Manhattan Beach Helps Residents Gird for Quakes : Safety: City inspectors are giving free residential inspections to the first 900 homeowners who apply. Those who make repairs could receive a tax break.

Should the Big One rock Southern California, there may be fewer foundations loosened, fewer burst water heaters and fewer bookcases smashed to the floor at the homes in one local city.

A new earthquake preparedness program in Manhattan Beach provides free residential inspections to the first 900 homeowners who apply over the next four months. City building inspectors will spend an hour or more probing the interior and exterior of homes in search of hazards.

“We thought this was a good way of preparing the community rather than just waiting for the Big One,” said Mohamed Ganaba, a city building official. “When we think in terms of earthquake preparedness we usually think of having water and food. But there’s also the thought of making the home as safe as can be.”

The inspectors provide homeowners with a list of recommended improvements, but there is no requirement that the repairs be completed. And because the program is only advisory, those who agree to the inspections must sign a form waiving the city’s liability if there is any damage during an earthquake.

Homeowners who do follow up on the suggestions get tax relief along with peace of mind. The county provides an incentive for homeowners to make such repairs by excluding seismic retrofitting from assessments as new construction.

The pilot project, which began last week during National Building Safety Week, is aimed at capitalizing on what is known about earthquakes’ effects. Scientists still cannot predict when or where temblors will hit next, but there has been significant research on what they do to structures when they do hit, officials said.

Many cities have inspection programs for commercial buildings to ensure they comply with state earthquake standards but Don Watson, executive vice president of the International Conference of Building Officials, said he knows of no other such program for residential homes.

The South Bay’s coastal cities are considered generally safe during earthquakes compared to other areas in the Southland, experts say. But the Newport-Inglewood Fault runs not too far away and is capable of producing major shocks.

Manhattan Beach has roughly 14,000 homes and apartments, about a third of which are older homes that officials say are probably not up to the latest earthquake standards. The city’s newer residences, city officials say, are probably not as vulnerable during an earthquake.

Among the most frequent hazards discovered by inspectors during the first days of the program were water heaters not properly strapped into a closet or to a wall, bookcases not secured to walls, foundations not properly bolted, outside stairs or decks not securely attached to the house and unsecured chimneys.

Inspectors also offer these hints: Paintings should be attached to the walls with brackets; cabinet doors should be secured with magnetic latches, and gas lines should have flexible connectors.

Mayor Dan Stern, who proposed the program to the city last fall, discovered during a recent inspection that his 35-year-old home was not as earthquake-safe as it ought to be.

Carol Jacobson, the city’s chief building inspector, found that Stern’s water heater needed a bottom strap, that his chimney was unstable and that his house frame was not properly bolted to the foundation.

Stern, an electrical engineer, said he proposed the program for just that reason--so unsuspecting homeowners who want to make their homes safe can do so.

“It doesn’t take much to protect yourself,” said Ganaba, the building official. “You can do small things to minimize big dangers Your house is going to move one way or the other during an earthquake, and basically you want everything to move together.”