Byting Fires

With the summer fire season approaching, Jim Kniss is fine-tuning one of the county’s most potent firefighting weapons: his desktop computer.

As a county map specialist, Kniss uses computer technology to prevent fires--and lets firefighters know where the flames are headed once the brush starts to burn.

Kniss has taken the Ventura County Fire Department into the Information Age. Over the past three years, he has built an elaborate computer database linking a host of visual and numeric information, including topographic maps, property records and street directories.

With a few punches on the keyboard, Kniss can size up a fire.

When a wildfire ignites, he produces a detailed map showing what fronts are hottest and where the most flammable plants lie. That kind of number crunching and drawing, done by hand, used to take four or five hours. Kniss does it in 30 minutes.

When firefighters go on annual weed abatement inspections, he dips into his database and tells them what homes need to be checked. That cuts weeks off inspection schedules.

And when county law enforcement officers go on 911 calls, they rely on Kniss’ handiwork for speedy response. He is in charge of the database that lets dispatchers trace callers’ addresses.

Although Kniss wins wide praise for his computer savvy, the 45-year-old remains humble--though heavy on techno-speak.

“You’re only as good as your data,” he said.

Until recently, the Fire Department mapped brush fires the old-fashioned way--by hand. During big fires, spotters went into the field to watch and sketch outlines of the blaze onto maps. The maps are crucial, because they give firefighters a sense of the fire’s path, a feel for the terrain and knowledge of what properties are in danger.

Two years ago, Kniss, who previously worked in the Public Works Department, transferred to the Fire Department’s Camarillo headquarters.

Today, during big fires, Kniss monitors the flames from a sheriff’s helicopter. He uses infrared sensors and special computer software--Geographical Information Systems--to gather data. After touching down, he feeds the information into his computer and turns out maps far more accurate than those drawn by hand.

“The use of maps, with other intelligence, is extremely important,” said Mark Sanchez, the county’s assistant fire chief. “In the past, we had to rely on AAA maps. What I get with GIS is real time, accurate information I can make decisions on. And hopefully that reduces losses to the environment, losses to homeowners and losses to ranchers.”

Kniss says last year’s Hopper fire helped him master the new technology. Over several scorching days in August, that blaze burned nearly 25,000 acres north of California 126 and threatened to engulf Piru.

At the command post in Fillmore, Kniss and co-worker Don Taylor, another county computer specialist, set up their computers and cranked out maps. They worked up to 20 hours a day.

“We were able to protect Fillmore, valuable grazing land and orchards because we knew where the fire was going,” Fire Department spokeswoman Sandi Wells said.

After the fire, Kniss and Taylor had plenty of work left to do. They calculated how much of the scorched land was federally owned and how much was not--numbers that helped determine how much the respective agencies paid in firefighting bills.

In addition, they helped county flood control officials determine what areas had suffered the greatest soil erosion. That let flood workers make repairs before this season’s winter storms hit.

In his spare time, Kniss helps out other county departments. He recently produced a map that showed where county welfare recipients live. That allowed officials to decide where to open new welfare-to-work offices.

And last week, Kniss and county code inspectors flew over Somis to gather evidence in an illegal dumping case. He helped them pinpoint property owned by Thomas A. Staben, a county contractor hired to clear flood debris who has been accused of dumping debris in a local creek bed. Inspectors snapped photos of the suspected dump sites.

This time of year, Kniss and Taylor usually gear up for a blitz of fire maps. But after a seemingly endless soaking from El Nino, fire officials expect a relatively mild fire season.

“The best guess is we’re going to have a fair amount of grass fires,” Taylor said. “But the heavy fuel is still pretty wet.”