California eyes another tough wildfire season

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It's spring in Southern California. Flowers are blooming, welcome winter rains have turned canyons a verdant green -- and firefighters are looking nervously to the start of the traditional fire season in June.

October's devastating wildfires, which burned more than 500,000 acres from Malibu's ocean enclave to the Mexican border, prompted a flurry of reports and promises.

But even as extra water-dropping aircraft are purchased, building codes tightened and goat herds sent to gobble up dry brush on rugged hillsides, Californians are beginning to accept a new reality -- massive wildfires are here to stay.

"Fire season is becoming a 12-month affair here," said Carroll Wills, spokesman for the California Professional Firefighters union. "The season lasts longer, the fires are more intense and the potential property loss is greater because there has been more construction in these fire-prone areas."

Some 23 wildfires across seven counties destroyed more than 3,000 homes and buildings and killed seven people in a two-week period in October 2007. Some 500,000 people were evacuated.

Prolonged drought, high temperatures, hot Santa Ana desert winds and, in two cases arson, were blamed for the string of blazes whose smoke could be clearly seen from space.

California's fire strategy has not so much changed as been reinforced since then. Despite an expected $17 billion 2008-9 state budget deficit, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pledged to add 131 fire engines over the next five years, along with 11 24-hour-capable helicopters.

"When you have a second catastrophic wildfire in four years -- the sort you might expect every 50 or 100 years -- it wakes people up," said Wills, recalling blazes in October 2003 that killed 15 people in the San Diego area.

Above normal rainfall has sped the growth of grass and flowers on hillsides charred by the October fires.

"That was both a blessing and a curse," said Kris Concepcion, spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority. "Once the temperatures warm up that growth is going to turn into fire fuel and we can anticipate some flashy fast moving grass fires."

GOATS EFFECTIVE LOW-COST WARRIORS

Goats are hardly the most high-tech warriors in fire prevention. But over the years they have proved effective in reducing the amount of potential fuel.

Hugh and Sarah Bunten's 55 goats are currently nibbling away on the 110-acre (44-hectare) hillside campus surrounding the Getty Center museum in a posh part of west Los Angeles.

The Buntens are among about a dozen goat vendors for hire in Southern California. The job would otherwise fall to workers with chainsaws and trucks.

"In 1993 and 1996 when I came with the fire department to these hills, I realized they were filled with weeds. I said 'it doesn't have to be this way.' A lot of the weed that you find here is goat food," said Hugh Bunten.