Additional equipment, staff sent to deal with faster-burning blazes
By David E. Graham
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Copyright 2007 The San Diego Union-Tribune
SAN DIEGO, Calif. — If it seems the number of brush fires in San Diego is rising, you’re right.
This year, through Wednesday, city firefighters have gone to about 30 percent more brush fires than either of the previous two years: 303 compared with 236 for the same period last year and 232 in 2005, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue Department records.
Given the nearly rainless winter and the overabundance of dead, dry vegetation, the department decided last month to increase the number of firefighters and equipment it automatically dispatches to any brush fire.
“Unless we get adequate resources on site in the shortest time possible, we’re likely to have a major emergency,” said Assistant Chief Jeff Carle.
The decision to send more engines and trucks specially equipped for brush fires came after firefighters had begun noticing as early as April and May that they were battling the faster-burning brush fires that are more typical of September and October, he said.
“We’re going to err on the side of safety,” Carle said.
A fire the evening of July 3 in a backyard bordering a canyon near Chollas Parkway in City Heights was answered with the fuller response even though it turned out to be only a couple of burning shrubs.
Monday’s 40-acre fire in the San Pasqual Valley in northern San Diego was a different story. Had firefighters not turned out the larger response — including help from other agencies — the blaze would have been much larger and would have been burning a day later, Carle said. It was extinguished within hours.
In the past, on summer days that might have been considered to have a lower fire threat — based upon humidity, temperature and wind — three engines, a truck and a brush rig with 20 people would go with the department’s helicopter. Part of the reasoning was a fire on those days probably would not move so fast.
Now, with the more abundant dead vegetation around the city, a dispatch to any call of a brush fire includes a larger contingent of an extra engine, two more brush rigs, a water tender, 12 additional firefighters and another battalion chief.
Rainfall for a year’s period ending June 30 was only 3.85 inches in San Diego — the fourth-driest on record — compared with an average of 10.77 inches.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, conducts a survey of plants’ moisture content each year. City fire department spokesman Maurice Luque said the survey showed that vegetation in San Diego and the state is the driest it has been in 90 years.
But it’s even worse, he said. Additional dead vegetation killed by last winter’s frosts and by beetle infestations is lying around.
“It’s just thick with brush. Very dry. Very dry,” said Greg Olsen, a crew chief of Copter 1, the department’s firefighting helicopter, as he hovered over houses to the east of Mount Soledad this week.
Firefighters want to prevent another catastrophe like the huge Cedar and Paradise fires of October 2003. The Cedar fire burned 422 square miles and 2,400 homes and killed 15 people. The Paradise fire burned almost 57,000 acres around Valley Center, destroyed more than 200 homes and killed two people.
In fact, according to San Diego fire department statistics, 2003 was the worst year overall in the city for brush fires between that year and 2006:
* 2003: 632 brush fires for the entire year
* 2004: 571 for entire year
* 2005: 538 for entire year
* 2006: 495 for entire year
Many houses in San Diego that are built on canyon ridges are at risk from an urban wildfire, Olsen said. In fact, 950 miles of such ridgeline areas exist, including in Mission Valley, the College Area and Peñasquitos Canyon.
Many residences have inadequate clear space around them, Olsen said.
Dan King, the medic on the flight team, noted a row of houses atop Peñasquitos Canyon where residents had grown ice plant around their homes, and it helped stop a blaze June 19 that charred the hillside up to the ice plant. That fast-moving fire is the one that ultimately prompted the department to elevate its response level.
The department recommends that residents have a 100-foot perimeter around homes in which vegetation is thinned or cleared.
The examples of risk abound through the city, pilot Chris Hartnell said.
SAN DIEGO BRUSH FIRES BY THE NUMBERS
The number of wildfires in the city from Jan. 1 through July 11 for this year and four previous years:
303: 2007
236: 2006
232: 2005
313: 2004
287: 2003
SOURCE: San Diego Fire-Rescue Department