Countywide : Heavy Rains Prompt Worry About Coming Fire Season
A mixture of record rainfall and the county’s financial crisis could ignite one of the worst fire seasons this summer, Orange County fire officials said.
“If the storm tracks continue, within the next few months we could see a winter much like the conditions that led” to dramatic fires in 1993, said Capt. Dan Young of the Orange County Fire Department. “Hopefully, we’ll have the funding to (continue prevention and response programs) so it doesn’t spread like the Laguna fires.”
Officials are urging residents to take extra precautions, especially as they open 160,000 acres of restricted county wild lands Friday at 8 a.m.
The grasslands have been closed to recreation and camping since last summer.
The past week’s rains produced enough vegetation growth to speed up this year’s opening by three weeks compared to last year. The problem is that when the rain stops, all the overgrown grass will die and turn into fuel, Young said.
The best people can do is follow strict fire-prevention guidelines, including clearing brush from around homes, not smoking in grassland and keeping children away from matches and lighters.
The department reported putting out 255 brush fires last year, the fewest this decade, in part by dodging the dangerous combination of winds above 25 m.p.h., humidity below 15% and temperatures above 90 degrees.
Young said a hiring freeze might affect firefighting efforts. He said he doesn’t know when the department might be able to hire the expected 80 to 100 new recruits scheduled to start within the next 18 months.
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The Danger Areas Orange County brush fires claimed almost 2,000 acres last year, causing about $32,000 in damage. The number of fires was the lowest in five years. Here are the trends:
Year Fires Acres burned Value of damage 1989 305 481 $22,188 1990 297 13,567 801,317 1991 316 220 8,360 1992 369 320 12,160 1993 317 22,917 528,122,433 1994 255 1,920 31,845
Source: Orange County Fire Department
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