Rains End Fire Season; Brush Areas to Reopen

Thanks to some soaking rains, Orange County’s fire season officially ends at 8 a.m. Monday, the county Fire Department announced.

The announcement Wednesday means that thousands of acres of brushland, closed to people since the beginning of fire season May 28, will be reopened Monday.

Rainfall, punctual and unexpectedly heavier than usual, will enable a slightly earlier end to the fire season, officials said. Fire season begins in the spring and ends in the winter on a flexible timetable geared to the danger of dry brush.

“With this last rain, we’ve now had enough concentrated rainfall to reduce the danger of grass and brush fires,” said Kathleen Cha, spokeswoman for the Orange County Fire Department. She noted that in some years, it is late January before the county Fire Department can declare an end to fire season.

Cha added that Orange County “was fortunate to have survived the 1992 fire season with minimal loss.” Despite tinder-dry brush conditions produced by six straight years of drought, the county this year suffered only minor terrain fires, she noted.

“Our biggest brush fire during the entire season was only about nine acres,” Cha said. “Most of the fires have been what we call ‘spot fires,’ involving an acre or less.”

In contrast with 1992’s benign record, Orange County in 1990 endured massive brush fires in Chino Hills and Carbon Canyon that jointly blackened 13,567 acres. Although 1991’s fire season was mild, with the two largest blazes consuming only about 180 acres, county fire officials had feared this year would be a return to devastating conflagrations.

Severe brush and woodland fires did strike other parts of the state in 1992. Riverside County and several counties in Northern California had big, destructive blazes spreading over hundreds of acres. The officials said that the same dangerous fire conditions existed in Orange County.

According to Orange County Fire Chief Larry Holms, caution by residents was a major reason the county escaped with only minor fires this season.

“There has been a tremendous response to our fire safety enforcement and prevention education campaign,” Holms said. “Both business owners and residents have accepted responsibility for their community’s safety and have worked to create a safer environment throughout Orange County. The limited wild land fire damage that Orange County has experienced the past two years is a tribute to the community’s successful efforts in reducing the fire hazards which cause or aggravate wild land fires.”

The brush and wild land areas being reopened Monday constitute huge chunks of Orange County geography.

In North County, large, grassy areas north and southeast of Brea are being reopened. A very large slice of brush and woodland acreage extending from Yorba Linda in the north to San Clemente in the south is also being reopened. This open land is in and around the Cleveland National Forest.

Still another large tract of wild land being reopened is north of Laguna Beach, in the area around Crystal Cove State Park.

Cha said that much of the land being reopened is privately owned. She said the public is therefore not automatically free to hike through much of the land. Cha said that hikers should inquire before entering lands that are not public parks.

Cha also warned that people re-entering the brushlands should still be careful not to do anything to cause a fire. Although the recent rains have temporarily left grass and ground damp, Cha said that one day of Santa Ana-type winds could quickly dry the brush and create renewed fire hazards.

Acreage Reopening Thousands of acres of Orange County brushland reopen on Monday at 8 a.m., when the fire season this year officially ends. The open land, some of it privately owned, has been closed since May 28, when dry conditions launched this year’s fire season. Soaking rains ended the traditional fire season slightly earlier than in previous years.