Copters Urged for Battling O.C. Wildfires

In a comprehensive post-mortem of the wildfires that tore through Laguna Beach last October, Orange County fire officials have recommended that the county get new helicopters capable of dumping large quantities of water, portable pumps for firetrucks and an improved communication system.

Ultimately, however, even a better equipped Fire Department will not be able to ward off another disaster without help from other segments of the community, said fire officials, who also called for new fire and building code standards in fire-hazard areas.

“The fire service, the public, homeowners and landowners must build and develop a safer community to withstand the onslaught of fire that is going to come,” said Larry J. Holmes, director of fire services. “Fire is a natural part of the environment in Southern California, and it’s going to happen again.”

A 50-page report entitled “Firestorm 1993” analyzed the factors that contributed to the destruction or damage of 441 homes at a cost of $528 million. It concluded that helicopters able to scoop water from nearby lakes probably could have extinguished the blaze long before it reached the developed areas of Laguna Beach from the brushy canyon where it was started.

The report also cited a lack of water pressure and a three-hour power failure at a pumping station of the Laguna Beach County Water District that seriously hampered the district’s ability to keep water reservoirs at higher elevations filled.

The report noted that just one strike team of five fire engines will draw as much as 7,500 gallons per minute from water mains, while the district could only pump 4,400 gallons a minute to the reservoirs serving the hardest hit areas of Skyline and Mystic Hills.

“At that rate,” the report states, “supply was unable to keep up with demand.” The report also noted that it took a mobile generator from a neighboring water district to restore power because the Laguna Beach County Water District had no backup power source.

Water district officials have maintained that the city’s longtime refusal to go along with their plan to build a 3-million-gallon reservoir at the city’s highest point was the single biggest reason why water virtually stopped flowing to firefighters as they battled the blazes in the hills overlooking the city center. They said that a more powerful pumping system would not have alleviated the problem.

In a series of recommendations to the County Board of Supervisors, fire officials have asked for permission to spend $1.25 million to obtain a helicopter before May, the beginning of the next fire season. Eventually, the Fire Department wants two helicopters on call in case a major fire occurs. Fire officials say the helicopters could be used to help other agencies and could bring in $129,260 annually.

“The idea is to get firefighting resources to the fire in the first few minutes and attack a fire before it gets bigger or to head it into a different direction,” Holmes said.

Each helicopter would be able to drop about 4,000 gallons of water an hour, crucial in fighting a fire as fierce as the one that began north of Laguna Beach and swiftly swept into areas of the city, officials said. Experts say the fire had scorched only five acres in Laguna Canyon about 12 minutes into the blaze and could have been contained with helicopters.

Although eight air tankers were requested from the state to fight the fire as it first developed east of Laguna Canyon Road, the support did not arrive until 92 minutes after the request.

“We’re attempting to flank it right now, but it’s burning hot and fast,” an operations chief said by radio minutes after the initial request. “We’re falling behind. You copy my request for initial attack air tankers, so we can knock the head out?”

The tankers were delayed because they had been used to fight other, earlier fires throughout Southern California.

Holmes said Thursday that at best, the tankers would have arrived 20 to 30 minutes after the first request but the helicopters would have been much more useful in trying to quell the initial blazes.

“We needed something that was critical to an early attack,” he said. “We needed air resources that could reach areas where our firetrucks couldn’t get to.”

Beyond the helicopters, fire officials have applied for a federal grant to improve firefighting capabilities in several areas: retrofitting fire equipment to allow foam to be sprayed as well as water, adding portable pumps to fire engines and upgrading the communications system, which was severely overloaded during the fire.

But most important, Holmes said, is a movement to strengthen building and fire code standards in high-risk areas. A task force created after the October fires is to produce reports by July which will address ways to “make the county’s wildlife-urban (areas) less vulnerable to the destructive forces of wildfire.”

The task force consists of elected officials, fire administrators and representatives of water districts, environmental groups, development companies and insurance agencies.

Fire officials have complained that one of the greatest problems they encountered in fighting the Laguna fire was the prevalence of wood-frame houses surrounded by heavy brush that transported and stoked the flames. Although laws are in place that require homeowners to keep their land clear of such brush and make sure their roofs are fire-resistant, compliance is spotty.

“If you live in these areas, you have some obligation to protect yourself,” Holmes said. “You have to do everything you can so that firefighters have a chance. We shouldn’t have to stand in the middle of all those burned-out homes again and ask why this happened. We know why it happened, and now we have to make some decisions.”