Chief Vows to Improve Response to Wildfires : Emergencies: County official says department has remedied most 80% of the problems cited in identified after Calabasas/Malibu blaze.

Appearing before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said his department is working quickly to improve communications and training procedures to prevent the kinds of problems that hampered firefighters during the deadly 1993 Calabasas / Malibu fire.

“Our efforts focus on everything and anything we can do to improve,” said Freeman, who appeared at the request of the board after the release of a report last week that found that poor communication and undertrained firefighters might have contributed to the fire’s devastation.

The report, prepared by the Fire Department and the Santa Monica-based RAND Corp., an independent think tank, included several recommendations for improving firefighting performance and communication with the public.

“Sometimes the best plan for the future is born out of adverse experiences and I believe that is the case here,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said. “Some major steps need to be taken infrastructure-wise and communication-wise to improve.”

The firestorms began Nov. 2, 1993, and raced from the Calabasas area in the San Fernando Valley to the Pacific Ocean at Malibu. The blazes charred about 16,000 acres, led to three deaths, 585 injuries and $219 million in property losses.

On Tuesday, Freeman said overcoming communication problems while battling large-scale fires in rugged terrain is one of the department’s priorities.

The chief said his department has doubled its number of mobile radios to 200; is working to increase the number of radio frequencies it uses from 16 to 32; is studying a plan to use portable transmitters that can be driven to mountain tops, and is studying ways to use existing satellite communications.

“The terrain is a problem because it creates what we call shadows, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to communicate with radios and cellular telephones,” Freeman said.

However, the county is facing a $1-billion deficit, and the equipment the department desires is expensive. The satellite plan would cost $6 million. Increasing the number of radio frequencies would cost $16 million.

Yaroslavsky said the county must find some way to fund critical improvements.

“This county, in its infinite lack of wisdom, has allowed massive development in those areas,” he said. “When we allow people to build homes in . . . firetraps, we’re going to have these kinds of problems.”

The department says it has remedied 80% of the problems identified after the 1993 blazes.

Although the department has admitted that requests for water drops went unheeded and that some firefighters who were unfamiliar with the area got lost, Yaroslavsky congratulated Freeman and the department Tuesday for their hard work during the blaze.

Other recommendations include:

* Increasing the use of aircraft to fight wildfires, including further studying the Canadair CL-215T Super Scooper aircraft.

* Distribution of information kits to residents about brush clearance and creating “defensible space.”

* Strengthening training, command and control procedures.

* Studying whether to shorten the duration of firefighters’ shifts from 24 to 12 hours during major fires.

* Establishing a task force that would include the county and cities to resolve conflicting laws, including rules in some municipalities against trimming oak trees.

The Fire Department will issue a comprehensive report May 31.