Fitch Mountain fire protection program

Last Thursday, Laura Tietz of Fire Free Fitch, Dave Henderson, president of the Fitch Mountain Association and I met with Fourth District Supervisor James Gore, Sonoma County Fire Chief Al Terrell and Fire Inspector Steve Mosiurchak to discuss the pilot fire protection program being proposed for implementation on Fitch Mountain.
The program, known as the Hazardous Vegetation Abatement Program, was drafted in 2013 and has been in the process of development, review and approval ever since.
The objective of the program is to initiate a county ordinance which will be aligned with the California Fire Code Sec 304.1 which states: “Combustible waste material creating a fire hazard shall not be allowed to accumulate in buildings or structures or upon premises. 304.1.1 Waste material. Accumulations of wastepaper, wood, hay, straw, weeds, litter or combustible or flammable waste or rubbish of any type shall not be permitted to remain on a roof or in any court, yard, vacant lot, alley, parking lot, open space, or beneath a grandstand, bleacher, pier, wharf, manufactured home, recreational vehicle or other similar structure. 304.1.2 Vegetation. Weeds, grass, vines or other growth that is capable of being ignited and endangering property, shall be cut down and removed by the owner or occupant of the premises. Vegetation clearance requirements in urban-wildland interface areas shall be in accordance with Chapter 49.”
The key words here are “vacant lot.” Cal Fire does a good job of enforcing the “defensible space” ordinance around improved properties as the following email to Supervisor Gore from Cal Fire battalion chief Mark Gradek will attest: “In the coming weeks our defensible space inspectors will be targeting the Fitch Mountain area. The area was targeted last year as well. Our fire crews have just recently brushed the road that allows access to the summit of the mountain. We can now drive fire engines to the top for the first time in years. We have identified Bailhache/Rio Lindo Road to be brushed as well. It may be September until the Sonoma County Road crews will be available to work with our hand crews for the removal of brush. Healdsburg Fire Department has also done a lot of fire prevention on Fitch Mountain as well and closely works with FireFreeFitch.”
What had fallen into the cracks was the enforcement of vacant lot abatement. Since the sale of the open space on top of Fitch Mountain to the city of Healdsburg, the interim owner, LandPaths, as well as Cal Fire have been clearing the main fire road which traverses the mountain. The problem is that there are many private lots that ring the bottom of Fitch Mountain that were subdivided during the 1920s and ‘30s. Many of these lots are not buildable by today’s county code standards so they have been neglected and never abated. They are now so overgrown that trees are dying from lack of sunlight in addition to the lack of water.
Basically, the way the pilot program is now working on Fitch Mountain, and will work countywide once the ordinance is enacted by the Board of Supervisors, is once a property has been identified as containing a hazardous or nuisance condition, the county Fire Marshall sends the property owner a letter of noncompliance. The property owner then has 15 days to bring the property into compliance or it will constitute an infraction of county code. If the property owner refuses to bring the property into compliance the county will proceed with an order to remove the hazardous vegetation at the property owner’s expense. The property owner will then be billed for the abatement work along with other fines and fees associated with compliance enforcement and, if the owner doesn’t reimburse the county for the work, a lien will be placed on the property and a tax sale may result.
Because of the drought, the enactment of this ordinance has been in the works for several years, but the Lake County fires has created an additional sense of urgency. If someone is hurt or killed in a wildfire that was caused or aided by negligence, the property owner could be held criminally liable. There is no way that the county can identify all the vacant lots that need abatement, so it is imperative that we all chip in. Anyone who identifies a vacant lot that is not in compliance can contact the county Fire Marshal’s office at http://sonomacounty.ca.gov/FES/Fire-Prevention/ with the property’s street address or APN.
Chief Terrell said that the new Fire Marshall, James Williams, worked on the fire abatement ordinance after the Oakland Hills fire and so will be a wonderful resource in getting the Hazardous Vegetation Abatement Program in place. Supervisor Gore said that getting this ordinance passed by the Board of Supervisors is one of his highest priorities and that a source of funding for noncompliance abatement and the continuation of the curbside chipper program have to be identified.
There are several services available for anyone who would like to abate their property or would like to have a contractor do the work. Sonoma County has a curbside chipper program. This is a free service, as long as there are funds available. Both the FireFreeFitch website http://www.firefreefitch.org/ and the Fitch Mountain Association http://fma.wildapricot.org/ have a list of local tree contractors that are familiar with the abatement program.
Everyone’s encouraged to come to the Villa Annex this Friday at 6 p.m. for a discussion on the proposed ordinance and any other matter regarding fire prevention. As someone once said, “Only you can prevent forest fires!”
Michael Haran is a resident of Healdsburg