Blazes Ignite Southland 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 type of dangerous conditions that fire officials fear could ignite another devastating fire season.

Fire officials said they are beginning this year’s season better prepared to do battle, having launched new efforts to eliminate vegetation around homes, clear mountain evacuation routes, remove dead and dying trees and add computerized systems to warn residents in the path of a destructive fire.

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 the 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 due to stifling 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.

Ventura County requires 100-foot brush clearance around wilderness homes. That policy, in place nearly four decades, prompted the governor’s Blue Ribbon Fire Commission in January to cite the county as a model for fire prevention.

Of the 3,600 homes destroyed in October’s fires, just 24 were in Ventura County.

“We learned 40 years ago that 30 feet wouldn’t do it,” said Ventura County Deputy Fire Chief Dave Festerling. “A 100-foot clearance makes it easier for us if we have to defend a structure.”

Fire officials in April mailed out 14,000 notices requiring property owners to remove all brush and debris within 100 feet of their homes or be fined. For those who don’t meet the June 1 deadline, the county hires contractors to clear the land and sends owners the bill, tacking on a $635 administrative fee.

Compliance hovers close to 100% because of aggressive enforcement, Festerling said.

But with the recent hot spell, county firefighters are not resting on their laurels. Annual safety training for 460 firefighters began this week -- about a month ahead of schedule -- to make sure crews are ready for wildfires, Festerling said. A smaller number of Ventura County firefighters are in San Bernardino getting specialized timber training, he said.

Ventura County has had two small wildfires this spring, Fire Marshal Diane Morgan said. Crews were able to get a handle on them quickly, but they know bigger challenges lie ahead, Morgan said.

“It’s going to be a long, hot summer,” she said. “Let’s hope it’s not a windy one.”

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 factor, Santa Ana wind, is not expected until the fall.

“Any time you get 60 to 80 mile an hour 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 California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection 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 Monday, 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 rush onshore, said forecaster Bruce Rockwell of the National Weather Service. Temperatures may cool by 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 burningon Camp Pendleton property in San Diego County, and a sixth had begun in the Castaic area.

The largest Riverside County fire was burning in a sparsely populated area southeast of Temecula. Nearly 1,000 firefighters battled that blaze, which had burned 2,500 acres by evening, closed California 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 the city of Temecula.

The cause of the fire is under investigation but firefighters are trying to locate for questioning three motorcyclists seen near the areas when the fire ignited.

In nearby Lake Elsinore, a 350-acre fire was expected to be under control by this evening, said Capt. Julie Hutchinson of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

A 400-acre brush fire ignited near Interstate 15 south of Corona, burning a vacant home and threatening several mobile homes. The northbound freeway was closed for nearly an hour, snarling traffic for miles at the Indian Truck Trail exit.

A fire also began Monday in a remote southern portion of Riverside County known as Aguanga, north of California 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.

Meanwhile, a fire that began around noon Sunday in a Marine 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.

In northern Los Angeles County near Castaic, a small blaze was accidentally started during a firefighting training exercise about 3 p.m. Firefighters were learning 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 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 several efforts to improve fire safety during this year’s season. But they concede that some problems 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 fires.

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

There is still no San Diego County fire department. However, the Office of Emergency Services is finalizing plans for a “reverse 911” warning system to give residents evacuation information by 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.

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

Not all firefighters like the idea of using military fire helicopters to fight blazes outside the base. MacPherson said it is “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 city councilman.

In the city of San Diego, the Fire Department has added 12 firefighters, increasing its total to 880, and purchased 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 warning system for the community of Idyllwild.

Over the last 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. The utility company is currently removing up to 300 trees a day.

In San Diego County, where the brunt of last year’s damage occurred, a tough new “fuel reduction” program was launched this week for 12,000 to 13,000 landowners in unincorporated areas, said county Fire Marshal Ken Miller.

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Staff writers Janet Wilson, Lance Pugmire and Louis Sahagun contributed to this report.