In the Fire’s Wake, Fillmore Waits for Flooding to Begin

Now that the threat of fire has ended, city officials here have begun to worry about a new danger--flooding. They are so worried that they have declared a state of emergency even before the rain has begun falling.

City officials in this farming town of 13,000 hoped that would clear the way for state disaster aid, but state officials say the folks in Fillmore are getting ahead of themselves.

You can’t get disaster aid, they say, until you have a disaster.

“It’s kind of hard to say you are in a state of emergency for something before it has even happened,” said Ann Tanouye, a senior planner with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

Fillmore officials, however, believe the Office of Emergency Services is missing the point. It doesn’t make sense, they say, to sit back and wait for the catastrophe when you can do something to prevent it.

“There is a disaster on the horizon if we don’t do something,” Fillmore Fire Chief Pat Askren said. “If they want us to wait until the water and mud comes down on our houses, that’s what we’ll do. But we’re trying to do what we need to to protect the city.”

Askren’s goal is to avoid the type of flooding disaster that swept through the city in 1995, when heavy rains caused Pole Creek Canyon to swell. Storm waters left the city with about $700,000 in damage.

Pole Creek usually threatens to overflow during heavy rains, Askren said.

“It’s a problem even in years when we haven’t had a fire,” Askren said. “There are several canyons that pour right into that main creek.”

But this week’s blaze, which consumed more than 12,000 acres in the hills surrounding Pole Creek, has left the city particularly vulnerable to a repeat of the 1995 disaster, authorities say. Determined to be prepared, city officials declared an emergency several days ago.

Officials met Thursday with representatives from the Office of Emergency Services to plead their case. State representatives are now awaiting a report from the city listing damages and a cost estimate.

City Engineer Bert Rapp, who will submit a report to the council next week outlining actions necessary to prevent flooding, said sandbagging and reseeding the hillsides are among the top priorities. The city should also install concrete railings to divert flood waters, Rapp said.

A 160-man rehabilitation team--including members of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Ventura County Fire Department and the California Department of Fish and Game--are also assessing the fire damage.

But because the rainy season is rapidly approaching, the city’s clock is ticking.

“It could rain at any time,” Rapp said. “The projection this year is that we would have early, heavy rains. We could hit fairly big storms right away. So we don’t have a lot of time.”

Applying for emergency funds only during a crisis prevents cities and counties from preparing for the crisis properly, said Laura Hernandez, assistant director for the sheriff’s office of emergency services.

Typically, cities and counties must first exhaust all of their local sources of funding before they can ask for help from emergency services.

Hernandez concedes the city’s action is unusual, and she is not optimistic about Fillmore’s chances.

“It’s unusual . . . to declare an emergency before that emergency has happened. It’s still being looked at, but it’s doubtful they will open the door for any state or federal funding.”

The fire itself was fully contained Friday night, six days after a welder’s spark ignited the flames on a ranch in Piru. The fire consumed 12,613 acres and authorities estimate the cost of fighting the blaze will be $4 million.