GROWING THREAT FIRE INSPECTORS: TIME NOW TO CLEAR BRUSH.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

ENCINO - The great blue heron foraged in waist-high oats and foxtails in a weedy haven among ritzy hillside homes.

But to Los Angeles fire Inspector David Stevens, one heron's buffet becomes a growing bomb of tinder during the driest season on record in Los Angeles.

``This one for sure: This guy just earned himself a notice - 100 feet of grass,'' Stevens said as he and dozens of other Los Angeles Fire Department Brush Task Force inspectors scoured the city this week looking for fire hazards two weeks ahead of the normal inspection season.

``What I always want to look for is where the fire is headed, where is it going to go, straight up into that pine tree, into that house - when the wind blows, off it goes.''

Brush has become so dry due to lack of rain that conditions now approximate the height of summer, fire prevention officials say.

Not even the cloudy skies and possible rain expected to move over Southern California today are expected to sufficiently hydrate the grass and brush that become easy kindling for neighborhood fires.

Los Angeles, with 4.27 inches of rain this season, is just over a quarter-inch drier than the record driest year of 1960-61, at 4.56 inches. Normal rainfall for downtown Los Angeles between July 1 and June 30 is 13.94 inches.

Los Angeles County firefighters got a bit of a brush fire scare Thursday but were able to take care of the problem quickly. Crews doused a one-acre brush fire near Lindero Canyon and Triunfo Canyon roads about 1 p.m.

There were no reports of injuries and no homes were threatened, said LACFD Inspector Edward Osorio. The cause of the blaze was under investigation.

To avoid the firestorms like those that once engulfed Bel-Air, Malibu- Topanga Canyon, Santa Barbara and Oakland, fire officials are asking residents this spring to be especially diligent about brush clearance.

``The brush right now is as dry as (normal) July and August levels,'' said Capt. Scott Steffes of the Valley Fire Prevention Bureau. ``It'll be a real tinderbox.''

Some 128,000 property owners living in acute fire zones have been sent 12-page brochures - designed by California State University, Northridge, art students - requiring that grass, brush and low tree foliage be cleared within 200 feet of buildings and 10 feet from combustible structures and fences.

Eleven inspectors plus 50 firefighters have until December to complete their rounds.

Noncomplying residents who receive notices have 15 days to complete their yards plus seven days to verify it.

Failure to bushwhack their properties could result in a $218 noncompliance reinspection fee, a $314 administrative fee, cost of a city brush removal - or worse, a burned-out home.

``The gardener's coming tomorrow,'' said Ken Sobel, 57, of Encino, whose 100-foot hillside of sumac and green bush is ripe for an annual trim.

Sobel, a magician and hypnotist at the Magic Castle, said he wants to work closely with fire officials to prevent his 2,300-square-foot home, not to mention his precious 1934 Dodge, from going up in smoke.

``It costs me about $750 a year to keep it clean,'' he said. ``When we first moved in, there was a fire at the top of the hill, but it was stopped.''

Of the 128,000 inspections last year, fire officials said 25,000 residents received notices to clear their properties. Of those, the city was forced to clear 15,000.

``The public does a pretty good job,'' Steffes said. ``We would just like to urge them to do it themselves, because we're not in 'the business' of clearing brush.''

Stevens, a former Winston-man model, will work off yellow city property maps to navigate swimming pools, Mediterranean-style mansions, quirky fence lines and precipitous ridges in order to inspect 2,700 lots by December.

What matters is protecting homes, he said, from innocuous plants. And the typical excuses, ``We xeriscaped,'' ``We know the mayor,'' ``We need the weeds to control erosion,'' or ``The birds really like them'' - won't work.

``He's got dead grass in there,'' Stevens said, peering through a hole in a fence atop Sepulveda Boulevard, with glorious views of the Valley floor. ``I've got him.

``If you like to keep your house, and everything in it, it's a good time to clear your brush. This is it: We could have a major brush fire tomorrow.''

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Photo:

(color) LAFD Inspector David Stevens inspects a lot packed with hazardous brush in Sherman Oaks where two properties were to receive a notice to clear the weeds.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer