SPFD: Weather permitting Wednesday will be second Hospital Hill burn

January 11, 2006
Santa Paula News

Weather permitting, the Santa Paula Fire Department will oversee the last of the burns to remove cut brush and other foliage from the Hospital Hill area according to a SPFD spokesman.

By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesWeather permitting, the Santa Paula Fire Department will oversee the last of the burns to remove cut brush and other foliage from the Hospital Hill area according to a SPFD spokesman.“We’ll have the second burn on January 11, weather permitting,” said SPFD Assistant Chief Kevin Fildes. “It was scheduled today (Thursday, Jan. 7) but because of the wind we were not able to burn.”The multi-agency project was launched in May 2005 to remove brush and establish a fire safety zone along a portion of north of Ojai Road/Highway 150.“We completed half of the burn on December 28 on the upper half of the hillside, now we have the lower half probably about 18 piles of cut brush,” said Asst. Chief Fildes. “So we plan on being out there all day on the 11th to finish up the burn and remove all the hazards.”California Division of Forestry hand crews, Ventura County Fire Department and SPFD personnel will be on the scene for the burn “roughly starting at about 8 a.m. Smoke will be visible throughout the day probably until about 6 p.m.” said Asst. Chief Fildes.
The project was undertaken for fire hazard reduction: “Lower hillside homes and the hospital would have had great losses if a fire burned through there without any defensible space. This project is giving us 100-feet from the homes and 100-feet coming down from the hospital.”Ventura County, the new owner of the hospital, and the City of Santa Paula own the property targeted by the fire safety zone effort noted Asst. Chief Fildes.“We’re not removing all the brush; with the hand crews we’ve gone in selectively and trimmed trees and removed dry brush. Most of the natural vegetation is still on the hill protecting from erosion so there won’t be an erosion problem,” he added.Due to the ultra-steep terrain the brush could not be dragged out and crews created small piles to be burned.The Dec. 28 burn only brought about a few calls from those concerned about the smoke coming from Hospital Hill.“We will again put up message boards on the highway and walk the neighborhoods handing out fliers...we’ve notified the public pretty good about what is happening as well as the newspapers so there won’t be any concerns,” said Asst. Chief Fildes. “All the feedback we’ve gotten from the homeowners at the bottom of the hill has been very positive, they’ve been very supportive of the cleaning of the brush to protect their homes.”



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