NEWPORT BEACH / CORONA DEL MAR : Order to Remove Brush Considered

Reacting to concerns about safety and fire prevention, the City Council is expected today to adopt a resolution allowing the fire chief to order residents of Corona del Mar to clear brush from canyon lands behind their houses.

Newport Beach Fire Chief Timothy D. Riley also will talk about fire safety at City Council sessions this afternoon and evening, and the Fire Department will host a community meeting Nov. 16 on how to minimize fire hazards in the brushland and canyons bordering residential areas.

The community meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the OASIS Senior Center in Corona del Mar.

City Manager Kevin J. Murphy said residents have deluged City Hall with requests to do something about the “extreme fire hazard” in several parts of Newport Beach, particularly along the upper and lower portions of Buck Gully and Morning Canyon, which cut through Corona del Mar.

The Irvine Co. and the city also plan attacks on their hazard-prone properties, particularly the many acres of land along Newport Coast Drive owned by the Irvine Co. and land touching the upper portion of Buck Gully near the Harbor View residential community. The city-owned land in Mission Canyon near the Spyglass Hill residential community will also be surveyed for problems.

“These are truly hazardous fire areas,” Murphy said. “We want to inform the public as to what the requirements are, and (fire officials) will meet with property owners to help them do it right.”

Some Corona del Mar residents have begun clearing brush already, said Councilman Phil Sansone, and neighbors along the canyon have set up a phone tree to alert each other and the police to any suspicious activity in the canyon. In addition, Newport Beach police have increased patrols in areas where the fire threat is greatest, Sgt. Andy Gonis said.

In the past, most people who live on the rim of those two Corona del Mar canyons have been more concerned with maintaining the canyon habitat than clearing fire-prone vegetation, Riley said.

Many of the residents have back-yard property that stretches about 100 feet to the floor of the canyon; some have been properly clearing brush away for years, while others have not.

The Laguna Beach and Malibu fires changed those concerns.

“I think what the fire in Laguna and Malibu did was reinforce how significant these brush areas can be,” Murphy said.

To effectively prevent brush fires, everybody who owns property that poses a hazard must cooperate, he said.