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.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday May 07, 2004 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 35 words Type of Material: Correction
Fire locations -- A map of Southern California brush fires in Tuesday's California section showed that the Cerrito and Gafford fires were just west of Interstate 15. The fires were just east of the freeway.
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.
