Fire Safety

Like many in his Yorba Linda neighborhood, David Ramocinski had complained for years about the erratic water supply that left sprinklers sputtering and shower heads trickling. When nothing but air came out of his faucets, he wondered if there would be enough to protect his hilltop house if the bone-dry brush that surrounded it ever caught fire.

The grief-numbed parents of Hermosillo buried their babies and waited for answers. When none came, they marched. When they got desperate, they traveled the thousand miles to Mexico City and marched some more. They carried banners with photos of their children -- 48 in all -- killed when fire tore through a crowded day-care center named ABC. More than a month after the June 5 blaze in the northern state of Sonora, satisfying answers are in short supply.

Three months after massive brush fires burned hundreds of homes across Southern California, a blue-ribbon task force on Friday made dozens of recommendations aimed at improving the response to large-scale blazes. But many of the proposed measures are similar to those made after the devastating wildfires of 2003 -- and many of those were never implemented because there was no money available.

New state building code regulations aimed at protecting homes in wildfires are expected to result in a modest increase in construction costs. The new codes, which went into effect Jan. 1 in the 31 million acres of privately owned wild lands served by the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), will become effective July 1 in municipalities served by their own fire departments.

Recent downpours have turned Orange County foothills charred by October's ferocious Santiago fire a vivid emerald green. From a distance, the explosion of life offers a powerful testament to nature's resilience. Up close, it also provides a worrisome omen for the months ahead.

Broken fire alarms at nearly a dozen buildings at Santa Ana College went unrepaired for more than two years because of miscommunication and a can't-someone-else-do-it mentality, and because officials did not declare an emergency to fix the antiquated system, an investigation by a law firm found. "Everybody thought it was someone else's responsibility," said Eddie Hernandez, chancellor of the Rancho Santiago Community College District.

A piece of heavy equipment called a hot saw is slicing through a high-country stand of skinny ponderosa pines like a mechanical Paul Bunyan on steroids. Nearby, a computer-programmed log processor is stripping the branches off cut trees as if it were peeling carrots. Most of the logs are no more than a foot in diameter -- not big enough to properly be called timber.

Jon keeley is standing on a dirt road in western Riverside County, looking out across the Box Springs Mountains. Instead of a thick coat of native shrubs, the slopes are covered with a shriveled tangle of mustard, wild oats and red brome. Too much fire is the culprit. Since 1957, there have been 33 fires larger than 100 acres in the Box Springs -- more than the area's native coastal sage and chaparral could withstand.

Forest fires in the Sierra Nevada have grown larger, more frequent and more damaging in the last two decades, according to a study that suggests much of the blame rests with the government's century-long war on wildfire. The study, published online this month in the journal Ecosystems, found that between 1984 and 2006, the proportion of burned areas where no trees survived increased, on average, to nearly 30%, from 17%. Climate is playing some role, the study said.

The firestorm that destroyed most of Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar has prompted investigations into whether tougher standards are needed to protect residents of manufactured housing in fire-prone areas. Because many elderly people live in mobile home parks, state regulators and elected officials plan to explore the adequacy of evacuation plans and emergency procedures, which have been lacking at parks throughout the state.