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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Africa Europe Latin America Middle East North America Search Search: Feds didn't clear brush in wildfire area By MICHAEL R. BLOOD,Associated Press Writer AP - Thursday, September 3 LOS ANGELES - Federal authorities failed to follow through on plans earlier this year to burn away highly flammable brush in a forest on the edge of Los Angeles to avoid the very kind of wildfire now raging there, The Associated Press has learned. ADVERTISEMENT Months before the huge blaze erupted, the U.S. Forest Service obtained permits to burn away the undergrowth and brush on more than 1,700 acres of the Angeles National Forest. But just 193 acres had been cleared by the time the fire broke out, Forest Service resource officer Steve Bear said. The agency defended its efforts, saying weather, wind and environmental rules tightly limit how often these "prescribed burns" can be conducted. Bear said crews using machinery and hand tools managed to trim 5,000 acres in the forest this year before the money ran out. Ideally, "at least a couple thousand more acres" would have been cleared. Could more have been done to clear tinder-dry hillsides and canyons? "We don't necessarily disagree with that," Bear said. "We weren't able to complete what we wanted to do." Some critics suggested that protests from environmentalists over prescribed burns contributed to the disaster, which came after the brush was allowed to build up for as much as 40 years. "This brush was ready to explode," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, whose district overlaps the forest. "The environmentalists have gone to the extreme to prevent controlled burns, and as a result we have this catastrophe today." Prescribed burns are intended to protect homes and lives by eliminating fuel that can cause explosive wildfires. The wildfire that has blackened 140,000 acres _ or nearly 219 square miles _ in the forest over the past week has been fed by the kind of tinder-dry vegetation that prescribed burns are designed to safely devour. The blaze has destroyed more than five dozen homes, killed two firefighters and forced thousands of people to flee. Firefighters reported modest progress Wednesday as investigators said the blaze was human-caused, though it was not clear exactly how the fire started or whether it was accidental or arson. Figures from the California's South Coast Air Quality Management District suggested even less was protectively burned. The agency said it granted six permits sought by the Forest Service to conduct prescribed burns on 1,748 acres in the forest this year. The agency reviews such requests to ensure air quality in the often-smoggy Los Angeles area will not be worsened by smoke from intentional fires. But records show only 12.8 acres burned. Four of the permits, totaling 1,257 acres, were granted in areas involved in the wildfire, according to the air quality agency. But the Forest Service disputed those figures. Bear said 193 acres were cleared by intentionally set fires. Government firefighters set thousands of blazes each year to reduce the wildfire risk in overgrown forests and grasslands around the nation. Prescribed burns can also be used to improve overall forest health and increase forage for wildlife. Obtaining the necessary permits is a complicated process, and such efforts often draw protests from environmentalists. Biologist Ileene Anderson with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental organization, said burn permits should be difficult to get because of the potential damage to air quality. Clearing chaparral by hand or machine must be closely scrutinized because it can hurt native species. "Our air quality, for a variety of factors, doesn't need to be further reduced by these controlled burns," she said. Setting pre-emptive fires can be especially risky near heavily populated urban areas like Los Angeles because of the danger of flames burning out of control. Last month, a 90-acre prescribed burn near Foresta, on the edge of Yosemite National Park, jumped fire lines and consumed more than 7 square miles in the park. Angeles National Forest Supervisor Jody Noiron defended the agency's efforts to reduce the fire risk. "The Angeles Forest has been pretty aggressive about implementing fuels-reduction projects with the funds we are given," she said. She said that it is extraordinarily difficult to get the right weather conditions to pull off a prescribed burn. "This year with the weather and the drought and all of that, the last couple of years actually, we've had very few days that we can do prescribed burning," she said. Los Angeles fire Capt. Steve Ruda said that pre-emptive fires were used more frequently in the region in the 1980s. But a growing backcountry population and increasingly complicated environmental rules have made them less frequent. Conducting a prescribed burn requires a detailed study of wind, terrain, temperature and humidity and reviews by a host of government entities, including air-quality regulators. Max Moritz, co-director of the Center for Fire Research and Outreach at the University of California at Berkeley, said there is wide discussion about the need to do more prescribed burns to reduce the fire hazard. But "you have this difficult needle you have to thread to find the right place, the right conditions, to pull it off," Moritz said. Ultimately, he said, the answer is to stop building in fire-prone areas instead of spending huge sums on firefighting. Steve Brink, a vice president with the California Forestry Association, an industry group, said as many as 8 million acres of national forest in California are overgrown and at risk of wildfire. He said that too few days provide the conditions necessary for larger, prescribed burns and that the Forest Service needs to speed up programs to thin forests, largely by machine. "Special interest groups that don't want them to do it have appeals and litigation through the courts to stall or stop any project they wish. Consequently, the Forest Service is not able to put a dent in the problem," Brink said. Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Sign in to recommend this article » 0 users recommend Related Articles: World French filmmaker Poveda killed in El SalvadorReuters - Thursday, September 3 Devastating suicide strikes show Taliban expansionAFP - Thursday, September 3 Kennedy memoir reveals remorse over ChappaquiddickAP - Thursday, September 3 NASA tracks space junk headed toward space stationReuters - Thursday, September 3 British finance minister's recession warningAFP - Thursday, September 3 Most Popular – World Viewed Kidnapped US girl walks into police station 18 years on Madoff's beachfront hideaway up for sale -- but it's no steal Microsoft apologizes for photo gaffe BP unveils 'giant' oil discovery in Gulf of Mexico Spider-Man joins Mickey Mouse as Disney buys Marvel View Complete List » Search: Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. 199700735D). 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