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When the Santa Ana Winds Blow

October 30, 2007

As predictable as the sunrise, talk radio blowhards are claiming to have all the answers about the latest spate of Southern California brush fires.

It’s the firefighters’ fault for not being everywhere at once. It’s the Forest Service’s fault for failing to clear the brush away. It’s the tree huggers’ fault for blocking brush-clearing projects.

Facts detract from the entertainment value of such volumetric tirades. Nevertheless, here are the facts: Much of Southern California is covered by chaparral, a brushy variety of native vegetation that thrives in the area’s Mediterranean climate, where hot, dry summers, and mild, rainy winters are the norm.

Every fall, hot "Santa Ana" winds blow through Southern California’s canyons and valleys, further desiccating brush that has baked in the dry California heat. It has always been thus. When winds blow power lines down, when cigarettes are tossed, or when people do other dumb things, chaparral will catch fire and the winds will spread the fire. When houses are built close to burning chaparral, they're likely to catch fire too. It has always been thus.

One of the common complaints of the second-guessing that inevitably follows a big California fire is that swaths of chaparral should be cleared away to create fire breaks. How such breaks would reduce the odds of wind-blown embers landing on flammable structures is not made clear.

Nor is it clear how such work would be paid for, or how such firebreaks would be maintained, long-term, so that flammable invasive weeds don’t fill them in.

No, it’s more fun for the talk jocks to blame firefighters, the Forest Service, and/or the enviros. It’s less fun to acknowledge that property rights are accompanied by property responsibilities. Choosing to live in a fire-prone chaparral environment means choosing to expose your home to a higher level of fire risk.

One can ameliorate the risks by making "firewise" choices for building materials, home design techniques, and landscaping management. Many property owners in chaparral country would like to do the right thing, but are not sure where to start.

The Forest Service could get more bang out of its suppression-heavy fire budget by directing fire prevention grants to local fire departments, which are the most credible sources for property owners looking for guidance on protecting their homes.

Even so, no matter how well building codes are enforced or how well fire departments spread the firewise gospel to receptive property owners, the risks of living near chaparral will never go away. Some homes will burn when the Santa Ana winds blow and fires start. That’s life in chaparral country.

The talk radio shouters, who call themselves conservative, are saying, however, that the nanny state should eliminate risks for people who choose to live in a fire-prone ecosystem that has burned since time immemorial. Doesn’t sound very conservative, does it?