Countywide : Acreage to Reopen as Fire Season Ends

Thousands of acres of countryside will reopen to the public today when county fire officials declare an end to a fire season that they had predicted might be one of the worst in decades, authorities said.

Citing sufficient rainfall to reduce the risk of a major fire, the Orange County Fire Department will close this year’s fire season at 8 a.m.

“We have been extremely fortunate” this fire season, which began May 15, 1991, said Orange County Fire Department spokeswoman Kathleen Cha.

“We were highly nervous. . . . What happened in Oakland could have happened to us,” she said, referring to a devastating blaze in November that burned hundreds of homes.

The County Fire Department’s two largest blazes, near San Clemente and Irvine Lake, burned a total of 180 acres, contrasted with more than 13,567 acres burned in two major 1990 fires in Chino Hills and Carbon Canyon, she said.

But fire officials are quick to point out that the end of fire season does not mean the end of a threat of a major fire. “A couple of days of (Santa Ana) winds could bring us back” to more threatening fire conditions, Cha warned.

County fire officials attributed the limited fire damage to thousands of homeowners in outlying areas who cut back overgrown vegetation and cleared roofs of pine needles and other dried vegetation at the beginning of fire season last year.