Fire Crews Stepping Up Patrols in Trouble Spots

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 city and county fire teams have stepped up patrols of high-hazard areas, reviewed strategy and checked out access to tough-to-reach canyons.

Some firefighters are simply waiting around more, with scheduled drills and inspections canceled to ensure optimum response times, 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 Battalion Chief Chris Kawai, who heads a 22-member strike team of firefighters from across the city that took up watch Tuesday in Porter Ranch.

Kawai’s team visited former brush-fire trouble spots in the Valley, discussing evacuation strategies and how to save houses in tough spots.

In recent years, said Kawai, who is based in Hancock Park, the Los Angeles Fire Department has made a special effort to offer continuing education in fighting brush fires to personnel who work in more urban areas.

Also Tuesday, as fire crews battled blazes in the Santa Clarita Valley and eastern Ventura County, a red-flag alert in northern Los Angeles County--signifying extreme fire danger--was downgraded as winds died back a bit.

The San Fernando Valley has seen no significant rain since late October, said meteorologist Amy Talmage of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

Santa Ana winds, which can cause fires to spread more quickly, returned to the area on Sunday.

The next day, 300 firefighters battled a brush fire near the Antelope Valley Freeway in Agua Dulce that burned 200 acres, but caused no injuries or structural damage.

Early Tuesday, a 600-acre brush fire in Thousand Oaks threatened homes in Westlake Village. Firefighters also extinguished a five-acre fire in Val Verde about 3 p.m., bringing it under control in about 20 minutes with no injuries or structural damage reported.

Last week, two fire-battling SuperScooper planes capable of dropping more than 1,600 gallons of water left the region for the season, as stipulated in the contract between local fire authorities and the Canadian firm that operates the planes, county Fire Inspector Mike Brown said.

Despite the media attention the planes’ departure garnered, Brown said the County Fire Department was still in good shape. The department has eight helicopters, each capable of toting 356 gallons of water, and in recent days, it brought back two contracted Sky Crane helicopters with 2,000-gallon capacities. They had left the region a few weeks ago--when the peak fire season was generally thought to be over.

Some county fire officials also downplayed the departure of the SuperScoopers, saying they don’t operate well in high winds.

And, Brown added, many of the most important prevention techniques are in the hands of residents and visitors.

Property owners in high-risk 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 the result of accidents.

Brown said that while most people would never throw cigarette butts in brush-dense areas of Los Angeles, many do not know of other common causes of fire, such as weed trimmers, which, when they strike rock, can cause sparks that ignite brush easily in the dry season.

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

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Times staff writer Carol Chambers contributed to this story.