a fire. The houses that were lost in the 1973 fire all had shake roofs, he said.

Among the four peninsula municipalities, only Rolling Hills now requires non-combustible roofs, such as ceramic or concrete tile. The ordinance, which was passed last year, applies to new construction and renovations but permits residents to maintain existing roofs.

“The concern for all of us today is, where are the shake roofs?” said Leeuwenburgh.

Rolling Hills Estates requires highly fire-resistant roofs--which include treated shakes--on new construction and roofs with lesser fire resistance for replacements of buildings built before 1980.

In Rancho Palos Verdes and Palos Verdes Estates, roof regulations vary from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Gralow said she raised the question of shake roofs in the Valmonte area of Palos Verdes Estates at the Tuesday night council meeting. “We could consider banning them in the future,” she said.

Rancho Palos Verdes Councilman Bob Ryan said it might be a good idea to require all residents to replace shake roofs, perhaps during a four- to five-year grace period.

“We have been very lucky we haven’t had one of these fires. We are going to have (to) do something,” he said.

“I live on a canyon myself, and I have a shake roof,” he said, adding that he would put a tile roof on his house in conjunction with an upcoming building addition. “The shake makes it look ‘foresty,’ but they scare me.”