Rain Forecast Douses Long Fire Season

Relying on predictions of more rain over the next several weeks, Ventura County officials today plan to call an end to what has been an uncommonly long fire season, stretching two months longer than usual.

The weekend precipitation alone wasn’t enough to ease their concerns, said Sandi Wells, a county Fire Department spokeswoman. The rain peaked at half an inch in the wettest parts of the county, less than one-fourth of the amount needed to thoroughly moisten the ground.

But Deputy Chief Dave Festerling examined the projected rain and atmospheric conditions for the next several weeks and determined that “we’re going to have enough moisture to end a severe threat of brush fires,” Wells said.

Typically, the area’s fire season runs from May to November. But 1999 and the opening weeks of 2000 were so dry that officials were beginning to worry that last year’s season might run into this year’s.

The National Weather Service is calling for partly cloudy skies and a chance of light showers through the weekend.

Wells said officials are prepared to go back into fire-season mode if the short- and long-term projections don’t pan out. During fire season, the department responds to brush fires with five engines, a helicopter, a bulldozer and a hand crew. In the off-season, the department typically responds with one engine, calling for backup when necessary.

January and February are typically the rainiest months for the county, but a handful of fires already have occurred during the new year.

The department responded to 153 brush fires in 1999, up from 126 the year before. Firefighters mainly felt the difference in December, when there were 25 brush fires, compared with five in December 1998.

The areas of the county most susceptible to brush fires are the warmer, mountainous areas with the heaviest brush: Ojai, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Santa Paula and Fillmore. Button sage, found in many of those areas, is one of the plants most susceptible to fire. Oily plants such as manzanita burn hot, causing fires to spread faster.

Even with the lack of moisture, officials said a sustained period of light or moderate rain in the coming weeks would be preferable to heavy downpour. The soil now is so dry that sudden, heavy rains may cause chunks of soil to slough, whereas lighter rains could saturate the ground.

Wells said the end of the season should come as a relief to firefighters. “It’s very tiring,” she said. “It’s exhausting physically. It’s also difficult mentally.

“Many who were fighting fires in early December also were the same ones fighting through Christmas in the Ranch fire,” she said, referring to last month’s blaze near Ojai that consumed nearly 4,400 acres and destroyed one home. “And the same firefighters ended up working extra hours to prepare for Y2K.”

Meanwhile, other officials on Tuesday began monitoring water levels throughout the county, a process that takes about two weeks.

County water resources manager Lowell Preston said that as of the last check, in November, there was some concern but no cause for alarm.

Although the rainfall before last weekend was only about 16% of normal, “the aquifers haven’t really begun to react to that,” he said. “But if the dry weather continues, we can expect to see falling water levels in all the aquifers.”

Lake Casitas was at 86% of capacity, said county hydrologist Dolores Taylor, and the Santa Clara River was dry at the Freeman Diversion Dam. Neither level alarmed county officials.

Preston and his staff will keep particular watch on water levels in the five aquifers under the Oxnard Plain, the most heavily agricultural area of the county. He expects to see some falling water levels there, in the Santa Clara River Valley and in Las Posas Basin, between Camarillo and Moorpark, but said it would probably take four to 10 more months of dry weather before any serious effect would be felt.

“It’s not like we’re going to run them dry,” he said. “But we’d have to make sure it gets replenished sometime in the future. It’s not catastrophic, but we have to be careful we don’t gradually mine the aquifer. It’s probably the most important resource California has.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control Department for the 72-hour period ending at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

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Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 72 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 0.16 1.26 5.95 Casitas Dam 0.24 1.30 10.04 Casitas Rec. Center 0.31 1.85 10.08 Fillmore 0.12 1.10 8.32 Matilija Dam 0.43 1.61 11.07 Moorpark 0.24 0.99 6.34 Ojai 0.35 1.02 8.89 Upper Ojai 0.59 1.61 9.49 Oxnard 0.16 0.87 6.12 Piru 0.24 0.87 7.28 Port Hueneme 1.18 2.25 6.06 Santa Paula 0.47 2.48 7.60 Simi Valley 0.20 0.95 6.05 Thousand Oaks 0.16 0.37 6.48 Ventura Govt. Center 0.20 1.38 6.78

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