SOMEBODY'S WATCHING OUT FOR YOU.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

Barry Goldstein inched his SUV along some of the most winding, narrow and dangerous streets in the San Fernando Valley on Monday morning while Don Sampson rode shotgun - looking for trouble ahead.

It is here on Chatlake Drive, Azul Circle, Hillcroft Drive and other tiny streets in the rocky hills of Chatsworth, off Valley Circle Drive, where disaster is waiting to happen.

The streets are only 16 feet wide, and one parked car or stack of construction wood in the gutter can make it impossible for a 12-foot-wide fire engine to get through to fight a hillside fire.

``Most people think summer is the most dangerous fire season, but they're wrong,'' says Sampson, a retired Los Angeles firefighter.

``This is the most dangerous season, right now, especially when the Santa Anas are kicking up. This is when we can lose a lot of homes.''

It doesn't make any difference that it's been raining recently, says Goldstein, a retired Ventura County Sheriff's Department civilian computer employee. The Santa Anas can dry things out in a hurry.

The two men and 25 other volunteers have been on daily patrol of hundreds of narrow streets like these in the West Valley foothills for over a month now.

``The department mandated that certain areas of our division had to be patrolled daily during the fire red-alert days, Oct. 1 through Nov. 30, to ensure firetruck access to the fire areas,'' says police Sgt. Marty Fentress, a community relations officer for the West Valley Division.

``These volunteers, with their own cars and gas, took over the job of patrolling these streets so we could release police officers to resume normal police activities.''

In a few weeks, after fire season ends, the same volunteers will shift to shopping mall parking lots during the holiday season - standing on rooftops with a pair of binoculars or sitting together in a parked car - looking for thieves trying to break into cars to steal presents left in plain view.

The rest of the year they're on graffiti patrol, or parked surveillance - always in radio contact with police dispatchers.

They're members of the West Valley Area Eyes and Ears program, and without the free safety services they provide, the already stretched LAPD would be stretched even thinner.

``It's impossible for our Police and Fire departments to cover everything, so we're out here for them, freeing up the black-and-white units to patrol,'' Sampson says.

``I have grandchildren living out here. I'm doing this for them.''

Goldstein's SUV comes to a stop in front of a home being built on the edge of a hillside. A large stack of wooden beams is in the gutter, blocking part of the street.

``Can I talk to one of you men?'' Sampson yells down to the construction site. Steve Cohen, who owns the property, climbs up to the street to talk to Sampson.

When he learns what Goldstein and Sampson are doing, he apologizes and says he will have the wood moved immediately.

``It's important to everyone's safety up here that the firetrucks can get through,'' Cohen said. ``I think what these people are doing to help is great.''

Yeah, it is.

If you're interested in joining the Eyes and Ears program, call the West Valley Community Relations Office at [phone],

For more information on the program, log on to lapdonline.org, and click on volunteers.

Dennis McCarthy, [phone]

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Don Sampson, left, and Barry Goldstein walk past an old, burned house while patrolling the Chatsworth hills on arson watch Monday morning.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer