In early February the Fire Safe Council sponsored a meeting to look at the overall plan for fire prevention in the San Jacintos, formally called the Community Wildfire Protection Plan. The meeting, held at the Nature Center, had 30 participants representing most of the agencies involved with the plan.

The group at one point identified crucial trends affecting fire safety on the mountain. Two trends emerged as most important: population growth and movement into the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), and greater citizen participation in fire prevention.

The first trend of population growth in the WUI, and the need to set stronger zoning limits and building codes, is one that is currently being studied by a Riverside County task force on hazard reduction. (In case you wondered, all mountain homes are in the WUI.) We hope to hear the task force recommendations this year.

The second trend, citizen participation, concerns the Fire Safe Council, since our first goal is public education. In light of this, I want to present here and in a succeeding column what I think are the basic terms and ideas that every resident or property owner on the mountain should know. This column is devoted to basic prevention knowledge; the following column will address the fire agencies that affect us. Many long-time residents know these terms, and if you do, I ask your indulgence as well as your help in spreading the word to neighbors who are new to the mountain.

Fire Abatement: To abate a property is to reduce the fuel around structures. All property owners on the mountain have the responsibility of abating their properties. Fire abatement creates a defensible space around a home, and is the single most important action an owner can take to protect their home from fire.

PRC 4291: This is the state public resources code that shapes all fire abatement ordinances. It basically calls for very little flammable vegetation within 30' of the structure, and a reduced fuel zone out to 100'.

Inspections: All properties on the mountain are to be inspected every year to make sure they are in compliance with fire abatement codes. In Idyllwild inspections are the responsibility of the Idyllwild Fire Department. In Pine Cove, Poppet Flats, Garner Valley, and Pinyon, they are the responsibility of the local CAL FIRE station. Failure to meet abatement codes after the second inspection can lead to fines.

Fuel Ladder: This is an arrangement of shrubs, small trees, and low branches that can take a ground fire into the tops of trees, which is called a crown fire. Crown fires are much more dangerous than ground fires, so much of abatement work is designed to eliminate fuel ladders. This is done through proper spacing of vegetation, and by pruning trees to eliminate low branches that can carry fire upward.

Fuelbreak: This is an area of reduced fuel, designed to stop or slow an approaching fire. There are many kinds of fuelbreaks. The 30' zone around a house is a fuelbreak. Agencies like the Forest Service and CAL FIRE have created strategically located firebreaks around our communities, which may be 300' wide and miles long. Fuelbreaks are essential to stopping or diverting fires, and have saved hundreds, if not thousands of homes, in mountain communities, the latest examples being the fall fires near Lake Arrowhead.