CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 20, 1999 | HILARY E. MacGREGOR, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Heavy brush resulting from El Nino rains last year, followed by cool dryness this year, have created ideal conditions for big fires in the 1999 season, authorities said Friday. Usually the hills that ring the San Fernando Valley are as green as Ireland this time of year--moist and lush from winter rains.
BUSINESS
August 4, 1992 | CHRIS WOODYARD, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Alex Nguyen begins his workday by counting the dead mice in a San Clemente warehouse. "It's something to talk about at lunch," Nguyen says wryly. The daily toll has risen as high as 13 but lately has been in single digits since the company where Nguyen works, C&E Vision Services, called in the experts: Mission Pest Control in Laguna Hills.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 3, 1992 | LESLIE EARNEST
While recent rains may have done little to ease the drought, water officials say South County communities will profit simply because less water is being used for irrigation. "It's hard to measure (the benefit of the storms), but irrigation consumes almost 50% of the water supply," said Jack Foley, general manager of the Moulton Niguel Water District, which serves about 120,000 people in Dana Point, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo and Mission Viejo.
NEWS
October 31, 1991 | DAVID REYES and JAMES GOMEZ, TIMES STAFF WRITERS
Teams of firefighters fanned across the parched hills and canyons of Orange County Wednesday, as Santa Ana winds gusted to 69 m.p.h.--heightening the potential for a fire disaster. The season's first "red flag" warning was declared by the Orange County Fire Department, which automatically dispatched roving fire inspectors, ordered strike teams on standby near Irvine Lake and began assembling a brigade-size crew of firefighters and equipment.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 28, 1991 | MICHAEL CONNELLY, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Donald A. Pierpont sees more than natural beauty when he looks up into the mountains that rim the San Fernando Valley. The Los Angeles County fire captain sees what he calls "the prescription for disaster." It is the gray color of brush he sees that bothers Pierpont the most. Spreading amid the brown-and-green vegetation is the ever-increasing amount of gray--dead vegetation that he said could help fuel a fire as disastrous as the one that ravaged the Oakland-Berkeley area last week.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 8, 1991 | Researched by: APRIL JACKSON / Los Angeles Times
Argentine Ant (Iridomyrmex Humilis): Color: Dark brown to brownish-black. Size: Medium by ant standards, about 1/16 to 1/8-inch. Description: Single segment connects thorax with abdomen. Strong jaws for carrying food back to the colony; is capable of biting. Does not have a stinger. Climate: Prefers cool weather. Will move into house for protection from rain. Habitat: Under stones, in sidewalks, at base of trees and posts. Does not require hard dirt for nest.