A coalition has been formed with a plan that would provide more water to Malibu to fight fires at ridgelines before they reach homes.
By Nora Fleming / Special to The Malibu Times
While watching the Corral Fire of 2007 burn from his home in the adjacent canyon, Malibu resident Don Schmitz came up with an idea to help firefighters contain wildfires in the hillsides before they reach residential development in the canyons.
Schmitz, president of Schmitz & Associates, Inc., a project planning firm and planner on some well-known Malibu construction projects, with others partners formed the nonprofit organization Coalition for Fire Safe Communities (CFSC). Their goal is to bring water tanks, mains and hydrants to the ridgelines in nonresidential areas of Malibu and the Santa Monica Mountains as a supplementary source of water for firefighters.
With CFSC in place, they developed a plan, called the First Fire Defense System; instead of cutting firebreaks or gaps in vegetation to help curb and fight a fire while it is burning, pre-positioned firebreaks would be cut at key hot spots before a blaze starts.
Six new water tanks would then feed 84 miles of six- to eight-inch underground water mains that feed fire hydrants every 600 feet, providing 50 square miles of defense on ridgelines where fire can be controlled, explained Carl Schurtz, the organization’s executive director. The six tanks would hold 9.5 million gallons of water for firefighting purposes only, which, Schurtz said, would be the equivalent to one and half days of water for Malibu. The system is not supposed to eliminate the risk of fire, but rather, contain and manage fires where they start on top of ridgelines and get them under control before they quickly spread into neighboring canyons containing residential development, Schurtz said.
The complex plan is predicted to cost $80 million, he added, but would be substantially less expensive than the cost to fight the level of fires that have ravaged Malibu. The Corral Fire, which burned 53 homes and roughly 5,000 acres, for example, cost $129.9 million in firefighting and insurance damages, Schurtz said.
A number of backing options for the CFSC plan are under consideration, including a public-private partnership and a bond measure that would tax property owners if the project passes through a number of permitting hoops. The Los Angeles Fire Department six weeks ago pledged support as a technical advisor and has asked CFSC to draft a similar plan for La Cañada’s Verdugo Hills area in the San Fernando Valley.
“We know fires are going to happen in the future and that there is a lot of private and public property at risk,” Schmitz, who serves as CFSC’s board president, said.
“We are doing a great job,” he said of current firefighting efforts, “but we can do a lot better of a job.”
The fire channeling plan, or what the group calls a system of “levees” and “dams,” still requires a bit more hashing out of specifics. The plan also calls for a sprinkler system that will wet the surfaces of homes in more highly concentrated residential areas to prevent embers from starting new fires.
Schurtz said alternative means for water to use with their plan are also being explored, including, but not limited to, seawater and wastewater. (These sources, he said, clearly could not be used in residential areas.)
Los Angeles County Waterworks District No. 29 has 22 tanks in the City of Malibu that are connected to a main water line; Malibu is at the end of the receiving line. A switch from a water main at Venice and Sawtelle boulevards in Culver City and one at Sepulveda Boulevard are in the works to help provide easier water access and pressure for Malibu, said David Pedersen, assistant division engineer for the Los Angeles Waterworks District. The new switches, slated to be installed by next spring, will put Malibu in a better position in that there will be fewer sources to feed before the city receives water.
Pedersen said he was unaware of the coalition’s plan, but the waterworks district would consider the cost effectiveness and the potential benefits before coming on board.
Other Malibu residents have said they felt efforts made by the city and state in the aftermath of the last fires have not been enough to forestall future devastation, and have taken it upon themselves to form their own groups to prepare Malibu for another fire.
Malibu West resident Cindy Vandor formed the Malibu West Fire Safe and Sustainability Council, which is also a nonprofit, and with support of a quarter of a million dollars in grant money the organization has acquired its own water tank. Also, 50 percent of her neighbors have ordered fire-blocking gel, Vandor said, which helps protect homes during a blaze. They are also in the process of trying to build an alternative access road utilizing an old horse riding trail near HOWS market.
Schmitz said so far CFSC has found support from a number of government stakeholders, but believes there will be even more interest in the future, when, he said, it is realized that money could be saved by implementing the CSFC plan instead of spending large amounts of money to repair fire damage.
On April 29, CFSC is hosting a private fundraiser to raise money for the organization. Its firefighting plan is slated to be finalized within the next year and would require approval from the City of Malibu, the County of Los Angeles, the California Coastal Commission and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, as well as other agencies.
“This plan is constantly evolving,” Schurtz said. “Fire safety is of significant importance to Malibu and what we’re looking to do is move to the next step. I’m just terrified someone is going to die [if we don’t do something different]. Things can be replaced but lives cannot.”