Green Power Fights Fires

The wind-swept hills along Hollyleaf in Aliso Viejo are flecked with yellow poppies, a pretty sight that isn’t lost on county fire inspector David Oatis. But those fragrant petals also are an insurance policy against brush fires, a trait that Oatis finds more beautiful than the flowers themselves.

The California poppy is one of about 260 flame-resistant plants that property owners and developers have seeded in hillsides across Orange County over the past decade to help protect homes from fires.

The fruits of those vegetative buffer zones are finally being realized, especially in areas of the county facing the greatest danger during fire season, according to Oatis and other fire officials.

In 1998, the Santiago Canyon fires destroyed more than 8,000 acres and threatened at least 50 homes, but not one house burned. The Orange County Fire Authority credits part of that success to a scrubby patch of flame-resistant desert flowers and brush they call a “fuel modification zone.”

“If that had not been in place, we would have lost homes,” said Scott Brown, battalion chief at the fire authority.

Since then, he said, firefighters easily extinguished a handful of smaller brush fires, a fact they credit to the zones.

These zones of vegetation, wedged between homes and quick-burning canyons and nature preserves, cost only about 50 cents per square foot to plant and are often about 170 feet wide. The fire zones are now standard in newer housing developments built on the edge of wild lands, although the requirements for the buffer vary among municipalities.

Over the years, the fire authority, the county’s largest fire agency, has tripled the size of an approved “fire-resistant” list of plants, adding choices such as the beach evening primrose, a perennial shrub, and the monkey flower.

The additions include many native species, allowing the buffer zones to blend in with the county’s natural environment. The expanded list also offers landowners a multitude of landscaping options. But, more important, the plants all have one purpose: to stop or slow down a brush fire.

“[The plants] can burn, but it’ll make our job easier,” Oatis said.

Laguna Beach Fires Led to Tightening of Codes

Many fire departments refined their codes after the devastating 1993 Laguna Beach fires, which destroyed 441 homes worth an estimated $528 million.

Oatis, on one of the first strike teams in Laguna Beach, took pictures of the devastation.

“See that?” he said, pointing to a photograph of charred homes on a hill. The homes are close and surrounded by dense brush. “That house had a wood-shake roof.” Wood roofs burned like tinder, and homes built too close set each other on fire, he said.

While acres of wildflowers and stout brush act as fire retardants, they aren’t the only new weapon used against brush fires. Scenic walking trails behind posh new developments also give firefighters better access to steep canyons. New streets, like Hollyleaf, are being built wider in fire-prone areas so fire engines have more room to maneuver.

Hollyleaf and similar streets wind through what firefighters call a Special Fire Protection Area, a set of homes adjacent to nature preserves. These zones were also established by the fire authority in the wake of the Laguna Beach fires and place strict limitations on new residential developments.

Wooden Patios, Shake Roofs Are Forbidden

Along Hollyleaf, county fire code forbids houses next to the forest to have wooden patios or balconies. Instead, all railings are made of metal, while the patios are of colored concrete, not wood. Wood-shake roofs are illegal, as are exposed wooden cornices and overhangs. Eaves must be boxed in and sprinkler systems installed.

Here, details become large concerns. Even the numbering of a home is crucial--the figures must be made of noncombustible materials. Street signs must be placed on metal posts.

“The wooden posts, they go away if there’s a fire. They burn like a match, and firefighters don’t know what street they’re on,” said Brett Petroff, assistant fire marshal at the fire authority.

But here, on Hollyleaf, each house number is carefully lit with a porch light. The roads are just right, a nice grade and width, and the homes, pristine and new, stand a correct distance apart from one another.

Oatis looked down the wide road and smiled.

“Take a look at that street,” he said. “It’s perfect.”