THE SOUTHLAND FIRESTORM: ONE YEAR LATER : Preparing for the Next One : Fire Agencies Add Equipment and Stress Safety, but Experts Say It Won’t Be Enough

A thousand pairs of fireproof pants have been delivered to the Los Angeles City Fire Department. Two gleaming, banana-yellow Super Scooper airplanes are poised for action on the Van Nuys Airport Tarmac. And hundreds of fire engines from Malibu to Mission Viejo are being fitted with everything from flame-retardant foam to swimming pool siphons.

A firefighting arms race of sorts has swept cities and counties from Ventura to San Diego since 17 fires laid siege to the region a year ago. The next time firefighters go to war with a merciless mix of wind and fire, they undoubtedly will be better armed.

The fire battleground also will be a marginally more hospitable place--with some improved water systems, a few wider roads and building codes that will make new homes in some areas more resistant to fire.

But an increasing number of wild land fire experts say there will never be enough firefighters or sparkling new equipment to counterbalance the explosive potential energy that has been accumulating in the hills for several decades. Without clearing thousands of acres or restricting the flood of flatlanders into the foothills, more disastrous firestorms are inevitable, they say.

“Fires are burning more intensely than they have in the past and the wild land fire problem is getting worse and worse,” said Matt Mathes, the U.S. Forest Service’s regional spokesman. “Suppression alone is no longer going to do the job of protecting people from fire.”

Decades of fire safety programs, exemplified by the sagebrush wisdom of Smokey the Bear, have left more grass, scrub brush and dead wood on the ground to burn when fires finally do rage. Routine flare-ups that kept coastal brushland well manicured for thousands of years have now given way to uncontrollable firestorms.

It is no coincidence, experts say, that the state suffered three of its most destructive fire seasons in just four years: the 1990 Santa Barbara, 1991 Oakland and 1993 Southern California fires.

But reducing construction and removing chaparral can be both politically and practically hazardous. As a result, fire departments have spent much of the year girding for the next great fire.

At the Los Angeles City Fire Department--which had four men seriously burned in the brush above Chatsworth--the focus has been on safety. Besides the new fireproof pants, which will eventually go to all 2,800 firefighters, the force will be fitted with new belts to carry protective foil blankets and helmet flaps that shield the neck. Throw in new canteens and first-aid backpacks and the total cost of the new gear will run $350,000.

In Orange County, where three blazes scorched thousands of acres, the Board of Supervisors has approved the purchase of two new helicopters that can dump up to 4,000 gallons of water an hour. Federal grants could help purchase other equipment--distributors for fire-retardant foam, portable pumps and an improved communications system.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department plans to install the foam sprayers on 70% of its 170 engines and to place “eductors”--which siphon water from pools and wells--on its entire fleet.

The department also helped broker a deal that brought the highly touted Super Scooper to Southern California for testing this summer--an arrangement that officials hope to extend into next year. Unlike many other airborne firefighters, the plane can reload its 1,600-gallon water tank without landing. It was deemed “very impressive” in its first live action, helping to quickly knock down a tumbleweed fire last week in the Antelope Valley.

Arrangements have also been made to ensure that already stockpiled equipment gets to fires as quickly as possible. New guidelines will ensure that giant C-130 National Guard planes used for firefighting can be staffed and equipped in 13 hours, instead of the 24 hours it took in the past, according to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. And agencies will be allowed to rent water trucks from private firms in the next firestorm, without adhering to a past policy that required department officials to canvass the entire state first in an effort to borrow the tanker trucks from other public agencies.

Improvements in the region’s water systems are more problematic--with some isolated upgrades on the way but with many neighborhoods still facing the prospect that, when fire strikes, fire hoses could again run dry.

In Laguna Beach, the City Council this year finally ended a long-running debate and approved construction of a 3-million gallon reservoir at the city’s highest elevation. Many residents had problems with the aesthetics of the reservoir. Fire officials said that even a new reservoir would not completely resolve the community’s water supply problems. But the loss of water a year ago, when 366 homes burned, turned the debate in favor of the $6-million project.

Malibu’s gutted La Costa community also is expected to get an improved water system, paid for with a $3,250-per-parcel assessment. The new system will more than triple the capacity of the pipes.

But no such improvements are in sight for much of the rest of Malibu. The community’s aging water system needs $100 million in improvements to reach minimum standards for high-fire zones--a goal that is virtually unattainable on an annual capital budget of just $2 million, said David Howard, a county engineer who oversees Malibu water projects.

Water officials are hoping that other Malibu neighborhoods will follow the lead of La Costa and pay for their own improvements. But they admit that no amount of money could have bought safety in the last firestorm. “There isn’t a water system in the world that could have handled that fire,” said Howard.

Even with water in the pipes, many water agencies still cannot guarantee that they will have the power to pump it to fire crews in an emergency.

The water district serving Altadena still does not have its own generators for power pumps, a year after a power failure left firefighters virtually without water to combat a fire that burned 151 structures. The Kinneloa Irrigation District cannot afford generators, which cost $40,000 each, on its $500,000 annual budget. As a result, when fires come, it could take up to 10 hours to lease the equipment from other agencies, said Gene W. Burt, district general manager.

That is way too long, said Gail Crook, a Downey Fire Department battalion chief who was left without water in the Altadena fire. “Ten hours and there won’t be anything there,” Crook said.

Such shortcomings have officials trying to make homes built amid the chaparral less susceptible to fire. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last month asked for preliminary drafts of a series of building code revisions for new construction in wild land areas, known as Fire Zone 4.

It remains to be seen whether the board will give final approval, though, to some proposals that came from the county’s Wildfire Safety Panel. Some of the code changes could face opposition from property owners and the building industry.

Among other things, the proposed code changes would require that new homes be built without wood roof shingles--a rule that has already been in force in Malibu and the city of Los Angeles for several years. The code changes for new homes or major remodelings would also require double panes on exterior windows; curbside drainage lines for swimming pools, to allow fire crews to draw water; heavier construction on wood decks and patios; and interior sprinkler systems for homes more than six minutes or three miles from the nearest fire station.

Building industry representatives have already headed off some other proposals, including a ban on wood home siding. Instead, wood exterior walls will have to be backed by interior construction that is rated to withstand fire for one hour.

“People want wood siding pretty much in custom homes up in the hills. They don’t like the look of stucco,” said Allen Gooch, the county fire captain who helped draw up the recommendations. “I don’t feel comfortable with it, but you can’t win ‘em all.”

In at least one area, brush clearance, Fire Department administrators said public cooperation has been better than in any year in recent memory. The areas patrolled by the Los Angeles County Fire Department exemplify the trend--with less than 1% of the 27,220 wild land parcels still overgrown at the end of September.

Authorities have been working on other remedies to ensure that the trend continues.

The city of Los Angeles has nearly doubled its inspections of vacant lots. Laguna Beach has used a herd of 650 goats to mow canyon grasslands. Malibu has set aside funds to make sure that the city’s lawyers take the time to prosecute brush clearance violations. And in Riverside County, state and federal wildlife officials are on the verge of signing an agreement that will permit homeowners to clear brush up to 100 feet from their houses, even if they live in the midst of habitat for the endangered Stephens kangaroo rat.

This is called “fuel management,” and it has become the buzz phrase of fire prevention in the 1990s--the alternative to leaving 40- and 50-year-old tinder beds within a strong wind of people’s homes.

What remains problematic for fire safety specialists is how to clear the vast tracts of public and private property that are outside of homeowners’ individual properties. It is there that firestorms muster their energy and that clearing brush from rugged terrain is most difficult.

Controlled burns are viewed as the most efficient method of clearing away old growth and dead wood, but there are only a few months of the year when conditions are judged to be appropriate.

And many homeowners simply do not want to see their rustic surroundings burned. Just five months before last year’s Topanga Canyon fire, a group of homeowners near the top of the canyon filed a lawsuit that stopped the burning of 277 acres by the Los Angeles County Fire Department. And a 780-acre burn in Laguna Beach’s Emerald Canyon, which might have served as a substantial firebreak, was thwarted for many years by air quality regulations, concerns about the endangered California gnatcatcher, and protests from homeowners who didn’t want to put up with ashes and smoke.

“We met with community groups in Emerald Bay and people said they didn’t want controlled burns because they didn’t want to get ashes on their homes or their cars,” said Orange County Fire Capt. Dan Young. “Some of those people don’t have either now. That was the oddest thing.”

Such resistance has left fire management experts far short of their goals in reducing fuel. Richard Wilson, director of the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said 1 million acres of wild land should be cleared a year. That is a distant dream, compared to the 30,000 acres that are now cut or burned annually.

A few voices are beginning to suggest that public officials have been too indulgent toward those who insist on living inside fire zones. Wild land resource scientist Klaus Radtke suggests that all but the most limited use of wood in hillside home construction is unsafe and that owners have become accustomed to being bailed out by firefighters and insurance companies.

“The general public is forced to subsidize high-risk lifestyles for the generally more well-to-do,” Radtke has said, adding that “public agencies depend on the cyclical emergencies to balance their budgets and upgrade infrastructure.”

But Linda Williams, president of the Pasadena Glen Improvement Assn., is angered by the suggestion that people such as her neighbors, who lost homes in the Altadena fire, are placing an expensive burden on the county Fire Department and other agencies. Williams said that for years the wooded enclave has gone without street lights, road paving and other services.

“People who live up in the hillsides enjoy less of the public trough than anyone else, not more,” Williams said. “Building up in these hills, with our high property taxes, we contribute quite a bit.”

But Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, believes that Southern Californians could learn a lesson from the victims of last year’s Mississippi River floods, many of whom have accepted buyouts from the federal government to move out of the flood plain. He argues that land purchased in the Southern California mountains from voluntary emigrants could eventually be attached to public parkland.

But Edmiston conceded that the tremendous trauma of the fires and sympathy for victims has made his proposal anathema in some circles in Malibu, where he lives. The longtime conservancy administrator did not receive a warm reception in Sacramento and Washington, either, when he raised the idea of buying out burned-out homeowners.

Said Edmiston: “The legislators said something to the effect of, ‘That’s a real interesting idea, Joe, and you are probably right. But I would rather have a root canal than introduce that bill.’ ”

Times staff writers Matt Lait, Mack Reed and Tom Gorman and correspondents Kathleen Kelleher and Deborah Sullivan contributed to this story.

Reliving the Fires

A year ago, on a crisp October morning near Escondido, a downed power line ignited a blaze. Later that afternoon, in Thousand Oaks, an arsonist set a second fire. By the end of the next day, vast regions of the Southern California landscape were ablaze. The fires consumed nearly 200,000 acres and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. A year later, the region still struggling with the fires’ emotional and financial toll.

Here is a detailed look at six of the major fires:

LAGUNA BEACH

Dates: Oct. 27 to Oct. 28

Acres burned: 16,682

Structures destroyed: 366 homes destroyed and 35 damaged within city limits; 120 homes destroyed or damaged in nearby unincorporated area.

Casualties: None

People displaced: 440 families

Estimated damage: $528 million

Structures rebuilt: Four homes

Status of investigation: Arson was listed as the official cause of fire. Jose Soto Martinez was arrested Sept. 16, 1994 in connection with the blaze, but released after it was proven his confession was bogus. No new leads in the investigation.

WINCHESTER

Dates: Oct. 26 to Oct. 30

Acres burned: 25,100

Structures destroyed: 107 (included 30 homes)

Casualties: 8 injured

People displaced: More than 50 received housing assistance from the American Red Cross, and an unknown number handled their own arrangements.

Estimated damage: $2.7 million

Structures Rebuilt: 10 (7 mobile homes, 3 buildings)

Status of investigation: Fire was blamed on arcing power lines in high wind.

ALTADENA

Date: Oct. 27 to Nov. 1.

Acres Burned: 5,700

Structures destroyed: 151

Casualties: 6 injured

People displaced: 2,500 evacuated immediately, 600 displaced for several weeks, 325 permanently displaced.

Estimated damage: $140 million

Structures rebuilt: 5 rebuilt, 15 under construction

Status of investigation: A mentally ill homeless man, Andres Huang, 35, accidentally started the fire. He was sentenced to three years probation and was ordered to live in a residential treatment center.

MALIBU

Date: Nov.2 to Nov. 7.

Acres Burned: 17,027

Structures destroyed: 350

Casualties: 3 dead, 12 injured.

People displaced: About 875

Estimated damage: $215 million

Structures rebuilt: 1 house

Status of investigation: Two firefighters remain arson suspects in a continuing probe with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Los Angeles.

THOUSAND OAKS

Dates: Oct. 26 to Nov. 4

Acres burned: 43,521

Structures destroyed: 66

Casualties: 22 injured

People displaced: 59 households

Estimated damage: $5 million

Structures rebuilt: 1 house rebuilt, 6 houses under construction.

Status of investigation: Suspected arson. Investigation is open, no recent new leads

SANTA PAULA

Dates: Oct. 27 to Nov. 3.

Acres burned: 26,500

Structures destroyed: 8 buildings

Casualties: 5 injuries

People displaced: None

Estimated damage: $957,000

Structures rebuilt: None

Status of investigation: Arson suspected. Investigation is open, no recent new leads.

Seventeen of the biggest fires in Southern California.

Fire Acres Structures Lost Started Altadena 5,700 151 Oct. 27 Anaheim Hills 700 2 Oct. 26 Banning 8,680 29 Nov. 2 Box Springs 3,500 0 Oct. 27 Cahuilla 2,500 0 Oct. 27 Calabasas/Malibu 17,027 350 Nov. 2 Chatsworth 2,000 0 Oct. 28 Escondido 20,722 7 Oct. 27 Laguna 16,682 366 Oct. 27 Ojai 1,650 1 Oct. 27 Ortega 21,384 52 Oct. 27 Poway 1,500 36 Nov. 3 Santa Paula 26,500 8 Oct. 27 Temecula 500 0 Oct. 28 Thousand Oaks 43,521 66 Oct. 26 Winchester 25,100 107 Oct. 26 Yucaipa 4,680 5 Oct. 27

Sources: California Department of Forestry (acreage and structures lost), American Red Cross, Riverside County Building Department, Western Insurance Information Service, city of Laguna Beach, Laguna Beach Fire Coalition, Property Casual Services, Times reports Researched by CECILIA RASMUSSEN / Los Angeles Times