State look at fire resources is needed

We need to do more. That’s one of the take-aways from the long battle against the Sand fire in the Santa Clarita Valley that’s still wrapping up today, nine days after it broke out.

We’re gratified that our county leaders agree. As the fire – which broke out July 22 and destroyed 18 homes, forced an estimated 20,000 residents to flee, and took the life of a Canyon Country man – continued to rage Monday, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich called for a re-evaluation of the county’s system of acquiring fixed-wing and helicopter resources to fight fires.

“We need to do a complete assessment of our air operations,” Fire Chief Daryl Osby echoed at the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday. That assessment is under way.

Some are saying, “What took so long?” But for years augmenting the county’s aerial firefighting fleet in the fall – during the fire season – was a good plan. The county didn’t bear the expense of purchasing and maintaining the expensive aircraft but had the benefit of their use when needed.

Now the drought has changed the definition of fire season. Now it’s all year long.

And now we need to do more to protect our citizens, our homes, our air quality and our open space.

Here at Signal Multimedia, we think the county’s move to assess its firefighting fleet and do something about its inadequacy in the face of California’s current climate is a move in the right direction. However, we question where the leadership is on the state level.

Wildfire isn’t a Santa Clarita Valley problem. It’s not a Los Angeles County problem. Given the five-year drought, it’s become a statewide problem.

Last year the fire season was worse in Northern California than in Southern California. While the topography and vegetation are wildly different in different geographic zones of California, wildfires burn with abandon in any of them – from Sierra Nevada pine forests to Santa Clarita Valley chaparral and grasslands to Big Sur coastline. Even the deserts have gone up in flames.

The cost of fighting the Sand fire has been projected at $28 million. It’s a projection because the price tag is still going up.

The human cost is incalculable. One man lost his life; 18 households lost their homes, and family members’ lives have been changed forever.

There’s also this to consider: As fearsome as the Sand fire has been, Southern California has seen worse. The Station fire in 2009 burned more than 160,500 acres in and around the Angeles National Forest compared to the Sand fire’s approximately 40,000 acres charred.

A series of fires in 2007 blackened 500,000 acres in Southern California, including nearly 100,000 in the Santa Clarita Valley, where 21 homes were destroyed and 16 damaged.

If our 40,000-acre Sand fire cost $28 million to battle, what would the cost of one of those bigger fires be in today’s dollars? Would the $37 million price tag of a Super Scooper start looking like a good deal?

We think the state needs to follow Los Angeles County’s example. We call for a statewide assessment of firefighting resources, especially aerial ones that can be quickly and decisively deployed, along with a plan to improve fire coverage throughout the state.

We Californians need to do more. Maybe it’s time to stop borrowing Super Scoopers from Canada and recognize we need some of our own.