Fire Season Begins Amid Fears About Budget : Public services: Rains have produced a bumper crop of brush. But some officials worry that an expected revenue shortfall will endanger efforts to fight blazes.

Less than seven hours after fire season officially began Monday, county firefighters were called to battle a small blaze that flared on a mountain ridge east of Santa Paula.

Although firefighters had the half-acre brush fire under control in about 90 minutes, it underscored fears that the danger of wildfires is higher than normal this year because plentiful rains have produced a bumper crop of grassland and brush, fire officials said.

The heightened danger comes at the same time that Ventura County managers are being asked to trim budgets to meet an expected shortfall in revenue next year--cuts that could reduce the number of crews available to respond to brush fires, said County Fire Chief Jim Smith.

“(The cuts) could reach to the firefighters and engine companies, or it may be strictly at the administrative level,” Smith said.

The county’s chief administrator asked department heads to prepare two cost-cutting plans by June 16, Smith said. One would call for 2.5% in cuts and the other for 5% in cuts from $18 million of the funds that the county funnels to the department annually, he said.

Although no layoffs will occur, it is harder to predict whether the department’s 450-firefighter force will be reduced through job freezes and attrition, he said.

“It will have an effect, but just what the cuts will be, we don’t know right now,” he said.

County budget sessions begin in August.

Reductions in the number of firefighters could be bad news for residents in brushy areas, where homes could be threatened by wildfires as heavy vegetation continues to dry out this summer, officials said.

Fire Capt. Frank Huneck, who helped put out Monday’s fire, said the blaze “is a sign of things to come.”

“The grass is much thicker and taller this year, so we’re preparing for the worst, especially if the wind begins to blow,” he said. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Hillside homeowners have been ordered to clear vegetation within 100 feet of their homes by June 20 or be billed by the Fire Department to perform the service, Smith said. Dead sage and other plants stressed from years of drought also contribute to the dangerous condition, he said.

Most residents, including Thousand Oaks resident Terry McAnally, have been complying with the order.

“In the month of May and June, it seems like all you hear on Saturdays and Sundays are these weed whackers going,” said McAnally, a battalion chief for the Oxnard Fire Department.

But McAnally said he and his neighbors don’t mind the work because they know it will pay off if a wildfire hits. Many residents in Santa Barbara and Oakland, the sites of the worst wildfires in state history, had heavy brush and old trees growing close to their homes.

“They get real dry and it’s like having a bonfire next to your house,” McAnally said.