Wildfire Dangers Grow as Hills Dry

The near-record rains that drenched Southern California this winter have created conditions for a potentially dangerous fire season as dense vegetation nurtured by the storms dries out.

The first major wildfire of the season, a blaze north of Palm Springs that destroyed six homes and a barn, was fueled by much-taller-than-normal hillside chaparral and grasses.

Firefighters fear a hot summer will dry the brush and leave ample fuel for major wildfires when the Santa Ana winds kick up in late summer and early fall.

“We’re seeing brush that is like 6 feet tall in some places, where it usually only grows 2 to 3 feet tall,” said Matt Shameson, a weather forecaster for the U.S. Forest Service in Riverside. “Right now our live fuel moisture is going down, and it should be at critical levels pretty shortly, maybe the first or second week of July.”

Some of Southern California’s most destructive wildfire seasons have come after heavy rains.

The 1992-93 rain season was the ninth wettest on record, with more than 27 inches falling in downtown Los Angeles. But it was followed just months later by one of the worst brush fire seasons on record, when hundreds of homes were destroyed in Laguna Beach, Malibu and other Southland communities.

Veteran Malibu firefighter Bob Goldman remembers residents hoping the winter rains that year would prevent major fires -- only to watch nervously as the heavy growth dried up through the summer.

Now, he has a feeling of deja vu. As he drives around the hills of Malibu, he is seeing weeds that usually grow to about a foot climbing to 3 feet and mustard plants 6 feet or taller. In recent weeks, the foliage has turned from green to yellow -- and in some cases to brown.

“In my almost 30 years, I’ve never seen mustard 6 or 7 feet tall,” said Goldman, adding that the tall vegetation helps fires to climb up the oaks and sycamores. “The general public doesn’t normally think in those terms. There’s an assumption that if it’s rainy, we will not have that bad a fire season.... [But] with all the growth we’ve seen, this will be a really bad season.”

Meteorologists point out that despite the heavy rains, it has been relatively dry in Southern California since mid-February.

“Remember this rain year started early and stopped early. We’ve had below-normal rainfall for the last three to four months, so we’re drying out sooner,” said Bill Patzert, a meteorologist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge. “Last year’s good news, which was that we had record rains in October instead of Santa Ana winds igniting fires, is June and July’s bad news. Because we skipped the fire season, the rains spelled more F-U-E-L.”

The severity of the upcoming fire season, Patzert and other experts said, will depend largely on how hot a summer Southern California experiences and whether the Santa Ana winds are fierce.

This season’s rains -- 37.21 inches in downtown Los Angeles, the second-wettest total on record -- have left more moisture in the scrub and chaparral this year compared with the same time last year. This is particularly true in the high mountains, where the vegetation remains green and creeks continue to flow.

But as temperatures creep toward triple digits, officials said they are seeing the moisture levels rapidly decrease. This is most pronounced in desert areas and foothill areas below 4,000 feet, but experts expect the drying-out to spread further up the mountains as the summer progresses.

Fire officials are particularly concerned because Southern California is just coming out of several years of drought conditions. So, while the new grasses are still relatively moist, they are growing around dry brush that is far more combustible.

“We created a lot of new vegetation, but before this we had this five-year drought,” said Los Angeles County fire inspector John Mancha. “So all those old fuels that have not burned, along with the new vegetation, will be a danger as the temperatures continue to rise.”

The region was hit by the most destructive wildfires in its history two years ago, when blazes from Ventura County to the Mexican border destroyed more than 3,600 homes and killed 25 people. Those fires came after several years of drought and amid a bark beetle infestation that killed millions of trees.

The rains have helped fortify trees, allowing them to produce sap that fends off the beetles. But local forests are still littered with dead trees despite an aggressive removal effort.

“There’s still an incredible amount of mortality out there,” said Bob Sommer, forest fuels officer for the San Bernardino National Forest.

Firefighters battling the Morongo Valley fire this week said they were surprised by how fast the flames moved through the brush. Though the conditions are less severe than those before the 2003 firestorms, they said they expect a busy fire season.

“We may not have the Old and Grand Prix fires,” said San Bernardino County Fire Division Chief Paul Summers, referring to two of the 2003 blazes. “But we will have many moderate- to large-size fires. The brush is higher, as are the light grasses that have popped up due to the heavy rain.

“Some brush doesn’t absorb moisture as much as you think. After 38 inches of rain in San Bernardino County, you might say, ‘Well where did it all go?’ ”

Summers is far from the first firefighter to ask this question.

Heavy rains in 1969, for example, were followed a year later by one of the biggest brush fires in state history, which burned 435,000 acres from Newhall to Malibu, and a 185,000-acre fire in San Diego County.

Los Angeles County Assistant Fire Chief John Todd said he first viewed the 1992-93 rainy season as a blessing, because it came after several years of drought.

“We were looking at 4 inches of rain in L.A. all year, and thinking, ‘Oh, man, we’re hurting,’ and suddenly we got all this moisture,” Todd said. “Of course, the payback came ... later when everything started burning.”

Powerful Santa Ana winds later that year fanned flames that eventually charred more than 18,000 acres, destroyed 323 homes and killed three people in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Another massive blaze raged through Laguna Canyon and into Laguna Beach, burning more than 400 homes.

The landscape along the coastal hills of Laguna Beach today, fire engineer Dennis Marsh said, looks eerily similar to 1993.

“It looks so nice in the springtime. People are saying, ‘It looks like Ireland. It looks like Scotland.’ I’m thinking, ‘Then you wait for summer,’ ” Marsh said.

The grass and brush is taller than normal. The June gloom has kept some of the vegetation green for now, but Marsh said he is beginning to see yellow emerge in the hillsides around town.

He’s hoping the overcast conditions stick around.

“People hate it and our economy goes down,” he said. “But as firefighters, it keeps it all green a little longer.”

Times staff writer Lance Pugmire contributed to this report.