Fire Safety News Serving the communities of Castle Creek, Champagne Village, Deer Springs, West Lilac, Gordon Hill, Hidden Meadows, Jesmond Dene, Rimrock, and the Welk Resort A 501(c)(3) Community Service Organization SEPTEMBER 9, 2014 Ground forces move to the front in the battle against the 32,000-acre Eiler Fire, one of several fires to strike Northern California this summer. / Photo, Jeff Hall, CAL FIRE VIP Photographer Inside This Issue Forward this issue to a friend Parched Brush Intensifies Fire Risk Rattlesnakes Invading Deer Springs? Well, Maybe Not Drought Advice: Be Careful Out There Have you heard (or seen) ... Helpful Phone Numbers Parched Brush Intensifies Fire Risk As California firefighters chase blazes from the Oregon to the Mexico borders, fear grows that Southern California is on the verge of a catastrophic fire. San Diego County has already experienced an unprecedented event this year — Santa Ana wind-driven fires in the month of May. “Santa Ana winds have started many fires that historically have resulted in the loss of many lives and structures in San Diego County,” said CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Nick Schuler, who is based in Deer Springs. But the fires that struck North San Diego County in May struck with surprising ferocity. “This was the first time that we’ve seen a fire in a coastal community that moved so rapidly,” Schuler said of the Poinsettia Fire, which hit Carlsbad on May 14. “Within minutes of the fire breaking out, homes were threatened and self-evacuations were occurring. The magnitude of the fire was alarming.” Six hundred acres of tinder-dry brush burned in Carlsbad in a matter of hours, destroying five single-family residences, 18 apartment units and a large commercial building, and damaging other structures. Firefighters who responded during the fire’s early stages encountered chaotic conditions, as residents drove toward flames to save possessions and pets. “A couple of us found ourselves throwing people in the backs of our vehicles with their animals, and when they returned later they found their cars had melted, the heat was so intense,” Schuler noted. “Had they not been evacuated when they were, they would not have survived,” he added. FEMA has produced a powerful video on disaster preparedness that includes footage filmed in Carlsbad and at Station 11 in the Deer Springs Fire Protection District. The video, "It Started Like Any Other Day," focuses on disaster victims and includes an interview with CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Nick Schuler. To watch, click here. Former CAL FIRE Division Chief Bill Clayton, whose firefighting experience dates to before the massive Laguna Fire in 1970, said conditions in the Deer Springs Fire Protection District compare with those found in Carlsbad at the outbreak of the fire. “The last time they had a large fire in Carlsbad was 1943, and some of that area had no recorded fire history,” Clayton said. The result is thick, woody brush that is highly flammable. Since Deer Springs hasn’t seen a major wildfire since 1969, firefighters worry that if a fire takes hold in the brush, it will get off the hook in a hurry. “At 20 years growth the fuel will burn very hot and very fast when ignited,” Clayton said. “At 40 years it reaches its maximum. Merriam Mountains has never burned.” He noted that if a fire were to start in Moosa Canyon, east of Hidden Meadows, during Santa Ana conditions, winds can whip it uphill into Hidden Meadows, then down the grade into Lawrence Welk Resorts, then across the freeway to Merriam Mountains very quickly. It could keep going to Vista. ... [To continue story, click here] Red diamond rattlesnakes are among the various breeds that make their home in San Diego County. / Photo, Gary Nafis, CaliforniaHerps.com Rattlesnakes Invading Deer Springs? Well, Maybe Not We know how much everyone loves rattlesnakes, which is to say not at all. Recently the Deer Springs Fire Safe Council was hearing that the local rattlesnake population was exploding due to the persistent dry weather, so we put our crack Investigative Team on the story to uncoil the facts. There's nothing we'd like better than to write a headline that says, “Diamondbacks Invading Deer Springs,” which we did, but that would be true only if we were talking about Arizona's professional baseball team. The County Department of Animal Services tells our I-Team that its officers have responded to 895 rattlesnake calls so far this year, compared with 862 for the same period last year. That’s a 4 percent increase — somewhat less than exponential. The I-Team can report, however, that CAL FIRE firefighters in the Deer Springs Fire Protection District have been called regularly to remove rattlers that have gotten too close to homes for comfort, and those calls are more frequent than usual. “There's been a dramatic increase in rattlesnake calls this year, and a lot of big ones. It's alarming,” said CAL FIRE firefighter Jeff Lindsey, an engineer in Station 11 on Circle R Drive. “We've had snakes near people's homes, under decks, near patios and alongside driveways.” Capt. Terry Heidmann of Station 13 in Hidden Meadows agrees that the number of rattlers is higher this year than usual — “one a week, which is a little more than usual, maybe double,” he said. Engineer Jeff Foy in Station 12, near the Deer Springs Road/Interstate 15 interchange, said firefighters there responded to three rattlesnake calls in August, including one that took shelter beneath a table at the fruit stand on the northwest corner of the interchange. Foy noted that hot weather draws the sidewinders out and some people don't bother calling the fire department when a snake shows up in their yard, but just dispatch it themselves. Foy recommends against taking on a rattler in flip-flops and board shorts, and said firefighters are well equipped to take care of a lethal snake. “If it's near a home or children, it's best to call us,” Foy said. So far this summer, the only snakebite that any of the fire stations reported occurred in the West Lilac area, where someone was bitten on the hand, most likely while gardening. Firefighters from the Miller Station transported that person to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Experts advise keeping your property free of food sources, such as rodents, to keep rattlesnakes away from your house. Check your yard before letting children or pets out to play, to make sure your yard is free of snakes. This brochure from the County News Center provides tips on avoiding snakes and what to do if you encounter one. Homeowners can also call Animal Services for snake removal, but local firefighters will respond much more quickly. Firefighters in Deer Springs said they haven’t responded to any incidents of pets bitten by rattlesnakes. There are many Internet sites that discuss rattlesnake avoidance and vaccines for pets. Deer Springs Fire Safe Council doesn’t recommend a specific site or strategy, so for more information on those topics, search those terms on your preferred browser. San Pasqual Valley shows signs of prolonged drought. / Photo, Deer Springs Fire Safe Council Drought Advice: Be Careful Out There Recent rains notwithstanding, the three-year drought shows no signs of letting up. The drought has contributed to an abnormally high number of wildfires this year, as some 4,500 fires have burned more than 85,000 acres in CAL FIRE’s area of responsibility, as of Aug. 31. That is nearly 1,000 more fires than the five-year average of 5,533 fires, and exceeds the average for acres burned by more than 10,000. CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Chris Amestoy, chief of the Deer Springs Fire Protection District, says everyone should be extremely careful, as the drought has dried out local vegetation, making it highly susceptible to any spark. “In excess of 90 percent of wildfire ignitions are human caused, whether that be inadvertent or on purpose,” Amestoy said. “To reduce that we need to make sure that inadvertent starts do not happen.” Amestoy said normal outdoor activities could cause unintentional wildfires in such conditions. “What may have been a normal maintenance procedure in normal times, under prolonged drought conditions where the live fuel moistures are exceptionally dry, we need to be very cautious about the energy released into the environment because it can easily start a fire,” Amestoy said. “If you’re mowing your grass or you’re cutting down weeds or you’re target shooting, whatever it is that you’re doing, you need to be aware that the low fuel moistures make the vegetation much more receptive to ignition, so you’ve go to be doubly or triply cautious about what you’re doing out there,” he said. “Be as safe as you possibly can and avoid accidental ignitions.” The National Weather Service in San Diego recently issued this report on drought. The fires that struck North San Diego County in May struck with such speed and ferocity that some houses, like this one in San Marcos, could not be saved. / Photo, Deer Springs Fire Safe Council Fire Link Intensified, cont'd “A fire (in Deer Springs) would move faster than the fire in Carlsbad,” he said. “The fuel is the same but you have steeper topography in Deer Springs,” and fire races faster uphill than on level ground. One measure of fire risk is the Energy Release Component, which calculates the potential heat energy at the head of a fire. It tells a great deal about a fire's destructive potential.