Fire danger acute as ’03 lessons fade

Nearly four years after the worst wildfires in state history raged across Southern California, officials have yet to implement some of the key reforms developed in the aftermath of the disaster that killed more than two dozen people and destroyed thousands of homes.

The state faces another potentially disastrous fire season, with the Southland recording its driest year on record. Already, there have been several major blazes this year -- far earlier than usual. And last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned of “extreme” drought conditions.

The 2003 wildfires prompted several investigations that found some fire agencies were not prepared to fight such large blazes.

Although some improvements have been made since, fire officials said many of the most expensive improvements suggested by various committees and organizations -- with a likely price tag in the billions of dollars -- have not been completed.

“We still don’t have any additional firetrucks on the road,” said Dallas Jones, who was director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services between 1999 and 2004 and is now secretary-treasurer of the California Professional Firefighters union. “How many years are we since the ’03 fire siege? It takes years, sometimes, to build fleets of equipment, and so far, nothing.”

Among the unfulfilled recommendations made to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by his Blue Ribbon Fire Commission:

* Engines: The state remains far short of the 150 additional engines recommended to supplement the governor’s Office of Emergency Services fleet of 110. The first of 19 new engines will be delivered by July. Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said getting more trucks is crucial to avoid a repeat of 2003, when departments had firefighters available but not enough trucks to get them to the front lines. “We had run out of vehicles,” he said.

* Nighttime air drops: A lack of after-dark water drops in the 2003 fires contributed to some fires growing out of control overnight. Neither state nor federal authorities permit nighttime aerial drops, citing safety concerns for the pilots flying over unfamiliar terrain. The L.A. city and county fire departments are among the few agencies in California that allow nighttime air drops because pilots are well-trained in local topography. Nighttime aerial assaults were credited with helping control the recent fires at Griffith Park and on Santa Catalina Island.

* Helicopter fleet. The commission found that the state’s aging fire helicopters needed to be replaced. But no new choppers have been purchased. “The fleet itself is excess aircraft built in the ‘60s,” said Mike Padilla, chief of aviation with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “They are still doing the job ... [but] they’re getting older.”

* Communications: In 2003, firefighters and law enforcement officers used different radio frequencies, so information didn’t always get passed along. In San Diego’s Cedar fire, radio lines broke down because of volume, leaving firefighters vulnerable. These problems remain. “It’s hard to get everyone on a system or off a system,” said Kim Zagaris, fire chief for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. “It’s not cheap.”

* Staffing: The commission recommended that all state fire engines sent to major wildfires have at least four firefighters. Instead, the state puts four firefighters on fire engines based on fire threat conditions. State firetrucks in high-risk fire zones have four-person crews, but crews elsewhere that would come in as reinforcements might have only three, Jones said. “It’s much more productive to have four persons on an engine than three” to hold fire lines and carve fire breaks, he said.

Because most of the needs would take months if not years to enact, firefighters likely will face the coming months with existing resources.

Those include a national contract fleet of heavy air tankers that remains at less than half of what it was five years ago -- 16 compared with 41. The steep reduction came in 2004 when many aging aircraft were deemed unsafe and removed from service. To try to compensate, the U.S. Forest Service tripled the number of dedicated helicopters that can dump water and foam to 35, with an additional 300 contracted on an on-call basis.

The state firefighting fleet has lost two air tankers, as well as a scouting aircraft, to crashes, with no immediate replacements planned.

Locally, firefighters are concerned that Los Angeles County may not receive until September two SuperScooper planes designed to dump 1,600 gallons of seawater, said Chief Freeman.

The planes are leased annually from Quebec, but their arrival is expected to be delayed because that Canadian province also faces dangerous fire conditions and a longer fire season.

Downtown L.A. has received less than 4 inches of rain since July 1, on track for a historic low.

The conditions are being felt by firefighters, who have been dealing with highly unseasonable brush fires all winter and spring, including blazes during the traditional rainy season that destroyed homes in Malibu and Beverly Hills.

L.A. County fire officials surveyed the brush and shrubs around the region earlier this month and found moisture levels were less than half of normal for this time of year -- raising concerns about conditions when the Santa Ana winds start blowing later this year.

Officials said the dry brush allowed the Griffith Park and Catalina fires to rage for hours despite relatively mild winds.

“Expect erratic wildfire behavior -- even without significant winds,” L.A. City Fire Deputy Chief Mario Rueda said.

In the wake of those fires, officials are considering a ban on barbecues at parks citywide and plan to step up patrols of high-risk park areas for any signs of fire.

They noted that an eight-acre brush fire at Griffith Park in February was extinguished quickly because it was immediately reported to rangers.

The city, county and state are also deploying more fire engines to hillside areas on high-risk days. Pre-deployed state fire engines from the Northern and Central California coast were among the first responders to the Griffith Park fire, said CDF Director Ruben Grijalva.

The 2003 fires were considered a “perfect storm” for firefighters because they erupted during a weekend of high temperatures and fierce winds across a wide swath of Southern California. Firefighters were contending with blazes from Ventura County and the Santa Clarita Valley to the Inland Empire and San Diego County.

Some of the fires took days to contain, in part because there were not enough firefighters, air resources and equipment in the first crucial hours.

In the aftermath, officials vowed to learn the lessons of 2003. Legislators proposed bills to increase staffing and add fire resources, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. The governor vetoed four of them. He did sign a fifth fire-related bill that required local governments to submit their safety plans to the CDF. But it doesn’t take effect until 2010.

State officials agree that more needs to be done but said some progress has been made.

The state is preparing to lease a DC-10 aircraft from a private company by June that can unleash 12,000 gallons of retardant in a single run -- 10 times the capacity of the state’s air tankers.

“We think we can be more aggressive with it this year and keep fires from getting too large,” Grijalva said.

Officials note that since 2003, they have beefed up training and purchased more firefighting equipment. In addition, local authorities have been aggressively urging the public to remove brush surrounding their homes, a push that began earlier than usual this year.

And officials note that some elements of the commission’s recommendations have taken effect. The state increased money to accelerate the replacement of the CDF’s 336 aging fire engines. Significantly, agreements are now in place coordinating local efforts with federal and military resources. In 2003, the commission found that confusion reigned over whether all civilian resources needed to be exhausted before requesting federal or military help.

In the Catalina fire, the Navy was contacted quickly to ferry firefighters and equipment to the island.

But officials acknowledge that there is still work to do.

After the report was released in early 2004, the governor set up an ad hoc committee of fire chiefs, firefighters and state and union officials to monitor progress.

The last official report was issued Nov. 11, 2005, and the last meeting of fire chiefs took place in early 2006, said Michael Warren, chief of the Corona Fire Department and a past president of the California Fire Chiefs Assn.

Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego), who was on the blue ribbon commission, said it really comes down to money -- and officials agreeing to make firefighting and prevention priorities.

“There’s literally billions of dollars of catch-up we have to do -- in communications, training and brush clearance, not only near structures but over the thousands of acres the state and federal government controls,” Kehoe said.

ron.lin@latimes.com

megan.garvey@latimes.com