EDITORIAL : FIRE HAZARD AGGRAVATED; LIVING-WAGE ORDINANCE COMPOUNDS THE EL NINO EFFECT.

REMEMBER how green the mountains around the San Fernando Valley and neighboring valleys were a few months ago?

The luxuriant growth was a legacy of El Nino storms. But thanks to the recent spell of hot weather, the brush is becoming tinder-dry. This prompted Los Angeles fire officials to warn Tuesday that the city faces the prospect of a fire disaster due to the brush buildup and heat wave.

The best thing that people can do in mountainous areas to reduce the risk of fires to their homes and other structures is to remove plants on their properties in accordance with brush-clearance ordinances.

So Los Angeles city officials are planning to send warnings to the owners of an estimated 11,000 properties who have yet to take steps to remove the brush within a 200-foot radius of their homes. This is the responsible thing to do.

However, the Los Angeles City Fire Department only has 10 contractors working to clear brush. Fire Commissioner David Fleming is fearful that the city's costly living-wage ordinance, which applies to people who do business with the city, is discouraging contractors from applying to do this essential work.

The living-wage ordinance requires city contractors to pay employees about $3 an hour more than required by state and federal minimum-wage laws. It was a product of an anti-taxpayer City Council social agenda that ignores the marketplace and forces L.A. residents to pay premium prices for public services, making Los Angeles less competitive than nearby cities.

Now this wrong-headed measure threatens to make it more difficult for the city to protect lives and properties. This is turning municipal priorities on their heads.

Fleming wants the council to grant an exception from the ordinance for the rest of the fire season.

That's the least the council can do if it cares at all for the lives and properties of L.A. residents and the safety of firefighters.