Winds, Dry Conditions Make Firefighters Nervous

Dry weather and Santa Ana winds have put fire departments on alert for brush fires in northern Los Angeles County, with reinforcements from central Los Angeles and elsewhere moving into high-risk areas.

In the last few days, Los Angeles County and City fire teams have increased patrols of high-hazard areas, reviewed strategy and checked access to tough-to-reach canyons.

Some firefighters are available as scheduled drills and inspections were canceled to ensure optimum response, fire officials said.

“Any time you live in a place with a prevalence of the most volatile brush known to man, you’ve got to be ready,” said city Battalion Chief Chris Kawai, who heads a strike team of 22 firefighters that took up watch in Porter Ranch on Tuesday.

Kawai’s team visited former brush fire trouble spots in the San Fernando Valley, discussing evacuation and house-saving strategies.

The Valley has seen no significant rain since late October, said meteorologist Amy Talmage of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts to The Times. Santa Ana winds, which can spread fires more quickly, returned to the area Sunday.

The next day, 300 firefighters battled a brush fire near the Antelope Valley Freeway in Agua Dulce that consumed 200 acres, but caused no injuries or structural damage. Early Tuesday, a 600-acre brush fire in Thousand Oaks threatened homes. Firefighters

extinguished a five-acre fire in Val Verde about 3 p.m. They controlled it in about 20 minutes, with no injuries or structural damage.

Last week, two Super Scooper planes capable of dropping more than 1,600 gallons of water left the region for the season, as stipulated in the contract between fire authorities and the Canadian operator of the planes, said county fire Inspector Mike Brown.

Despite the media attention to the planes’ departure, Brown said, the county Fire Department remains in good shape. The department has eight helicopters that can haul 356 gallons of water each; it brought back two contracted Sky Crane helicopters with a 2,000-gallon capacity each. They had left the region a few weeks ago when the peak fire season was thought to be over.

But, Brown said, many important prevention techniques belong to residents and visitors.

County property owners in high-risk fire areas are required to clear grass and brush within 200 feet of structures and 10 feet from roads. And most area blazes are caused by human carelessness: In 1999, 271 of the 311 fires in Angeles National Forest were caused by people, with the majority of them accidents.

For more detailed information on fire safety, officials suggested visiting the city fire Web site at https://www.lafd.org/factsheets.htm, or the county fire Web site at https://fire.co.la.ca.us/.

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Times staff writer Carol Chambers contributed to this story.