Value of Brush Removal Is Clear

Don Crocker’s home in Rolling Hills burned to the ground on a windy summer day in 1973.

So when another fire raced up the same coastal hillside last week, his wife worriedly packed the car.

But this fire turned out to be much different. While it swept up the canyon, firefighters were able to stop the blaze before it reached the first row of ocean-view houses below Crocker’s.

“I was thinking -- it’s so much different this time than last time,” he said.

The 1973 fire, which burned about a dozen homes in Rolling Hills and Rancho Palos Verdes, marked the beginnings of a fire-preparedness revolution in the two communities and the rest of Los Angeles County.

The two communities became among the first in the region to aggressively enforce brush-clearing regulations, a model later copied by the county Fire Department.

Firefighters credit brush clearance with preventing a major loss of homes during Wednesday’s blaze, which at one point threatened 400 residences and burned more than 200 acres. No houses were damaged.

“Everything was basically the same as it was in ’73 when we showed up,” said county fire Battalion Chief Al Schriver, who, as a Rolling Hills firefighter, battled that blaze and who coordinated efforts Wednesday. “I think it’s a lesson to people. It could have had the same results. It’s very stark evidence that what we’re doing works.”

Firefighters said the Palos Verdes Peninsula blaze offers an example to the rest of Southern California as the summer fire season unfolds. Some officials are predicting a potentially dangerous season because the near-record rainfall this winter produced extensive plant growth.

Although most brush fires start on remote or undeveloped hillsides, brush clearance is considered a crucial barrier when flames reach developed areas.

A Times analysis of the 2003 wildfires in San Diego County -- which destroyed more than 2,300 structures -- found that brush clearance was the single biggest factor in whether a home burned or survived. Many of the destroyed houses had flammable vegetation within 30 feet, the analysis found.

“Every time we have one of these fires, the first thing out of the public information officer’s mouth is that brush clearance helped,” said Assistant Fire Chief John Todd of the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Forestry Division. “I think it’s sunk in with people. They’ve seen the results.”

Linda Greenberg and her family moved into the Island View neighborhood of Rancho Palos Verdes six years ago, to a house that overlooks the ocean and a now-scorched canyon. Neighbors told them it was a matter of when, not if, fires broke out, she said. Yearly brush clearing and fire inspections became routine.

The area behind her home was cleared three weeks ago, thinning brush across her backyard fence and a ways down the canyon below.

On Wednesday, much of the area that had been cleared was black. And the fire had reached the home’s metal fence. But because the brush had been cleared, the flames burned with reduced intensity, allowing firefighters to get closer to the fire and put it out before it got near her home. Greenberg praised the clearing effort.

“I think it might have saved my house,” she said.

“We’ve always talked about it,” added Andrew Olvera, an inspector for the county Fire Department. “We’ve learned [that] homes that did not have the appropriate amount of brush clearance were extremely difficult to defend.”

Rancho Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills residents have long been required to clear brush. But officials and homeowners agree that before 1973, compliance was lax. There was no official process of inspection, and there were no repercussions for residents who didn’t clear, fire officials said.

Tom Heinsheimer, a Rolling Hills councilman since 1973, said the city took a laissez-faire approach to the issue, thinking that the homeowners’ property was their space.

That changed after the fire. Residents realized that if neighbors didn’t take precautions and clear brush, their own homes could be endangered, city and fire officials said.

Rancho Palos Verdes, which incorporated only two months after the fire, quickly enacted clearance regulations and laws about roofing materials, said Ken Dyda, who was on the city’s first council. Rolling Hills also instituted more aggressive brush clearance regulations and roof codes, Heinsheimer said.

The county Fire Department stepped up enforcement of brush rules after the 1993 Malibu fires. Officials recognized that although fire departments had been performing brush inspections, offending properties were not always effectively reported to the county agricultural department, which removes brush if residents refuse to clear it.

The Fire Department created a brush clearance unit in its Forestry Division to take over coordination between the two agencies. The unit now works with and trains firefighters from about half of the department’s approximately 160 stations, stations that oversee areas requiring brush-clearing notification and education, said unit Deputy Forester Jon Baker.

The unit’s brush clearing program begins in January and February every year when the forestry division mails 37,000 notices to residents in fire hazard zones. Recipients are required to cut brush up to 100 or 200 feet around structures and to keep the first 30 or 50 feet clear of flammable vegetation.

Firefighters make property inspections in April through June and let homeowners know that they have passed or that they need additional clearing. Non-compliant homeowners get another visit from the department 30 days later, and if they haven’t made any progress, the brush clearance unit is notified.

Residents who continue to ignore warnings have their property reported to the county agricultural department, which clears the property and charges the owner.

Residents in Rolling Hills and Rancho Palos Verdes say the yearly inspections and money spent on brush clearing are worth it.

Crocker put a fire-retardant roof on his new home and is vigilant about brush.

He isn’t the only one, he says: “People learned a lot of lessons in the past.”

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Taking precautions pays off

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Fire officials say brush clearance on the Palos Verdes Peninsula made the difference in com-bating Wednesday’s 212-acre fire. No structures were lost, a very different outcome from a similar blaze in 1973.

Brush cut: The L.A. County Fire Department requires brush in fire hazard areas to be cut to no more than a 3-inch stub within a 100-foot radius of structures (200 feet in high-risk areas).

Clean gutters: Needles and leaves should be cleared from gutters and roof.

Buffer zone: A 10-foot buffer should be left around driveways and flammable fences.

Dead wood: Dry branches should be cleared from yard; stacked wood should be at least 30 feet from structures.

Sources: Los Angeles City Fire Department; Los Angeles County Fire Department