Griffith Park Fire

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<p>Let's hope it never happens either here or anywhere else, specially anywhere close to large human settlements. I would expect TIC/land dev co that owns some of the surrounding land and the CIty of Irvine to already have contingency plans in place for just such a scenario. Maybe they have a secret sprinkIer system buried under the dirt and tumbleweed .</p>

<p>Seriously though, I am sure the protection of some of it's best constituents is of paramount importance to the authorities, and Irvine more than any other city likely has the budgetary means to contain such a disastrous scenario.</p>
 
It already did happen there in the 1993-1994 season. Of course there was nothing but cow pastures at the time (now worth millions per lot!). They did evacuate western Turtle Rock but were able to stop the fires before it hit any homes. It was fun for me because school was cancelled the next day :) Like Crucialtaunt said, I highly doubt that any homes would get hit there in the future.
 
The funny thing about fires is that they can be uncontrollable depending on the weather. In fact, if you drive up the 261, halfway into Orchard Hills is a sign that says "Now entering hazardous fire area." The Windy Ridge fire managed to get a couple of homes in Orange (but not more than that, thankfully), and I don't recall how many were lost in the Sierra Fire.





The County and City are generally pretty good about requiring defensible barriers (several feet of plants that are low fire risk) around a newer community, but they aren't complete fire barriers. There was that community near Lake Henshaw in San Diego that was half destroyed during their big fires of a few years ago. There is more info on defensable space here: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dplu/fire_resistant.html. The only problem with Irvine is the density, so rather than each home having defesible space, it has to be the entire neighborhood.
 
I've lived in Irvine most of my life, and there was a large fire in the hills in 1997. I was going to IHS at the time and the school was closed down for a day to use it as an emergency Red Cross center. Luckily the fire was extinguished and the wasn't the need for the high school to be a Red Cross center, but now there are scores of homes today where there were none a decade ago. In my opinion, that should be a cause for concern. The houses up in Portola and Orchard Hills are tucked in right next to those hills.
 
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<p>This is the community that is the closest to the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) on Jamboree. Politically it would be a huge embarrassment for the bureaucrats if the community faces eminent fire danger.</p>

<p>After the Laguna Beach fire back in 1993 the edges of the Ranch closest to wilderness have been required to have a fuel modification zone. There are maps at OCFA that shows the area that required extra precautionary measures. The design measure is very extensive like greater house edge setbacks, drought tolerant and fire retardant landscape, and rated eaves, heavy timber rafter tails and class “A” roof for house structure are methods mandated to minimize heat combustion.</p>

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