By Katie Clary
Staff Writer
“Fire moves as fast as the wind,” said Gene Rink, a paramedic at Los Angeles County Fire Department Station 88 in Malibu.
That’s exactly what worries Pepperdine administrators and local firefighters as the Santa Ana winds start hammering through the canyon from September to November, in what many consider the most dangerous fire season in nearly a decade.
“Out here in Malibu we’re in the Santa Ana wind tunnel,” said Capt. Joe Romero, of Station 88. “It starts in the high desert and blows northeast to southwest, to the ‘Great Pacific Firebreak.’”
“If we get a fire, we’re going to be going nonstop. These are some of the worst conditions we’ve had in years,” he said.
The Santa Monica Mountains are naturally prone to wildfire every 12 to 20 years, but that fire frequency has increased dramatically in the past two decades.
“We’re the ones putting a monkey wrench in the natural ecosystem,” said Dr. Stephen Davis, a Pepperdine biology professor who has researched fire ecology and chaparral shrubs since 1980.
Humans cause a “double whammy” problem, Davis said. First, people cause more frequent fires. Second, these “premature fires,” such as the 1993 fire, caused by arson, and the 1996 fire, caused by a power-line accident, kill the chaparral and encourage weed growth, weeds that catch fire much easier than the native shrubs.
“Flashy and flammable, those weeds can support fire every year,” said Davis.
Now the wildfire frequency is closer to every six to eight years.
“The big one is overdue,” said Capt. Cash Reed, of the Pepperdine Volunteer Fire Department.
Reed and Romero both attribute the increased fire danger to the dry vegetation on the hills, overgrown since the last big fire in 1996. “Everything is bone-dry,” said Romero.
Both captains described the recipe for wildfire: low “fuel stick” — low moisture in plants and trees, hot temperatures, humidity below 15 percent and winds more than 25 mph.
“It’s like a keg of dynamite waiting to go off,” Reed said.
But wildfire is fickle, Romero said. Field measurements are taken daily by the County’s Forestry Division to monitor the fluctuating danger.
“If the weather keeps [cool and foggy], we’re good for another year,” said Reed.
Research assistant Anna Jacobsen agrees and believes this moisture matters. A Pepperdine graduate as of last spring, Jacobsen has studied wildfire with Davis since her sophomore year.
“My prediction is there probably won’t be a fire,” she said, observing how much greener the hills are this year due to rainfall. “But the Santa Anas can change everything.”
In the meantime, Pepperdine University and the Malibu community continue to prepare for a big blaze.
Director of Housing Jim Brock takes the wildfire threat seriously. He remembers watching flames lick the perimeter of the George Page Apartments in 1996. For Brock, his greatest concern is that students will drive off campus during a fire and become stranded on Pacific Coast Highway.
“We try to convince students that staying on campus is the best thing,” said Brock. “Let the university take care of them. There’s lots of security and safety in numbers.”
Brock emphasized that in a wildfire, students are to relocate to the Tyler Campus Center. Sodexho Dining Services keeps a two-week surplus of food on-hand to feed the university community in case of emergency.
“I know from time to time students have different levels of trust in the university. I hope this is one of those times when they truly trust us,” he said.
Also central to emergency preparations is the recently expanded Pepperdine Volunteer Fire Department.
“Things are on the fast track,” said Reed, who began as fire captain six months ago and aids the effort to monitor the Pepperdine campus around the clock.
Starting the second week in October, each firefighter will volunteer in 24-hour shifts four times monthly, rather than the current nine-hour shifts. Multiply that by the 45-person squad, and students start to notice the additional support.
“We have a gaggle of firemen with nothing to do,” said senior biology major Justin Gettings. “You can only check the fire hydrants on campus so many times. They’re amped and ready to roll.”
Pepperdine faculty families who live on-campus are grateful for the bolstered crew. Flames nearly singed faculty homes at the top of Baxter Drive in the 1996 fire, said Dr. Ronald Batchelder, professor of economics and president of the faculty homeowners association.
Another concern, the 50.4-acre plateau where the Drescher Graduate Campus and new faculty homes now stand is prone to wildfires. The hillside has burned seven times since 1928, according to the National Parks Service.
Reed is well-aware of the added challenge of the Drescher campus.
“Double the size, double the responsibility,” he said.
But the university has taken proactive precautions, Batchelder said. Landscape crews have cleared brush since summer to create a 200-foot “defendable” perimeter around the Drescher campus and faculty housing on Baxter Drive.
Reed cites other department improvements including brand-new medical equipment, more wild land course training and soon-to-arrive “urban interface” fire engines that can fight both brush and structural fires.
Additionally, the L.A. County Fire Department keeps an array of airpower to combat fire, Romero confirmed. The fleet includes three helicopters, one Firehawk and two SuperScoopers, which are amphibious water bomber airplanes capable of scooping up 1,600 gallons of water.
“We have a first-class fire department,” said junior international business major Bryceson Tenold.
“Pepperdine realizes it has 3,000 students, 3,000 children of parents and millions and millions of dollars invested on campus,” Tenold said.
As a resident advisor, he is also aware of the office of Housing and Community Living’s emergency preparations. “They plan for the worst and hope for the best,” Tenold said.
Gettings expressed similar confidence in local firefighters after witnessing the quickly controlled blaze in Trancas Canyon last January. He watched the flames and smelled the smoke from his front porch but was impressed by the firefighters’ capabilities. “It eased a lot of my fears of potential danger,” Gettings said.
But if all else fails, he has an alternate plan.
“I’ll probably head toward the ocean because fire doesn’t burn well in water. I’m a science major, I know these things,” Gettings joked.
But Reed hopes it doesn’t come to that. “We made it through ‘93 and ‘96. I’m sure we can make it through another one — no problem.”
October 23, 2003