San Clemente addresses wildfire preparedness after devastating L.A. blazes
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San Clemente City Councilman Victor Cabral held up a long, dried-out weed plucked from a hillside during a special meeting on fire preparedness.
He snapped off a barren branch as a cautionary tale.
“These weeds that are growing out there … they’re ready to burn,” Cabral said. “If these caught fire, those hillsides would be up in flames very easily.”
In the wake of the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires, San Clemente called Tuesday’s special meeting to assess the threat to the beach town’s hillsides, which have caught fire before.
“We think this all happened in L.A., but we’re still at risk here,” Cabral said. “We need to take this seriously.”
San Clemente hasn’t experienced significant wildfire losses since warm, dry Santa Ana winds fanned a January 1976 blaze that torched 2,400 acres and burned 15 homes.
But with stark images of widespread destruction in L.A. County, council members unanimously approved a slew of measures aimed at clearing brush before a blaze ignites.
Equestrians self-organized volunteer horse rescues during the Airport fire after a previous team under the county’s emergency services significantly scaled back its efforts.
The special meeting followed a news conference by Laguna Beach city officials on Monday that highlighted efforts to maintain adequate water supply to hydrants, a lesson learned after the 1993 Laguna Beach fire.
San Clemente City Manager Andy Hall felt confident on that front.
“We test our hydrants on a regular basis,” he said during the meeting. “We try to make sure all of our reservoirs are full.”
Hall did cite an area for improvement with the need for a closer reservoir for helicopters to use as a dipping station when helping efforts to contain and extinguish wildfires.
To strengthen abatement efforts, council members authorized Hall’s office to accept donated chainsaws, rakes and other tools from local hardware stores. Volunteers will also be allowed to help with canyon clearing, provided they sign a waiver with the city.
Hall can also negotiate right of entry agreements with property owners for wildlife prevention efforts.
Before the special meeting, San Clemente had already looked into goat grazing strategies for its hillsides.
Laguna Beach has used such a program for nearly three decades. More recently, Anaheim turned to goats to clear brush from the eastern part of the city.
San Clemente will soon begin a pilot program that is expected to clear a 10-acre swath of hillside over three months of grazing.
“Other cities have done it,” said Mayor Steve Knoblock. “It’s an inexpensive, environmentally friendly project.”
Laguna Beach has implemented a number of programs to protect itself from wildfire. Goat grazing has been part of fire mitigation efforts for nearly three decades.
Towards the end of the special meeting, council members declared a wildfire prevention week with the same designation slated for this fall.
An Orange County Fire Authority community forum on wildfire safety and preparedness is expected to be announced soon.
Knoblock stressed the need to be proactive in the face of wildfire threats but drew a distinction between the risks in L.A. and O.C.
He claimed arson was responsible for the L.A. fires and, in the case of one fire, an immigrant lacking documentation was apprehended with “five cellphones and a UN money card on him.”
The cellphones and UN card claims, which were popularized on social media on apps like X, drew a quick disclaimer from Councilman Mark Enmeier.
“I would just say that before we make accusations that we know what the facts are, that we wait for reports to come out before we say something that may not be accurate, fully,” he said.
An immigrant lacking legal authorization to be in the country who was arrested on a probation violation is considered a person of interest in connection with the smaller, contained Kenneth fire.
No arson arrests have been made with regard to the much larger Eaton and Palisades fires.
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