Officials Call Fire Season Best Since 1983 : Backcountry: Cool temperatures and the lack of Santa Ana winds help. But weather changes could still spark major blazes.

This summer’s brush fire season, feared to be the most dangerous in years for Ventura County and its backcountry, has so far been the most fire-free since 1983, authorities said Monday.

Cool temperatures, a lingering dense marine fog layer and the absence of Santa Ana winds have allowed brush and trees to retain the moisture brought by March rains, fire officials said.

The Ventura County Fire Department, which protects the populated southern half of the county, has battled only one large brush fire this year, a 70-acre blaze July 20 in the Fillmore area, officials said.

“Except for that one, we’ve only had a total of three acres burned so far,” said Annie Ironside, a veteran dispatcher with the department. “Usually by this time of year, we’re sending out a couple of responses a day on brush fires.”

In the northern half of the county in the Los Padres National Forest, only 20 brush fires have been recorded this season, with the largest of them amounting to only four acres, spokeswoman Kathy Good said.

Creeks in the forest are still running, well beyond the time when they usually dry up. And man-made ponds that have usually dried up by August still have enough water to carry the wildlife through the summer, forest biologist George Garcia said.

“The wildlife have really bounced back,” Garcia said. “I’m seeing signs of bear everywhere, and the deer are looking good also.”

The small number of brush fires in the county so far this fire season contrasts with a total of 287 fires that burned more than 2,700 acres last year in the jurisdiction of the Ventura County Fire Department.

But fire officials warned that a change in weather patterns in the next two months could still spark major fires. They said the three largest brush fires in the county last year occurred toward the end of the fire season, in October during Santa Ana conditions.

Chief Charles (Bob) Crim, chief of operations for the county’s Fire Department, said conditions could change dangerously fast if hot and dry Santa Ana winds come up from the east, sucking the moisture from the air and drying brush into tinder.

“A few days of Santa Anas and we would be right back to where we were in February when everything was in a critically dry state,” Crim said. “September has typically been a bad month for Santa Anas.”

He said fire officials are hoping that the current weather conditions continue, with unseasonably cool temperatures and humidity levels that have reached as high as 80% in recent weeks.

Although greener than normal for this time of year, the forest as well as the hills of the southern county are loaded with brush that could dry out quickly in a Santa Ana weather pattern typical of September and October. And the brush and trees that died during the December freeze retain no moisture.

The National Weather Service is forecasting that the marine layer will continue to hover over the county for the next six to 10 days with no chance for thunder showers and no indication of Santa Ana conditions.

For the long-range, 30-day forecast, the service forecasts a 60% chance that rainfall will be greater than normal. Normal rainfall in the forest and the southern half of the county for August and September totals less than half an inch. But meteorologists cannot predict whether Santa Ana conditions will develop in a long-range forecast.

“We won’t breathe a sigh of relief around here until we get some heavy rains,” said Margaret Gross, meteorologist and lead fire-weather forecaster for the National Weather Service office in Riverside.

Fire danger in the Ojai district and at the east end of the Los Padres National Forest near Pyramid Lake is now rated as moderate, while some of the county’s higher and drier elevations are rated as in high danger.

That compares to last year and more typical years when fire danger in August is usually rated extreme, said Ruben Lopez, district fire management officer for the U.S. Forest Service.

The wilderness backcountry that is closed most years by July 1 because of fire danger remains open and will probably stay open through the summer, he said.

“We haven’t even come close to having to close it this year,” he said. “The last time it was like this was in 1983 when we had the El Nino current and it was a very wet year.”

Also, Lopez said the service plans to dismiss 100 seasonal employees at the end of the month, two months earlier than seasonal help is released in a normal fire year.

“It’s hard to justify keeping that many people when you’re not having any fires,” he said.