Residents, campers warned of wildfire dangers

Dan Kulin

Monday, March 24, 2003 | 9:48 a.m.

With fire season on the horizon, federal forestry officials are advising residents living among the trees to move woodpiles and pine needles away from their homes.

Officials for the U.S. Forest Service are also reminding campers to be careful with fire and follow all campfire restrictions.

Most of Clark County is not in danger of forest or brush fires because there isn't enough vegetation in the desert to fuel a serious fire, said Larry Benham, Forest Service fire prevention technician in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area. But there is a risk of dangerous forest fires in the higher elevations in the mountains.

"The more trees the more risk," Benham said.

Fire officials in the mountains continue working on a fire-break line in Kyle Canyon behind the Rainbow residential community, just in case. Break lines can stop a fire from spreading or at least slow it down enough to give firefighters a chance to stop it.

Forest fire season generally runs from mid-April through the end of September, with July and August being the prime fire-danger months, Benham said.

Recent snowfall in the higher elevations of the Mount Charleston area will help a little, but the snow won't last long, he said.

Homeowners in higher elevations can take precautions to make their homes less susceptible to forest fires, said Benham and Mark Rey, undersecretary for natural resources and the environment in the Agriculture Department, said.

Homeowners should try to keep plants and trees, which can fuel a fire, away from their homes, said Rey, who oversees the forest service.

Also, residents should brush pine needles, which are extremely flammable, off their roofs, he said.

Rey said homes with asphalt shingles are more resistant to fire than those with wood shingles. He recommended homeowners with wood shingles have them coated with a fire retardant seal.

Woodpiles, which like pine needles can easily set afire by a blowing ember, should be moved away from the sides of homes, he said.

Benham said woodpiles should be 20 to 25 feet away from a house.

While nothing guarantees a home won't catch fire, "you can increase the odds of success by doing a few prudent things," Rey said.

Campers and other forest visitors should also remember that a majority of forest fires are caused by people, Rey said. For example, fires can be started by fireworks, sparks from cars' exhaust systems, cigarettes and campfires, he said.

Abandoned campfires are sometimes not fully extinguished even though campers might think they are, Benham said. Campers need to put water on the fires, stir the embers and then check for heat from the embers.

Regular restrictions prohibit campfires within one mile of homes from April 15 to Nov. 15, he said. Additional fire restrictions could be put in place during the summer.

Across the nation a century-long focus on fire suppression has left America's forests with dangerous levels of growth, Rey said.

More than 100 years ago fires were a routine and natural part of forest life, he said. Fires helped keep the vegetation down, which meant fires were less severe and while they would char large trees, those trees would survive, Rey said.

But now the growth on forest floors is so heavy that it fuels larger fires, which reach into the forest canopy and burn down the larger trees, he said.

"These systems aren't going to right themselves. They're too far out of balance now," Rey said, adding that now when a forest burns, "it will burn catastrophically."

The ongoing drought and steady growth of residential communities into forests only adds to the danger and likelihood of forest fires, Rey said.

Last year the federal government spent about $1.6 billion fighting forest fires that ultimately burned 7.6 million acres, said Rey, who was in Las Vegas Friday to speak with union and management representatives for the forest industry.

Locally, the so-called Lost Cabin fire burned about 4,600 acres on the Pahrump side of the Spring Mountains in July 2002, Benham said. That fire was started by lightning.

This year the federal government has budgeted $600 million -- $45 million more than last year -- for fire prevention work such as forest thinning and making new fire break lines.