Canyon Report Warned of Fire 6 Months Ago

An internal report written six months ago warned Ventura County fire officials that if they did not take precautions, a fire in Carlisle Canyon would pose a serious threat to lives and houses.

Although the report listed several steps to improve fire safety in the canyon near Thousand Oaks, most of the proposed measures were stymied by budget constraints, environmental concerns and red tape.

But fire officials followed a principal objective of the report--a strict enforcement of brush clearance around each of the canyon’s 30 houses.

And that step, coupled with several lucky breaks--including early warning of flames heading for the canyon--allowed residents to flee and firefighters to get in position so that only two trailers were lost when the Green Meadow fire raced through the canyon 10 days ago.

“Given the conditions we had in there, we were fortunate we got out with only minor damage,” said Fire Capt. Robert Werner, head of the area’s fire station. “They have a single dead-end road. They are much older homes. They have little water availability, and the canyon is a tangle of old dry brush. We knew a fire there would be big trouble.”

When the fire entered the horseshoe-shaped canyon, residents said they could only cross their fingers and pray.

“The fire came over the edge of the canyon like a hurricane,” said resident Carol Wenger, who stayed with her house despite police demands that she evacuate. “The wind was so strong you couldn’t stand up. The smoke and soot poured into the canyon making it difficult to breathe. It was awful.”

As the flames ravaged the surrounding hillside, fire crews fanned out, placing an engine behind every home.

“It’s very clear that they were right behind the house, fighting it off,” said Ernest Siva, a Carlisle Canyon resident who waited out the fire in a local hotel room.

“We drove back into the canyon not knowing what to expect. When we got there it was very eerie. The fire burned right up to our brush line and all around us. But the house survived.”

Had the circumstances been different, fire prevention expert Doug Campbell said, it could have been a disaster.

“Things broke our way,” Campbell said. “There was a good level of preparedness. They had time to evacuate the canyon and set up their equipment. Certainly, it could have been a lot worse.”

Last April, Campbell and wild land fire officer Terry Raley prepared an internal report predicting that a fire pushed by Santa Ana winds “would spot over roads and barriers and blow through the entire Carlisle Canyon area before suppression efforts could prevail.”

The report recommended the department consider constructing fire breaks--impediments to wildfires created by clearing long lines of brush around the canyon.

Although fire breaks would not have halted a blaze of the Green Meadow fire’s ferocity, Campbell said such breaks can give firefighters an upper hand.

“A fuel break is a way to break the country into smaller segments,” Campbell said. “It gives you positioning and it gives you more options.”

Despite the recommendation, the fire officials determined they would not be able to plow the breaks because of costs involved and opposition from the National Park Service, which owns a stretch of land across the ridge above Carlisle Canyon.

“They don’t allow dozer breaks on their property,” Werner said. “So that was never given serious consideration.”

Jean Bray, a National Park Service spokeswoman, confirmed that the agency does not normally allow for such fire lines.

“We have a lot of threatened vegetation that we want to protect,” Bray said. “So our general policy is not to allow bulldozers on the property.”

But, Bray said that if there was no other option, the park service would have acquiesced.

“When lives or property are involved, we do have some flexibility,” she said.

In addition to fire breaks, the report suggested conducting controlled burns in areas with the oldest, most dense brush in the canyon. But Campbell said that was ruled out because too much burning would create the threat of mudslides.

The greatest concern among fire officials was the lack of easy access into the canyon.

“The access and egress are poor, and travel in and out during the event of wildfire would result in a dangerous period of time for the people involved,” the report states.

Carlisle Canyon has only a single-lane road, which in some places is so narrow that fire equipment had to travel with wheels off the pavement. The road ends abruptly deep within the canyon.

With such a narrow road, fire equipment cannot roll into the area at the same time residents are trying to flee to safety.

“We’ve always been nervous about that,” Werner said. “We used to have a fire road that went out of the left side of the canyon, but after Proposition 13 we could no longer afford the upkeep.”

In 1978, the fire lane, known as Vedder Road, was allowed to close because the Fire Department lacked the funds to maintain it. By shutting down the only pathway of escape, Carlisle became a boxed canyon.

“We knew it was a problem,” said longtime resident Wenger. “In fact, one of our neighbors proposed we construct a new road that would give us an alternate route out of here. We were going to do it on our own, with our own money.”

But that project was stymied by the county’s public works department, Wenger said.

“They told us we couldn’t build a road without a whole host of permits,” she said. “It was totally outrageous.”

Public works Deputy Director John Crowley said he did not recall the request, but said permits are always required when grading is done.

“That’s mandated by ordinance,” Crowley said. “You need a permit. It’s that simple.”

Now that the canyon has burned, and the residents made it through without major losses, people there are turning their attention to a new threat.

“Now we’ve got to start worrying about mudslides,” Wenger said. “That’s a whole new ballgame.”

“The thing about it,” Campbell said, “is that these people chose to live in this situation.

“The planning didn’t go in on the front end. They built the houses and then said, ‘Now what?’ These threats were never considered.”

Now, Campbell said, canyon residents will have a reprieve. The dangerous conditions will take about 20 years to regenerate.

Siva, who has lived in Carlisle Canyon for 17 years, said he is relieved.

“I’m glad we won’t have to worry about this for a while,” he said. “The best part about all of this is that in the next few years, Carlisle Canyon is going to be more beautiful than ever.”