If you follow fire related stories you are probably aware that we have a group called MAST, or Mountain Area Safety Task Force, that is comprised of all the groups and agencies that have a direct stake in preventing catastrophic fire on the mountain. This model has worked so well that in 2008 key agencies started a RAST, or a Regional Area Safety Task Force, covering all of southern California. RAST recently sponsored its third "Fire Summit", a day long conference held at the South Coast AQMD in Diamond Bar, and which I was able to attend.

There were quite a few interesting speakers throughout the day, but because of space limitations I will focus on just a few. The first was Kate Dargan, former state Fire Marshall, now a teacher and consultant. She spoke of developing a map for a particularly high fire area of Orange County. Thanks to computers and satellites, I continue to be awed by the developments in map making, and she described one more reason to be impressed. She and her team took aerial pictures of the area to provide the base of the map. They then analyzed the pictures for both wooden roofs and combustible vegetation like pine and eucalyptus. Together with an overlay of historical fire data, the result was a map that could give both agencies and homeowners a "risk profile" for both neighborhoods and individual homes.

Another interesting speaker was Dr. Bud Sloan, a veterinarian who raises cattle in Ventura County on land his family has owned for generations. He described the importance of prescribed burns in the Ventura hills, a practice carried out for centuries by Native Americans as well as more recent cattle ranchers. In recent years, however, prescribed burns have run into a great deal of resistance, primarily from new county residents who don't want to see or smell smoke at any time, for any reason. He described the struggle to convince residents that prescribed burning is the cheapest way to control fuel levels, protect water supply, and prevent catastrophic fires. I completely share Dr. Sloan's commitment to prescribed burning and would like to see more of it done up here. Our problem is not frightened residents but denuded Forest Service fuel budgets, not to mention AQMD restrictions.

On the always interesting topic of insurance, there was Candysse Miller, Executive Director of the Insurance Network of California. I was particularly attentive to what she had to say since the topic of insurance is regularly discussed at the Fire Safe Council and we are frequently asked by residents how insurance companies set their premiums for this area, which is something we don't know. Ms. Miller made the defining statement that "Insurance is putting a price on risk." I asked then if individuals or a community could prove that they have lessened their risk through fire abatement, could the price of insurance be reduced?

Her answer was essentially that it was a very complicated formula and included many other factors besides vegetation. The Council will pursue this, since we would like to see insurers reward homeowners and communities who have effectively lowered the fire risk around their property. I don't doubt it's complicated and we have much to learn, but our goal of seeing abatement treated the same way as various driving discounts seems entirely reasonable.