Senator Dianne Feinstein says it's time to radically re-think how we fight wildfires. The California Democrats called a hearing in San Diego yesterday. This county learned a lot of lessons from the Cedar Fire. But elected leaders say a lot still needs to change. KPBS reporter Andrew Phelps has the story.
Four years ago, Skip and Linda Miller lost their home in the Cedar Fire. They lived in the mountains 40 miles outside San Diego. The couple decided to rebuild in the same spot. It took three years. But this time, their house was supposed to be fire-proof: Double-paned windows, cement siding, and a roof made of durable plastic. Then the 2007 fires came and Skip watched his neighbor's house burn down.
Miller: This house was virtually disintegrating, and very large burning objects, firebrands, were coming pretty much directly towards us. And so that was, you know, the time to get out.
Then their house burned down. Again.
Miller: The odds that this would burn again were very small, almost to the point of the odds of being struck by lightning.
The Millers are rebuilding again. Skip says fire is a risk you accept in the backcountry.
180,000 new homes have sprung up in the areas that burned four years ago. Senator Dianne Feinstein says it's time to reconsider not just how but where we build homes.
Feinstein: Water is becoming more and more precious. And fires are becoming bigger and more catastrophic. And if you keep building new subdivisions in fire-prone areas, what happens? Particularly if you build them without firefighting services out there.
But a U.S. Senator doesn't have control over local zoning. Feinstein has introduced the Fire Safe Community Act, which rewards local governments who use fire-resistant building materials and techniques. It encourages homeowners to build "defensible space" around their property by clearing away brush. Many of those guidelines are already regulations in San Diego.
Keeley: When one looks at many of the homes that were lost in these recent fires, we see many of the residents did everything right.
That's Jon Keeley, a fire researcher for the U.S. Geological Survey . He says what fire experts have been saying for years. It's time to re-examine the nation's stringent fire suppression policies. When brush isn't allowed to burn for decades, the backcountry becomes a tinderbox.
Keeley: Fire suppression has excluded fire from forests and allowed unnaturally high levels of fuels to accumulate. These fire suppression efforts have most likely contributed to many of the high-intensity fires that we've seen in the western U.S.
Others at the hearing proposed some high-tech solutions, like a network of backcountry surveillance cameras to detect flames. Or a fleet of unmanned planes that could watch the ground from 60,000 feet up.
But old-fashioned problems still draw the ire of most officials: Some counties had trouble getting resources from their neighbors last month. And red tape kept a number of air tankers and helicopters grounded.
Jeff Bowman, San Diego's former fire chief, says he heard the same complaints in 2003.
Bowman: Four years ago we committed this wouldn't happen again. These intergovernmental arguments would not exist. And I sat with the ash raining down on my house this time, and I didn't see any aircraft in the air.
Bowman says San Diego needs hundreds more firefighters, and it's time for taxpayers to pony up and pay for it. But voters have rejected tax hikes aimed at bolstering fire resources twice since the 2003 fires.
Andrew Phelps, KPBS News.
