CA: Brush removal was brushed off (San Diego)

San Diego Union - Tribune ^ | 12/30/07 | David Hasemyer and Jennifer Vigil

[NormsRevenge]

Fire threat and brush clearance in San Diego (PDF)

[mewzilla]

But Fire-Rescue Department inspectors never followed up to make sure the job had been done.

Put your faith in the nanny state and get burned. Literally.

[NormsRevenge]

SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
Mark Coast looked out across the canyon behind his Rancho
Bernardo home. He believes he saved his house from the
wildfires that tore through his North County neighborhood
in October by clearing thick brush near his property.
His neighbor's home was lost.

[EggsAckley]

I’ve been taking the lessons learned in San Diego very seriously this fall. We’ve removed about 50 ugly dying oaks near the forest, the views have improved, and I can sell them for firewood. It feels good to see all that scrubby stuff gone.

[bboop]

I think it is amazing they got the fliers out. Then DO IT. You want the firefighters to REMIND you? and check on you? That would mean that MY tax money would pay someone to remind YOU to clear your brush. Pretty soon we’ll be paying people to remind others to wipe their hind ends.

[A CA Guy]

At some point residents need to develop a brain to be responsible for clearing their own areas.
If they also choose a place to live where fire is a danger, they should also take responsibility for moving there and should get insurance or a rebuilding fund if they choose to stick it out there.

[newzjunkey]

Notice this is framed as being a failure of government rather than of the residents to heed the warning given.

[an amused spectator]

In fact, it had been years since the city of San Diego had sent fire marshals into the area to see that brush had been removed.

Whhhuuuttt?

You actually want services to go along with the salary, health care bennies and pensions that you're paying your local fire marshals?

Silly taxpayer!

[newzjunkey]

I think it is amazing they got the fliers out.

I agree completely.

[an amused spectator]

You want the firefighters to REMIND you? and check on you?

I agree with the sentiment, up to a point.

Try building a visible structure on "your" property without bothering to get "permission" from your local government and see how fast a swarm of officialdom shows up...

[newzjunkey]

I don’t know where you’re located but in San Diego we run a very lean (too lean, some fear) fire dept. We’re often criticized as being “too cheap” because we refuse to authorize tax increases at the ballot box.

[newzjunkey]

You miss that those departments, different from the fire dept., are revenue generating bureaucrats with no other purpose.

[em2vn]

The fire department reports to the city government. You may want to look to the government and not the fire service for the reasons why follow up wasn’t carried out by the fire department.

[an amused spectator]

I'm not blaming the fire department.

In fact, my position is that as time goes on, the government will be sucking up more and more [static] tax dollars just to pay salaries, health benefits and pensions.

No services for you! [The Service Nazi]

[an amused spectator]

You miss that those departments, different from the fire dept., are revenue generating bureaucrats with no other purpose.

The fire department in this instance (and in most other instances) is like the IT department in most companies.

Management (or the local government leaders) can stand around saying: "Well, IT (or the fire department) doesn't produce any revenue, so what are they doing for the cash we're giving them?"

In this case, a number of revenue-producing (property tax) structures burned to the ground. An inspection by the fire marshals would have secured the revenue from most of these places. As with IT, the marginalized "product" from the fire department was worth its weight (and more) in tax dollars.

I'm sure the local government would like to continue to collect the same property tax from the burned-out owners, but we haven't quite gotten to that point yet.

Yet. ;-)

[Strategerist]

Notice this is framed as being a failure of government rather than of the residents to heed the warning given.

It's been inaccurately framed previously as evil environmentalists preventing homeowners from clearing brush.

[ArmstedFragg]

It’s nice to see that the local media has discovered that it was the Guejito fire (which started in the city of San Diego), and not the Witch fire that caused the property loss in Rancho Bernardo. The primary route the fire traveled was through the Lake Hodges watershed, which is primarily held as a reserve by various environmental entities. They seem to have failed to realize that their ‘pristine native wilderness’ is also a pristine native fuel load. Though, looking at the blackened remainder, some of them seem to have developed a degree of insight now.

The key is fuel management and fire-resistant construction practices. Fuel management needs to be both a governmental and a personal obligation. And, it’s going to be costly to make up for the last twenty years of neglect. But first, we have to find a way to get the guys who say, ‘you can’t cut that bush, there’s a gnatcatcher living in it’ on board. Rotsa Ruck with that.

[OCCASparky]

Even 200' is nothing when the winds are whipping around you at 60 mph and you've got a wood-shake roof.

Sometimes I wonder about the mentality of the average California homeowner.

[ArmstedFragg]

Those are all newer subdivisions. Wood-shake roofs have been banned around here since the BelAir fire of the fifties.

[NormsRevenge]

Oak, eh?

Too bad I don’t have a truck up to the task.. Do you deliver? ;-)

I burn a lot of wood ..