Preventing Arson Fires

Now that we have endured two rounds of major arson fires in Southern California, everyone is asking the same question: Do we have to live with these fires every time the Santa Ana winds blow? The answer should be a resounding no.

When the hot winds start to blow, two quick responses are needed. First, all outlying rural areas should be closed to all but residents and law enforcement officers. Second, an arson-alert team of several hundred officers should be mobilized to keep watch throughout the hills surrounding populated areas. This mobilization will be well reported by the media and will discourage any who seek to wreak havoc on innocent lives. Arson-alert teams will cost money, but not nearly as much as the fires they prevent.

OTIS MEYER

Tustin

* It would appear by way of recent network television coverage that there could be a small fortune in developing a new cable channel. With just a little bit of work and very low production costs, a disaster channel could be created. Obviously people are intrigued by fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, mudslides, mass murders, hostage crises, etc., so why not have a 24-hour forum just for such aficionados?

MARK A. NEU

Trabuco Canyon

* For years, after every destructive firestorm, I’ve advised homeowners in wooded areas to install a simple, inexpensive sprinkler system on their roofs. Will they ever wake up and listen? No, they prefer to stand on the roof with a garden hose. Dummies!

SID REDISH

Hawthorne

* In response to the terrible losses suffered by so many families in the recent brush fires, I want to suggest to other residents to prepare for evacuation in the following manner:

My family has made a list of all valuable and irreplaceable items, room by room, and the list is kept in an easily accessible place. A string attached to it enables us to wear it around the neck, leaving both hands free for assembling the listed items. We have found that in an emergency, it is impossible to remember what items to give priority and where they are kept. Therefore, a systematic rounding up of all valuables is essential. We have had to evacuate twice because of brush fires, and managed both times to put everything we needed to take in laundry baskets and load them in our two cars in 20 minutes.

ISABELLE H. MEYER

Glendale

* Thank you for Kevin Starr’s article “A Tragic Sense of Life” (Opinion, Oct. 31). I have lived in Los Angeles for 20 years, never quite feeling at home and never quite enough a stranger to leave. Starr’s words spoke to the part of me that wants to stay and gave me a framework to use to understand why “nature and the human factor” seem overwhelming. Still I stay here.

LAURIE E. SCHER

West Hollywood

* After all the fires, I just saw another idiot throw a cigarette butt out his car window. It’s truly amazing!

ROBERT BRYNE

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