Posted on 05/04/2008 9:35:40 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Along the fringes of land scorched by last fall's massive wildfires, pockets of oat grass are sprouting from the Malibu canyons to the San Diego suburbs.
A damp winter has suppressed large fires this year, but encouraged the growth of combustible grasses, highlighting an irony of wildfire season that has become a punch line of sorts for firefighters.
"If rainfall is normal, it will be a terrible fire season. If it's a drought year, it will be a terrible fire season," said Thom Porter of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The number of acres burned this year is below average, but fire officials are bracing for what is forecast to be a severe fire season in Southern California as waist-high green growth dries to a crispy brown.
California's unofficial fire season runs from mid-May through November, but in recent years the state has been on fire alert year-round. Fire activity typically peaks in the fall when blustery Santa Ana winds kick up and ignite dried-out vegetation into a firestorm.
Despite a 500-acre blaze that crept within feet of homes in the San Gabriel Mountain foothills east of Los Angeles in the past week and another burning in the San Bernardino National Forest, the severity of fires across the state is down over the same period last year.
Since January, 5,539 acres have been blackened across the state, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. During the same period last year, 8,244 acres burned.
Last year's extremely dry conditions kept firefighters busy. In January, crews fought a wind-driven fire that tore through a row of multimillion-dollar oceanfront homes in Malibu. Before the fall, they battled fires in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, Santa Catalina Island and the resort area of Lake Tahoe.
But the brunt of the flames wielded the worst devastation in the fall with more than a dozen blazes breaking out from Malibu to San Diego. All told, last year's fire season burned over a million acres, destroyed more than 5,000 structures and killed seven people.
This year's wet winter followed by a dry spring and two record-setting heat waves in Southern California have led to abundant grasses turning brown early that some fear "could serve as a wick," said John Todd, chief of forestry at the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
As grasses dry out, any ignition - whether it's a match or overheating car - could spark a fire.
"We have a lot of good growth out there," Todd said. "Last year, we had hardly any growth because we had very little rain."
New growth in burned areas is not the only obstacle. Firefighters are also concerned about brush-covered regions that have not burned in decades that could make for stubborn firefighting.
Last week's Santa Anita Fire that forced 1,000 residents in the Sierra Madre area to flee is an example. The blaze charred more than 500 acres, including spots that have not burned in 40 years.
In Malibu's Trancas Canyon, which last burned in 1978, the homeowners' association is taking action early.
The association of 200 houses and condos applied for federal and state money to replace flammable eucalyptus trees with fire-resistant plants and stock up on kits with fire-resistant gel to coat houses.
"We're the last significant neighborhood that has not burned. I don't want to wait," said longtime Malibu resident Cindy Vandor, who drew up the plan.
The Los Angeles Fire Department has begun enforcing a brush clearance rule for homes near the mountains surrounding Los Angeles. Owners could be fined if they fail to clear brush within 200 feet of their homes or buildings.
Farther east, parts of the San Bernardino National Forest where two fires chewed through 26,600 acres last year resemble what some forest officials call a moonscape.
Although the standing dead trees likely would not pose an immediate fire danger, the U.S. Forest Service is talking to the community about thinning them to lessen the impact of future fires.
"We're removing some but not all," said Kurt Winchester, a district ranger. "We still want to have some snags and some downed woody material."
Forest officials are also keeping an eye on the bark beetle, which in the past has preyed on millions of pine, cedar and dogwood trees across California. Groves that have been killed off by the beetle are more prone to fire.
"We're kind of at the break point," said Janice Gauthier, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman.
How severe this year's wildfires will turn out could depend on the ferocity of the seasonal Santa Anas, which blow between October and February and peak in December.
Last year's fires were fanned by unusually powerful Santa Anas that lasted several days, said Bill Patzert of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
"Santa Anas are like El Ninos," said Patzert, referring to the weather phenomenon of the warming of the water in the tropical Pacific. "They come small, medium, large. Sometimes you get a Godzilla."
Looks like a dry, hot summer.
...of people desperately trying to blame every fire on MOOOOSLEM TERRORISTS!
Ok, so if we don't get rain it is global warming and we will have fires, if we get rain then we have more grass so we will get fires. Either way the idiots are trying to work up fear. That is the dems most vital resource, FEAR.
We always have fires in CA, it is a given, each year the rain stops about april or may, sometimes as late as june but usually about the first of May and it doesn't rain, in any significant amount, in the low country again until about Oct.
It is hard or most people to grasp but we don't have green in the summer, we have a brown grass haven, unless you water a lawn but the wild grasses are already dying and will not be green again until, as I said, about Oct, maybe Nov. We depend on the snow in the Sierras to get us through the summer, and is always does but it will not stop the fires.
Looks like a dry, hot summer.
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afraid so,, saw a report we have a 67% snowpack of “normal” in the sierra nevada as well,, not bad but not good either, we never got any late season storms to add to the early stuff,, and there’s lots of fuel already in the hills and mountains . fingers crossed
Nah. Forget I mentioned it.
I had fires less than 4 blocks from my home last time.
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