MUDSLIDES A DANGER DUE TO FIRE.

Byline: - David Greenberg 

THOUSAND OAKS - North Ranch area homeowners, breathing a sigh of relief that the 600-acre brush fire last week did not damage their homes, now face the prospect of mudslides when winter rains arrive.

City and fire officials will tour the site this week to determine what measures should be used to prevent erosion now that the vegetation has burned, leaving the slopes denuded.

Options include walls of sandbags or anchored straw bales to slow the velocity of water runoff that loosens the soil, and reseeding the land with the button sage, chamise and chaparral lost during last week's fire.

The Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency manages the rolling hills abutting 185 properties in the Club Estates Property Owners Association and 648 Hidden Canyon condominiums and town houses.

``I'm always concerned when there's a matter of public health and safety,'' said City Councilman Dan Del Campo, who is on the COSCA board. ``After almost any brush fire, there's the potential for erosion during the rainy season. We will take any necessary steps to prevent further damage through erosion and mudslides.''

Officials agreed that waiting two to three years for the native vegetation to grow back would likely prove a costly mistake.

Some residents whose houses nearly burned have already taken the initiative by asking their homeowners association management companies to begin strengthening the soil.

``Mudslides are a big concern, especially with the rainy season approaching,'' said Eric Speicher, a Hidden Canyon resident. ``It already should be raining here a little. We might as well do it now before any rain comes.''

Firefighters from a number of counties and cities worked nearly 24 hours before the blaze was contained early Wednesday. The fire began at 2:26 a.m. Dec. 26 near the 4000 block of Lakeview Canyon Road.

Authorities arrested Chad Montagnino, 18, of Westlake Village and three juveniles on suspicion of accidently starting the fire when a van got stuck in dry brush. The white 1993 Dodge Caravan had been taken without permission from the parents of one of the juveniles, officials said.

Authorities withheld the names of the juveniles, who were described as two 16-year-old Agoura residents and a 17-year-old Thousand Oaks resident.

In addition to the estimated $250,000 it cost to extinguish the blaze - a lower figure than the initial estimate of as much as $500,000 - officials said the parents of the teen-agers might have to pay for the yet-to-be- determined cost of the mudslide-prevention project.

Paul Edelman, chief of natural resources for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, warned that reseeding the hills might not solve the problem because heavy rainfall could wash the seeds away.

And even the vegetation remained in place long enough to sprout, Edelman said, only the top layer of soil would be secure.

``Reseeding will only strengthen the top couple inches of soil,'' he said. ``It might have a tiny benefit during the first few rainstorms of the year. But if there is a mass earth movement or a big debris flow that's ready to happen, it's going to happen whether there is seeding or not.''

A makeshift dam of straw bales and sandbags halfway up a hill are beneficial, he said, because they reduce the intensity of the flow channel, which separates into two smaller channels when it hits the wall.