After Vetoes, Experts Split on Fire Safety

Nearly a year after the worst brush fires in state history swept across Southern California, state officials acknowledged that only nine of the 48 recommendations made by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s blue-ribbon fire panel have been implemented.

The panel was formed with much fanfare after the fires, with officials hoping the group would come up with ways to prevent a repeat of the blazes that killed 24 people, destroyed 3,361 residences and burned 739,597 acres.

But six months after the recommendations were made, their implementation has been slowed by a lack of money and an assortment of other obstacles. The result is an increasingly heated dispute that has divided the state’s fire safety experts just as California enters the heart of fire season.

“The governor is responding to the greatest needs in Southern California,” said Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman, who added that the implementation of nine recommendations and progress on many others showed the state had taken significant steps forward. “California should feel safer.”

But a coalition of the state’s major firefighting associations disputes that assessment. Its members argue that little progress has been made and that the most important panel recommendations -- including buying fleets of new fire engines, upgrading emergency communications equipment and determining whether fire agencies have adequate resources -- remain undone.

“There has been no effort by the administration to see if there is a way to accomplish some of these things in a different form or fashion,” said Alameda County Fire Chief Bill McCammon. “We believe that California’s fire safety, and that its future fire safety, hinges on some of these recommendations.”

The relationship between fire chiefs and Schwarzenegger was further strained recently when he vetoed four bills designed to implement major recommendations of the panel. Among other things, the bills would have provided more fire equipment and increased from three to four the number of firefighters on California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection trucks statewide.

The governor said the bills would have reduced the flexibility of firefighting authorities to direct resources, added unnecessary costs and taken resources from other priorities, including the battle against terrorism.

“We’re in a state of confusion,” said Lou Paulson, president of the California Professional Firefighters, which represents chiefs as well as firefighters and their unions. “The governor forms the commission, the Legislature forms legislation to address the recommendations, and he vetoes it.”

Added San Diego Fire Chief Jeff Bowman, a panel member: “What message does this send to those who did his work? Our work was for nothing.”

Panel members noted that even some ideas embraced by all have proved too difficult to implement. After extensive negotiations with the Department of Defense, the state has trained more than a dozen Marine and Navy pilots to fight fires and has negotiated the use of military aircraft in the San Diego area, for example. But the pilots have been deployed to Iraq as quickly as they’ve been trained, officials say.

As the six-month mark approaches, one of the panel’s straightforward recommendations -- to reconvene and assess progress this month -- appears unlikely to happen, said William Campbell, the panel chairman and a former Republican state senator.

Now, some fire chiefs are asking for a face-to-face meeting with the governor to sort out the issues.

The panel, made up of fire experts, chiefs, lawmakers and others, spent months studying how the October brush fires were fought. They heard about problems in San Diego County, where some authorities said there were not enough firefighters and equipment to battle the blazes. Others believe that the San Diego battle was marred by a lack of coordination among agencies.

Elsewhere, the panel heard about problems with a lack of brush clearance and land management that helped fuel the fires.

The panel called for better coordination among state and local fire agencies and improved training for firefighters, especially teaching those who typically battle forest fires to also handle urban fires. It called for more staffing and equipment, including aircraft.

But for the most part, the group did not offer specific ways of funding these improvements.

Campbell said there has been major progress on many of the recommendations but admits that full implementation of many items could be years away.

The governor, he noted, signed five fire-related bills that involved such issues as land management and forest protection. One of those bills requires local governments in fire-prone areas to submit safety plans to the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection beginning in 2010.

And the state redeployed 10 refurbished fire engines to Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. “It shot us forward,” said Dale Geldert, director of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “We were able to put assets in the field.”

Resources Secretary Chrisman noted that the governor has dedicated an additional $12 million to $15 million to firefighting resources, including increased staffing, additional equipment and training programs. The governor also issued an executive order directing that Department of Forestry fire trucks in Southern California carry four rather than three firefighters.

But some fire chiefs believe that several of the most important recommendations have gone unheeded. For example, the chiefs want Department of Forestry trucks throughout California to have four firefighters aboard, not just those in the southern part of the state.

Moreover, the state has not followed through on the panel’s request for 150 new fire engines and new communication equipment that would allow emergency agencies to speak to one another, they said. Geldert said they are working on both proposals but that they would take several years to implement.

One bill the governor vetoed would have required California fire agencies to report local response time and staffing statistics to the state fire marshal so the state could compare departments. The bill was related to concerns that San Diego County didn’t have enough firefighters, but the governor said in a statement that the proposal would have imposed “an unnecessary and costly mandate.”

Within the panel, there remains a dispute about whether more should be done. Campbell, the head, said he was pleased with the governor’s progress. But state Sen. Nell Soto (D-Pomona) remains frustrated.

“Why is this taking so long? I think people who don’t live here don’t have that sense of urgency that comes from having been there and seen [last year’s wildfires],” Soto said. “I watched my district burn.... I think the governor has to get into this and demand that something get done.”

Geldert, the Department of Forestry director, said he could understand the emotions on both sides.

“We are willing to risk our lives to save life and property, and that makes it a passionate issue,” he said. “It’s something we feel so deeply, we have a hard time expressing ourselves.”