Fire buffer zones are no protection

June Casagrande

Just as some had feared, residents haven’t been as safe from fires

as they thought.

A survey of landscaping work done on fire buffer zones shows that

some of these areas have not been maintained according to fire safety

standards.

“These ‘fuel modification zones’ are important to the residents

because they’re designed as a barrier against wild fires such as the

ones that were in Laguna Beach several years ago,” said Jim McGee, a

Newport Coast resident and member of the city’s Newport Coast

Advisory committee.

Before the 2,600 homes in Newport Coast were annexed to the city,

homeowners associations were responsible for maintaining these strips

of land, which encircle housing developments to separate homes from

brush fires. While all the homeowners associations have been paying

private landscape maintenance companies to do the work, Orange County

officials haven’t conducted the annual inspections of the zones.

Homeowners associations have been paying for work that hasn’t been

getting intended results.

“There’s a question as to whether or not the companies did

properly perform the work, because the county was not doing its job

of inspecting at least once a year,” McGee said.

As part of a pre-annexation deal, the city of Newport Beach agreed

to take over maintenance of these grassy areas. But the city is not

responsible for bringing neglected sites up to code -- the agreement

says the city should not inherit responsibility for years of neglect

by the county or inadequate work by the contractors.

The city did, however, hire the surveyor who found several areas

to be out of compliance. Now the homeowners associations must work

with their landscapers to get the zones in order. Then the city will

take over.

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

june.casagrande@latimes.com.