FIRE HAZARD; FIGHT HEATS UP OVER UNCLEARED BRUSH.

Byline: Michael Coit Staff Writer

Facing the worst fire conditions since the drought seven years ago, Los Angeles firefighters said Thursday they have been struggling to clear a backlog of brush left by large public landowners.

Compounding wildfire dangers was the forecast Thursday that another La Nina winter was certain, bringing drier-than-normal weather because of a pool of cold water off the equator.

Residents complained that they have been forced to clear brush while utilities and government agencies are allowed to maintain dangerous conditions.

Firefighters said they are doing the best they can.

``The properties are spread throughout the city. In order to identify and get those cleaned in addition to the private property - you can imagine the work,'' said Sanford Faz, a lead wild-land fire inspector for the city of Los Angeles Fire Department.

Firefighters said the need for utilities and large public landowners to clear brush was never clearer than in 1996 when destructive wild-land fires broke out in Fillmore and Calabasas.

State forestry officials said the cause was Edison equipment, but a Ventura County jury decided in Edison's favor after the Fillmore fire, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office decided not to file charges against the utility after the Calabasas fire.

For the past two years, fire department contractors have been clearing properties owned by the city's Department of Water and Power and the General Services Agency.

The agencies were responsible for more than 250 properties but didn't make brush removal a priority, and even now, only problem sites near homes in mountain areas are being cleared, Faz said.

Not good enough, according to Tujunga residents, including Mike Kruly, who cleared vegetation around his hillside home at the demand of the fire department.

He and others are angry that Southern California Edison has not done the same for several years along an electrical transmission line near their homes.

``I get fined if I don't clear my property, and this stuff - it's just ludicrous. I've gone down with a machete myself to clean it up,'' Kruly said. ``When you live in an area like this, you have to be vigilant. Otherwise you're going to lose your house.''

This past August, the value of brush clearance became evident to Kruly.

He said his home and his neighbors' homes were spared as a fire roared across 250 acres in Tujunga. Only a break cut by crews racing ahead of the fire kept flames from reaching grass and brush in the Edison corridor and spreading to homes.

``If the crews didn't do the wonderful job they did, it would have gone up like a Roman candle,'' he said. ``And if that would have gone up, it would have probably taken out every house on this street.''

An Edison spokesman said the utility is governed by state laws that don't require brush removal under transmission lines such as those through the Tujunga area.

This year, under pressure from the state Department of Forestry, Edison went beyond its normal maintenance program, clearing grass and brush and trimming trees around power poles and high-voltage transmission lines across its 50,000-square-mile service area.

The company would clear the brush if the fire department asked, said spokesman Steve Conroy.

City firefighters said they never asked Edison to clear the brush - but the company should know better.

``At the beginning of every year, we try to locate every agency that has a hazard and send notices to the respective agencies,'' Faz said. ``If something was missed, we will notify the property owner and get it done.''

Firefighters gave the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy a list of properties based on their importance to public safety. But the agency needed public prodding to get the work done, Faz said.

Conservancy crews cleared brush this summer on the sites, which numbered fewer than 70. Crews were bolstered because the work was in addition to the agency's annual brush clearance, conservancy officials said.

``It went reasonably well,'' said Belinda Faustinos, the conservancy's chief deputy director. ``We have to recognize resource protection, but we always try to make sure public safety is a No. 1 concern.''

Homeowners have been vigilant at brush clearance.

Of the 171,000 properties the city checked this spring, about 31,000 were sent notices reminding owners of the need for brush removal. Faz said the department expects to send crews to clean only about 1,500, with the remainder complying voluntarily.

Of the 70,000 properties the county checked, only about 5,500 have received notices, and far fewer will require mandatory brush clearance, Wilkinson said.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map

Photo: (1 -- color) Mike Kruly passes property in Tujunga owned by Edison that is overgrown with chaparral.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) A satellite photo taken Oct. 10 shows cooler water (blue and purple) that presages a La Nina effect.

NASA 

Map: Wildfire winds