BRUSH WITH DANGER; TOPANGA SPLIT OVER FIRE PREVENTION EFFORT.

Byline: Melissa Schmitt Daily News Staff Writer

Lush, green Topanga Canyon. The qualities that make this rustic enclave so desirable are now under pressure in a conflict between natural beauty and the danger of nature.

With the potential for brush fire so high in coming months, Topanga residents are fighting the safety demands of forestry officials and Los Angeles County firefighters.

They're squabbling over two conflicting goals: protecting the community from the risk of another raging wildfire, and preserving trees, vines, flowers and other flammable, ``ornamental'' vegetation that residents say contribute to the community's pastoral nature, its very sense of place.

Both sides want to serve both goals but to different degrees. And for the past month or so, they've been hung up deciding which should be sacrificed for the other.

The county's fire code requires homeowners to clear all ornamental as well as native vegetation to create a ``defensible space'' of 250 feet around their homes, said John Todd, assistant chief of the Los Angeles County Forestry Department.

For the past month, fire inspectors have been making their rounds in Topanga, performing annual brush inspections. This year there's the added twist of needing the ornamental vegetation removed.

In the aftermath of El Nino storms, vegetation is particularly high and creates a higher potential for wildfire, said Steve Floyd, captain of Los Angeles County Fire Station 69 in Topanga Canyon.

Floyd and his staff have been driving their big red engine around town, knocking on doors and instructing Topanga residents to clear their native brush and decorative landscaping to ensure fire safety.

People who aren't home return to find postcards with pictures on the back demonstrating what the 250-foot zone around the home would ideally look like.

Paul Harrill found a notice on his Cave Way door showing a picture of bare ground for 250 feet around the home.

``Nobody is going to live that way,'' he said.

Worse, he's already cleared as much as he thinks he should - and spent a bundle on it.

``I already spent $4,000 clearing my brush,'' he said. ``I'm not going to do anything else until somebody says something else about it. If I'm still not according to code, I want to know why.''

County officials understand the special nature of Topanga Canyon and are not fining people who do not comply.

``We're really making an effort to educate people without fining them,'' Todd said.

Instead, they are trying to reach a peaceful solution with homeowners, Todd said. They are negotiating with residents even as they serve notice that more trees, flowers and shrubs need to be cleared for the community's safety.

Todd said homeowners should contact the local fire station if they are unable to clear the brush within 30 days as required. Fire officials will try to be flexible with anyone who is showing an effort to comply, he said.

Still, it hasn't been easy.

``A peaceful solution for Topanga would be not to cut anything,'' Todd said.

But that leaves homeowners and their neighbors at great risk.

Ornamental vegetation such as juniper trees and rose bushes near the home are very dangerous in a wildfire, Todd said. Flying pieces of burning bark will travel three to five miles ahead of the fire itself, land on the ornamental plants and ignite them - and houses.

Some residents understand the need for the code and applaud it.

``It is a necessity in order to protect your own home and others around you,'' said Jacqueline Rogers. ``It's scary. Unlike rains and earthquakes, this is one of the things you actually can have some control over.''

Neighbors who don't think their homes will burn are in denial, Rogers said. ``And they put me in peril at the same time.''

There are sections of Topanga, like a stretch of Fernwood Pacific Drive behind the fire station, that are so packed with vegetation they could not be saved in a fire, Floyd said.

``Hopefully it won't ever burn,'' Floyd said of Fernwood, ``because if it does, it will be worse than the Oakland fire.''

But asking residents to remove their trees and vegetation goes against the very soul of Topanga, Floyd said. ``These people really like their vegetation.''

``Topanga especially is an environmentally sensitive community,'' Todd said. ``We can't go in there and say we're going to moonscape this place.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Some Topanga Canyon residents have missed the deadline for clearing potentially hazardous brush.

(2 -- color) Steve Floyd, a captain with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, inspects brush in a Topanga Canyon back yard.

(3 -- color) Los Angeles County Fire Department Capt. Steve Floyd inspects Paul McGlothlin's property in Topanga.

Terri Thuente/Daily News