NEWPORT BEACH : Fire Spurs Residents to Clear Brush, Trees

After fire destroyed hundreds of homes in Laguna Beach two months ago, people in this city watched the flames scorch the grassy hills to the south. Though the fire never reached their front doors, residents and the Fire Department were frightened into swift action.

“There is nothing like a fire to put the fear of God in you,” said Mary Farris, who lives on Poppy Street, which overlooks the city’s No. 1 fire hazard, Buck Gully. “We could see an orange glow (of flames) all along that ridge” about a mile from their house.

Fire Chief Timothy D. Riley said this week that 75 of 158 residents along Buck Gully and nearby Morning Canyon have complied with department orders to clear dry and dead vegetation from overgrown canyons that cut through their property.

Riley added that 156 residents have said they will complete the job. The city held meetings last month with residents and set a deadline for compliance this week.

“Everybody knows what they have to do,” said Riley, “and people are doing it.”

For example, Farris and her husband, Jack Anderson, were told by the Fire Department to trim a thicket of bushes in the 200-foot-deep canyon behind their house. They also have to clear dead vegetation and thin trees overhanging their house and neighbors’ houses.

That job will cost them $800 that they will gladly pay.

“Fire is a huge concern here. You have got to be safe,” Farris said.

From their deck, it is apparent that each of the neighbors has done some trimming and clearing in the canyon and on tall trees.

The Fire Department has sent inspectors out regularly to make sure people are trimming enough. Riley said that if people fail to do the job in a reasonable period, the city will do it for them and bill them.

Three years ago, the Fire Department asked the same residents to minimize the highly flammable vegetation. At that time, the issue was controversial because many people were concerned that the canyon’s habitat would be destroyed by an overly zealous effort at brush clearance.

This time, people are only being asked to trim bushes, not cut them down.

“I think that the public sentiment is to recognize this as a necessity,” Riley said. “They thought they would have to bulldoze, but it is not as dramatic.”

Riley said the city has to clear some of its property at Mission Canyon. City officials plan to make brush clearance an annual issue.

“It has been a successful effort to abate the city’s fire hazard,” Riley said.