Brush With a Deadline

Hillside residents who have neglected their springtime obligation to clear brush from around their homes will soon find reminders from the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The deadline for clearing brush was May 1. Since then, inspectors have combed hillsides, checking to make sure the work has been done. Several thousand violators have been discovered, with the first notices sent out Wednesday.

Residents are warned that if brush is not cleared within 15 days, a $218 reinspection fee will be charged. If the violations remain, the department has the authority to clear the property and charge the owner for both the cost of brush clearance and a $314 administrative fee.

“All we’re trying to do is look at all the properties next to brush,” said Capt. Jack Reiss, commander of the brush unit of the Fire Prevention Bureau of the city Fire Department. “We want 200 feet around the properties cleared.”

Battalion Chief Al Hernandez said that in the past the city has had the power to impose the $218 reinspection fee but has not actually done so. This year the reinspection fee will be charged.

“We need something to motivate people to clear their brush the first time we tell them to so we don’t have to keep coming back to reinspect,” Hernandez said.

Fire Department officials hope for a smoother brush clearance season this year. In 1999 the city enraged homeowners by charging a $13 brush inspection fee. After a public uproar the Los Angeles City Council backed off and refunded $900,000 to residents. The department also ran into major computer problems, delaying the brush inspection process until the fall.

The job may also be easier this year because inspectors are dealing with fewer homes. On the basis of field reports and new maps, the department redrew the boundaries for its high fire hazard area. The changes were made in response to complaints that some of the homes and businesses in the previous zone were in highly developed neighborhoods under little threat from wildfires.

In the end, the department reduced the number of parcels it needs to inspect from 171,000 to 125,000.

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Dale Shrode is one of the 45 firefighters who will spend the next two months looking for violations. Shrode, armed with a hand-held electronic organizer, said that on a good day he can inspect more than 250 properties.

After he has filed about 300 reports he transfers the information into a computer at the department’s brush clearance center in Van Nuys.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department has also begun inspections. The deadline for the Antelope Valley “desert zone” area was April 15. The deadline for inland communities, including Chatsworth, Calabasas, Kagel Canyon, Westlake Village, Agoura, Santa Clarita, La Canada Flintridge and La Crescenta, was May 1. The deadline for coastal communities like Malibu and Pacific Palisades is June 1.

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After an inspection, county residents are notified of the result by a memo that is hung on the front door, said John Todd, an assistant chief in the department’s Forestry Division. Residents are given either notice that their property has passed or instructions on how to properly clear the brush. County fire inspectors return to check on properties within 30 days. Last year the county performed 34,935 inspections and sent out 6,300 violation notices. Ultimately it fined 317 property owners $431, although 71 of those fines were successfully appealed. In the end the county’s agriculture department had to contract out and charge property owners for the clearing of 48 properties.

“Our goal is, get a lot of properties checked and cleared by July 4. we want everyone in compliance by Aug. 31,” Todd said. “Our interest is getting the property cleared, not in fining people.”

If history is any guide, the Los Angeles Fire Department will end up issuing about 30,000 violation notices within the next month. Typically about 15,000 of those violators end up actually being fined.

In the end the department hires contractors to clean up about 1,000 properties, charging the cost to the property owner.

“It’s always the same people,” Reiss said. “They have no intention of clearing the brush.”