Valley Commentary : Controlled Burning Is Desperately Needed to Prevent Lethal Fires : It’s nature’s method and it works. A decision not to do it is a decision to allow a holocaust.

The fires that killed three people and destroyed 390 homes in Topanga alone were not preventable--but the damage that they did was. The fire was routine. The disaster was human-caused.

The starting of fires, whether by arsonists, cigarette throwers or lightning, is inevitable, a routine event. We cannot prevent fires.

But we can prevent a fire from developing into a holocaust. A holocaust cannot develop unless large amounts of fuel are available. To prevent disaster, we must continually reduce the long-term accumulation of fuel on the ground.

Mechanically removing the brush is infeasible because of the enormous cost. Mother Nature’s method is the only one that works. It’s called controlled burning.

The safe and economical way to remove the lethal brush is to burn it under conditions when it is impossible for a fire to propagate itself, that is, when the ground and vegetation are wet.

At first, firebreaks should be burned through the heavy brush mass. Then the areas between the breaks can be burned at times when a fire will barely sustain itself. The result will be a checkerboard in which some sections have burned more recently than others.

A natural fire control system is compatible with both populated and wild areas and highly likely to work. In effect, it is the system nature used for millions of years to control the fire process and make it useful.

A three-phase program is needed:

1. A scientific investigation to prepare the way for the fire-control system.

2. A test to assure it works.

3. Operation. Once the protective mosaic has been established, the system is completely self-maintaining and very low in cost, providing that fires occur often enough in all areas of the mosaic. If they do not, fires must be started as needed.

The result will be the complete elimination of the lethal brush fire and mudslide danger that now has California in thrall.

If you want to see a modern-day example of how Mother Nature handles the brush problem if left alone, you need only fly over Mexico. It has many areas of chaparral similar to ours. You will see the mosaic pattern of natural protective burns, and one must ask why we so rarely hear of disastrous firestorms in Mexico.

In the past, controlled burns have worked until one gets out of control and creates some damage. Then the whole idea is dropped. No one seems to realize that a decision not to do controlled burning is, in effect, a decision to allow a holocaust.

Controlled burning under this system should be exempt from air-pollution regulations. Stopping disasters is far more important to our health than any problems from a small amount of natural fire emissions. The burning would be done in the wet season when air quality is higher.

Nor should individual property owners be able to prevent controlled burning by withholding their permission.

Politicians have ignored this lethal problem. It’s time to let them know that we expect them to solve it, either as I am proposing or in some other way.