6 Blazes Ignite Wildfire Season Early

State and local firefighters awoke to the first day of fire season Monday to face six fast-moving brush fires in Riverside, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, scorching temperatures and the dangerous conditions that fire officials fear could ignite another devastating fire season.

Fire officials said they were beginning the fire season better-prepared to do battle this year, having launched efforts to eliminate vegetation around homes, cleared mountain evacuation routes, removed dead and dying trees damaged by drought and a beetle infestation, and added computerized systems to warn residents in the path of fires.

More helicopters -- some from the military -- are also at the ready.

But in San Diego County, authorities concede that some of the communication problems, staffing and equipment shortages and jurisdictional disputes that hampered firefighting efforts last year have yet to be resolved.

State fire officials declared the beginning of this year’s fire season three weeks earlier than last year because of heat and an abundance of dry brush and dead, standing trees. Although last fall’s wildfires -- the most destructive in state history -- charred more than 740,000 acres, fire officials said they consumed only 7% of the dying trees and dry shrubs that surround thousands of mountain and foothill homes.

“There are still plenty of areas that have lots of fuel,” said Capt. Steve Faris of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “We by no means have burned off our highly volatile amounts of fuel.”

This week’s high temperatures and low humidity worry Southern California firefighters. But they say they are happy to report that the third and most dangerous element to the mix, Santa Ana winds, are not expected until the fall.

“Any time you get 60- to 80-mph winds with single-digit humidity and high temperatures, then you’re gonna have a fire that’s a wind-driven fire, and there’s almost no stopping it,” said Capt. Tom MacPherson, head of fire prevention for the CDF in San Diego County. “We didn’t have enough bodies to fight it last year, and we’ll never have enough bodies to fight something like that.”

On the first day of the fire season, firefighters had to contend with withering temperatures caused by a bubble of high pressure stationed over the Southland. By today, the high-pressure area was expected to move east, allowing cooler ocean air to flow onshore, said forecaster Bruce Rockwell of the National Weather Service. Temperatures may cool as much as 15 degrees today and should remain cooler through the week, he said.

In the southern end of Riverside County, firefighters were battling four blazes, two of which prompted authorities to call for evacuations in nearby communities. A fifth blaze was burning Monday at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, and a sixth had begun in the Castaic area.

The largest Riverside County fire was burning in a sparely populated area southeast of Temecula. Nearly 1,000 firefighters battled that blaze, which had and burned 2,500 acres by evening, closed state Highway 79, destroyed two utility structures owned by UC Riverside and led authorities to call for mandatory evacuations.

The fire, which began Sunday afternoon, stretched into the Pechanga Indian Reservation and was burning south and east away from Temecula but within two miles of the communities of Sage and Cottonwood.

Fire officials expressed relief late Monday that the wind had calmed. “We still have our work cut out for us [Tuesday], but we’re making good progress on the fire now,” said county fire spokesman Steve Diaz.

Its cause is under investigation, but firefighters are trying to locate and question three motorcyclists who were seen near the area when the fire ignited.

In nearby Lake Elsinore, a 350-acre brush fire was expected to be under control by this evening, said Capt. Julie Hutchinson of the CDF.

A 500-acre brush fire ignited Monday near Interstate 15 south of Corona, burning a vacant home and threatening 150 homes in the Estelle Mountain area near Perris. The northbound freeway was closed for nearly an hour, snarling traffic for miles at the Indian Truck Trail exit.

Meanwhile, a fire that began around noon Sunday in a training area of Camp Pendleton had burned more than 1,500 acres. The blaze was headed southeast toward another area that burned two years ago, according to Staff Sgt. Jim Goodwin.

Another fire began Monday in a remote southern portion of Riverside County known as Aguanga, north of Highway 79 near Sage Road. A Riverside County fire spokeswoman said the fire burned 125 acres, threatening nearby homes before firefighters and air tankers diverted the flames.

In northern Los Angeles County near Castaic, a small blaze was started during a firefighting training exercise at about 3 p.m. Firefighters were learning how to use a pistol-like device to set backfires when a projectile from the device struck a berm and ricocheted into brush, said Capt. Mark Savage of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The fire was extinguished after it had burned 50 acres, he said.

As state and local fire officials began what could be a daunting fire season, they boasted of several efforts to improve fire safety during this year’s fire season. But they concede that some problems that were highlighted during last fall’s wildfires remain unresolved.

In San Diego County, the hardest hit last year, fire officials say they have yet to implement some of the changes recommended by task forces and blue ribbon commissions created after the firestorms.

One of the problems was that there was no county fire department with centralized information and response efforts. The panels also noted a lack of evacuation planning and notification systems, ineffectual building code enforcement, and the inability to quickly borrow military helicopters, personnel and equipment.

There is still no county fire department. However, the Office of Emergency Services is finishing plans for a “reverse 911” warning system in San Diego County to give residents evacuation information via telephone. It should be in place this summer.

A state blue-ribbon commission convened by governors Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger cited confusion as to whether all available state resources, including civilian contract aircraft, must be exhausted before military and other federal assistance can be requested. Camp Pendleton has three water-dropping helicopters.

Mike Padilla, chief of aviation for the California Department of Forestry in Sacramento, said the requirement still existed, but that officials were working to guarantee that military equipment and personnel were available when possible.

Not all firefighters like the idea of using military fire helicopters to fight blazes outside of the base. MacPherson said it was “a major safety issue” to dispatch soldiers to fly military helicopters in tandem with other airborne responders.

“Sure they drop bombs all the time, but dropping bombs or water or retardant at much lower altitude is very different. You’re not the only one in the air either,” he said. But other local officials say they want assurances that military equipment will be available during a major blaze.

“If there are helicopters and aircraft available to fight a fire during a fire, I don’t want them to be sitting on the ground somewhere in this county,” said Brian Maienschein, a San Diego councilman.

In the city of San Diego, the Fire Department has added 12 firefighters, increasing its total to 880, and bought a new fire helicopter. New codes also ban wood-shake shingle roofs and require new roofs to use fire-retardant materials. In San Bernardino County, fire officials have begun testing a telephonic warning system that is designed to quickly give thousands of mountain residents evacuation information. The “reverse 911” system is expected to go online in a month or so. Riverside County officials are considering installing a similar system for Idyllwild.

Over the past few months, San Bernardino County crews and private contractors have also removed thousands of dead or dying trees from the San Bernardino Mountains.

Southern California Edison crews also expect by year’s end to have removed 80,000 trees posing an imminent threat to utility lines in resort communities from Lake Arrowhead to Idyllwild, authorities said.

Orange County Fire Authority Fire Capt. Stephen J. Miller said his agency hasn’t hired more staff or received more engines because “we’re pretty well covered for Orange County.”

Residents in the wild-land areas are notified throughout the year about potential fire danger; those areas include the Orange/Riverside County border, and all of the Yorba Linda, Trabuco and Santiago canyon areas, he said. In utility bills or city newsletters, residents receive fliers or notices about fire prevention and the steps they should take to protect their homes.

Miller said that even if a city doesn’t require it, the Fire Authority asks the public to build homes as well as decks and gazebos of noncombustible materials. Even if a house is built with noncombustible materials, he said, a fire can spread from wooden porches and the like through the rest of the structure.

In San Diego County, where the brunt of last year’s damage occurred, a tough fuel reduction program was launched this week for 12,000 to 13,000 landowners in unincorporated areas, said County Fire Marshal Ken Miller. State fire inspectors will visit homes and other sites in rural, heavily forested or brushy areas, and leave notices requiring all flammable materials to be cleared within a 50-foot radius.

Heightened precautions also are in place in the Los Padres National Forest, north of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. As of Monday, visitors must obtain a permit to start a campfire, unless the site is clearly marked as a “campfire use” area.

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Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Janet Wilson, Lance Pugmire, Louis Sahagun, Catherine Salliant and Regine Labossiere.