Officials Criticized for Lack of Fire Season Preparations

Los Angeles City Council members lashed out at L.A. City Fire Marshal Jimmy Hill on Tuesday over what some said was the Fire Department’s lackluster response to the potential for post-El Nino brush fires.

“I’m in awe at the Fire Department’s lack of energy and initiative,” said City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who argued that the department should have asked for extra resources to clear brush in anticipation of this fall’s fire season.

“It is not as though we were surprised by El Nino,” she said.

But the job of making sure that nearly 180,000 hillside properties meet new city requirements for brush clearance within 200 feet is “a monumental task,” said Hill, who took the council’s questions during a tense appearance Tuesday.

It can only be reasonably accomplished, he said, through a “triage” system, in which the most hazardous properties are cleared first, and then the others as time and resources allow.

A frustrated Hill said later that he had asked for three additional inspectors to supplement the brush-clearance staff of seven a year ago, but the request had not been granted.

But several council members appeared dissatisfied with the department’s response, expressing fears that brush fires, fueled by an El Nino bumper crop of vegetation, could be especially fierce this year.

“We have a potential for an enormous emergency,” City Councilman Mike Feuer said. “Are we going to look back on this discussion in two or three months and say, gosh, if we had only done what’s necessary, we could have avoided a fire?”

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In sweeps earlier this year, city fire inspectors notified more than 20,000 property owners that they were in violation of the brush-clearance ordinance--5,000 more than were notified last year. Of those notified, about 10,000 have still not complied, Hill said.

The larger number of violators is due largely to the stricter city code that requires brush to be cleared within 200 feet of structures, rather than 100 feet as previously enforced, Hill said.

As a result, many homeowners who received brush-clearance notices this year must clear thick stands of native growth, said Fire Inspector George Valenzuela of the brush-clearance unit.

The work is progressing slowly; some of these homeowners “are looking at thousands of dollars worth of cutting native brush,” Hill said.

Meanwhile, contractors hired by the city as a last resort to force compliance have their hands full, Hill added.

There are only about 10 contractors who meet city standards and are willing to do the hot, prickly work, Hill said, a shortage that further hampers the pace of clearing. So far, he said, those contractors have focused on clearing large parcels of public property.

Fire Chief William Bamattre said homeowners who don’t clear brush are part of the problem. “We are not in the brush-clearing business. We are in the code-enforcement business,” he said, noting that the department is not lagging in its enforcement duties.

“We are getting into the brush-clearance business,” he said. “But it’s not our role and we didn’t plan [it] to be,” he said.

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But the City Council on Tuesday questioned the department’s business-as-usual approach, even going so far as to suggest that due-process requirements might be waived for certain homeowners to get the clearing work done more quickly.

“We need to be assured now that we are doing everything as aggressively as possible,” said City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who sponsored a motion Tuesday seeking a more detailed report from fire officials.

The motion was passed 13 to 0, and the issue is expected to be taken up by the Public Safety Committee on Monday.