Preventing Future Fire Losses

* Your editorial, “The Return of the Evil: What Is to Be Done” (Nov. 3), discusses several measures to prevent losses in future fire. These included building materials, sprinklers, wider roads, etc.

However, I believe that you overlooked the most obvious solution--don’t build houses in the canyons and on the mountain ridges. Face it--by the time we widen all those roads and clear all that brush there won’t be any nature left anyway, so let us listen to the conservationists for once.

Leave the mountains and canyons as a place to hike and ride and picnic and have fun, but live down here on the flats where Mother Nature means for us to live.

DAVID LITTLE

Los Angeles

* Re Alan Kishbaugh’s “Priorities Are Seriously Skewed,” Commentary, Nov. 4:

I agree with him that California is entitled to the best that exists; however, I don’t believe that the solution must again be paid for by the taxpayers.

The insurance companies that in the end suffer huge losses should consider the possibility of forming partnerships to purchase the Super Scooper planes, which could be amortized as a business equipment expense while reducing their fire losses.

Considering that even if five or six out of the total 1,000 expensive properties destroyed in the past two weeks had been saved by this aircraft, it would have paid for itself, and in the long run, premiums might even be able to be reduced because of the millions of dollars saved in claims.

JANET FARRELL

Los Angeles

* As a longtime summer resident of Provence, France, where the mistral wind and the summer drought make fire a permanent August phenomenon, and as someone who has watched with horror and personal memories the fires you have just suffered, may I make two observations from personal experience. My property was totally destroyed in the 1979 fire and this year a major forest fire came within half a mile before being extinguished.

To all who have been burnt, nature is extraordinarily resilient; within six weeks you will see new growth and within seven years you will not know that fire has passed through. So take courage and rebuild.

Secondly and more importantly in terms of fire prevention, you must have Canadairs, the CL-215 plane, called the Super Scoopers. When a fire starts, you have 10 minutes to prevent its spread. The personal heroism of your firefighters makes no difference. You must have at least six Canadairs on permanent alert. This extraordinary plane can scoop water and dump 1,600 gallons at a time. They have made a phenomenal difference in Provence. This year my property was saved by a combination of Canadairs bombing the fire with water and C-130s dropping fire-retardant chemicals. You must face the fact that you are going to have to live with this threat every year. You must buy Canadairs now. The planes are extraordinarily effective and cost-effective.

ERIC IDLE

Encino

* As Southern California faces the prospect of more fires in the future, it strikes me that we might benefit by developing a firefighting command center that would be able to call upon limited U.S. military support for assistance. The U.S. military, in particular the Air Force, has planes capable of dropping water bombs or chemicals at designated locations that could greatly enhance firefighting efforts. The firefighting equipment could be designed specifically to be transferred into planes or helicopters upon a moment’s notice.

In an age of dwindling financial resources, we need to employ creative new strategies to maximize the use of people and equipment to save society.

JERRY BRAND

Rancho Santa Fe

* I am a Los Angeles fireman. I was there when your house was destroyed.

Tired, cold and wet, I had been on the line 20 hours. But the fire never rested, and was threatening your house. My company was assigned to your street. We were spread very thin, and I was alone to fight the fire that was coming.

The fire hit with the force of a roaring ocean wave, slamming against the walls and engulfing the roof. Unbearable heat outside, I crashed through your side door, retreating into your home. The entire house shuddered as the full force of the fire hit. But like a wave, it slowly subsided. Then I had my chance to save your home.

I ran outside and everything was burning. I attacked the fire under the roof eaves, but the wind was so powerful. The embers blew like rain, burning my eyes and skin at any openings in my clothing. I went to the roof and raked off burning shingles at a furious pace. I tried to catch the fire from the inside, climbing into your attic until the flames drove me out. I knew then that I had lost.

Your dog stayed with me until an animal rescue volunteer was found. I saved other homes. I am sorry I didn’t save yours.

My heartfelt thanks to the volunteer who packed my lunch; the deputy, highway patrolman, policeman, and ranger who stood with me on the line; the amateur radio operator who got word back to a distressed family; the power lineman restoring emergency service, and the homeowner who patted me on the back.

CRAIG THOMPSON

Calabasas

* I am a Los Angeles police officer assigned to West Valley Patrol. On Nov. 2, at 11 a.m., a brush fire began in the ridges above Calabasas and Woodland Hills. I was sent to the intersection of Old Topanga Canyon Road and Mulholland to block traffic west to the ridge. It was the primary route up for fire personnel and equipment.

As I attempted to handle the intersection I quickly found it to be too difficult for one officer. Then suddenly, there was a tap on my shoulder, and there stood a young man asking what he could do to help.

He withstood the smoke, dust and heat, and assisted in traffic control. We worked frantically to keep the road clear for the fire equipment driving up the hill, and for the carloads and busloads of schoolchildren we were working feverishly to evacuate down.

He stuck around even after a second officer finally arrived. And he was there to witness that officer be struck by a vehicle because one driver refused to stop.

Some 4 1/2 hours later, when I was deployed to another position, he was still there, now assisting the CHP officers who had relieved us. And in all that time, I never got his name.

I want to express a deep-felt appreciation for his efforts and assistance.

SHANNON PAULSON

LAPD

* Gov. Pete Wilson was concerned and comforting as he toured the fire lines in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties during the series of firestorms.

This is the same governor who last spring wanted to take money from fire districts for schools. If fire and law enforcement officials had not convinced the governor to change his mind on this badly thought-out plan--who would have been left to fight the fires?

CLIFF DEKTAR

North Hollywood

* To the firefighters who saved our home, my husband and I wish to express our undying gratitude. As we have grown older, both of us approaching 70, our home has become increasingly the center of our lives, providing us both comfort and pleasure, our haven and our Eden.

You wonderful firefighters quite literally saved our lives for us and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

RONALD and CHARLOTTE INGLIS

Laguna Beach

* I must tell all of Los Angeles how marvelous the American Red Cross is. I have just spent two nights and a day at the Red Cross emergency shelter in Palisades High School where they provided a safe haven for hundreds of us.

The staff--most of them volunteers--are knowledgeable, warm, smart, empathetic and dear people. What they did for us in need of crisis help was unbelievably great. We can never thank them enough.

ELIZABETH PINKHAM

Pacific Palisades

* I am truly amazed how people will endanger themselves and others by routinely breaking laws when they deem it correct to do so.

As I was part of the gridlock on Pacific Coast Highway at the start of the Malibu fire, I watched in awe as all types of non-emergency vehicles used the center median strip as their own private freeway to bypass traffic jams, not the least concerned that they were blocking desperately needed emergency vehicles. This me-first attitude seems to remain as dominant as ever in our society and probably is the cause of much of its problems.

TERRY KOSAKA

Los Angeles

* The Times, which may be proud of its excellent coverage of the Malibu fires (Nov. 3), may not be so proud of its shockingly smug and mean-spirited treatment of the people of Malibu. The reporters seem to feel that those who have had the temerity to strive for and achieve the American dream--the “filthy rich”--have made themselves unworthy of compassion. Indeed, it is as if these folks who live where “movie stars are as common as sand crabs” somehow deserve the hellish terror that was visited on them.

We read of the desperation of a man denied access to reach his deaf wife and new baby in the midst of a threatening fire. But of course he was--not unexpectedly in Malibu--wearing tasseled loafers. It was a sickening trivialization of the poor guy’s taste of hell. The entire story was, in fact, a sorry mockery of a whole community’s night of hell.

SHELLEY BERMAN

Bell Canyon

* The California Department of Forestry plan to reseed the burn areas in the hillsides is an exercise in the arrogance which got us into this situation--the belief that the wild world can be managed like a machine for human benefit without consequence. The available scientific literature suggests the best thing to do is simply leave the area alone.

The political din to “do something” about these fires, part of the local terrain for ages, seems to be a manifestation of the same arrogance. It is only when we recognize ourselves to be part of the landscape, and not on top of it, that we can perhaps obtain the wisdom and humility to start making sound decisions.

CRAIG BENEVILLE

Santa Ana