'Extreme' fire danger forecast in Southern California

By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer

Fire safety officials have prepared evacuation plans for residents of Southern California mountain communities where trees killed by beetle infestation and drought is raising fears of major conflagrations this summer.

Forecasting ``extreme'' fire danger in mountain areas from north of Los Angeles to the Mexico border, state fire officials suggested Tuesday that parents might want to reconsider sending their children to summer camp in the at-risk areas.

Elsewhere in California, fire danger is expected to be above average in most lower elevations due to a rain-fed bumper crop of grass that is already drying to tinder. But a normal fire season is expected in most higher elevations.

Fire officials are particularly concerned, however, about more than 400,000 acres of dead, standing trees in a beetle-affected area in and near the San Bernardino National Forest in San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties.

``The situation ... has the potential to be an immense human and ecological tragedy. That is not an exaggeration,'' said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes. ``That's an entire forest that is dying.''

A major concern is the more than 300 organizational camps that dot the mountains surrounding Southern California cities. In a normal year, buses drop off children and then leave. This year, fire planners are asking camp organizers to keep buses available for an immediate exit, said Jim Wright, chief deputy director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Wright said they are also advising parents, ``You may choose not to send your kids to camp this year.''

Mountain communities and heavy urban use there means more chance for human-caused fires, and more danger for people if one ignites. Local planning groups called MASTs Mountain Area Safety Task forces in Lake Arrowhead and Idyllwild have already drawn up evacuation plans for residents and are beginning to inform them where they should go and how they should get there.

``That's a true perfect storm waiting there,'' warned Wright. ``A fire starting in an environment like this will get out of hand very quickly. We see this as a very critical situation.''

The U.S. Forest Service has given the state about $3 million to remove and replace trees killed by the drought-aggravated beetle infestation. Other national forests are shifting money and manpower to the San Bernardino, and the Forest Service has taken the rare step of shifting a contingent of smoke jumpers from their usual Redding base to Southern California.

California will be short three C-130 airtankers this year because of a nationwide ban on using the planes after two airtanker crashes last year. That means the state will have nine planes capable of dropping fire retardants instead of the planned 12.

Mathes and Wright said the state will make up the shortage with helicopters and by being ready to shift state and federal aircraft to fire hotspots.

Nationwide, 23 of the planned 33 private airtankers are certified for use, and officials should know by month's end how many of the remainder are available, said Rose Davis, spokeswoman for the National Interagency Coordination Center in Boise, Idaho. Military backup aircraft all have been certified, she said.

Conditions remain primed in the West for a repeat of last year's record fire season, she said, but to date there haven't been the early, devastating fires that were sparked in April and May in Arizona and New Mexico.

The center's latest forecast, published Monday, predicts an above-normal fire season for the interior West, Northwest, the northern Rockies, the eastern Sierra and southern California.

Fire season officially began Monday across California, after being phased in over the last month in advance of the official start of summer Saturday.

On the Net:

http://www.fire.ca.gov/

http://www.r5.fs.fed.us/

http://www.nifc.gov/news/intell predserv forms/season outlook.html

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)