The county Board of Supervisors and the local fire protection districts are in heated debate over who is to control the personnel and equipment during the next wildfire. The supervisors urge that a giant countywide bureaucracy should manage all available firefighting resources. Local fire protection districts fear the bureaucracy would divert their resources, leaving their district unprotected in an emergency.
The sad thing is they all concede that firestorms are inevitable. Fires are inevitable and can be caused by anything – a tossed cigarette, a downed power line, a careless camper, an arsonist. But firestorms need hot, dry Santa Ana winds to dry out the brush and drive the raging fire through overgrown chaparral that extends uninterrupted for miles downwind. If Mother Nature chooses the time and place of a fire, she always seems to choose the second day of a Santa Ana and starts it upwind of an expanse of old-growth chaparral stretching from the mountains to the sea.
But we can choose the time and place, take Mother Nature out of it, and reduce the risk of a firestorm enormously.
Fire is a natural element of our coastal desert/mountain ecology and is essential for maintenance of a balanced environment. Many native plant species are crowded out by overgrown chaparral, leaving behind seeds that are dormant for many years, to germinate only after roasting in a fire that has cleared the brush. To remain healthy, native oaks need a low temperature ground fire to kill the boring beetles that infest them.
The natural environment is best restored and rejuvenated by a fire every 20 or 30 years. Controlled burns, intentionally set during cool, damp and windless weather conditions, do the job very well and can easily be contained in a predetermined area.
The areas of a controlled burn can be picked to create a patchwork of low-fuel areas, giving firefighters a fighting chance to contain a Santa Ana-driven fire.
In the winter and spring, when firefighters are preparing for a summer and fall of dreaded Santa Anas, they could be out doing controlled burns. It is called prevention. The fuel-free zones created by the controlled burns can be preplanned, having in mind the existing access roads for greater efficiency and safety in an emergency. Tanker aircraft can be put on alert for instant response in case the burn starts to get out of control.
Who is responsible for the damage suffered in the recent firestorms? San Diego Gas & Electric is shaking in its economic boots over the current litigation claiming its downed power line caused the Witch Creek fire. The downed wire may have started the fire but those charged with public safety are responsible for the disastrous consequences.
Miles of uninterrupted high brush set the stage, just waiting for a spark during a Santa Ana to bring on the inferno. SDG&E should cross-complain against the county supervisors who have abandoned their obligation to provide for public safety. By failing to take the precautionary measure of a controlled burn program, they are to blame for the damage suffered by the plaintiffs in that action.
They consistently pander to the fringe groups of environmentalists who, not coincidentally, control large blocs of voters. There are the groups that say the disasters are caused by developers encroaching on natural brush habitat – their real agenda is to stop growth altogether.
There are the animal protection groups that oppose controlled burning because they don't want to see the cute, little wild animals disturbed.
Wildlife can survive a controlled burn by moving over to the next hill, but they can't outrun a wildfire – the cute little creatures get cooked. And there are the groups that oppose controlled burning because it causes air pollution.
How was the air quality last summer when three wildfires were burning? But don't blame the environmentalists – they are just myopic do-gooders who have no power. Blame the public officials who have the power and the responsibility but do nothing for fear of offending the environmentalists.
Consider that poor guy who was lost in the woods and started a fire so that his friends could find him. His ill-advised cry for help turned into the Cedar fire and he went to jail for it. Should not the supervisors do equal time?
There is a winter coming up when there will be many cool, damp, windless days. Maybe the supervisors will start a controlled-burn program. And maybe they will do nothing.
Gant, who graduated from Stanford with a degree in geology, lives in San Diego and practices law. For several years he maintained a ranch in Dulzura, where, he says, he became acquainted with many ranching families “whose collective common sense and wisdom on the good and bad effects of fire” shaped his views.
