Blaze Aftermath Builds Laguna's Fire Safety Role
On October 27, 1998, five years will have passed since a week-long firestorm swept across Southern California, leaving charred homes and seared memories. When the smoke cleared, fires claimed 441 homes and caused more than $528 million damage in the Laguna Beach/Emerald Bay area, making it one of the 10 largest-loss fires in U.S. history.
Through the course of the disastrous week, two dozen fires also claimed more than 300 homes in the Topanga-Malibu area and charred thousands of acres and hundreds of structures in Altadena, Winchester, Banning and other locations.
On the leading edge of the weeklong firestorm, Laguna Beach is now on the cutting edge of fire safety reform. Working in partnership with private industry and public services, homeowners in Laguna developed a model of co-operation that has made their community a safer place to live.
Laguna Beach is now a model Fire Safe community. Since the fire, the community has mobilized to improve access for emergency vehicles, widened areas for fire breaks around the city, increased emergency water reserves by building a new reservoir and inspected thousands of properties to identify and eliminate hazards in brush fire-prone areas. The city has even "hired" a team of grass-clearance specialists—goats to keep the brushy hillsides in check. Much of the effort stems from a community group formed after the fires that brought homeowners, insurance companies and the public sector to the table to discuss how the groups could work together to help Laguna rise from the ashes.
"We have demonstrated that dialogue works better than the usual post-disaster confrontation to restore order to the community," said David Horne, a Laguna Beach resident who lost his home to the 1993 firestorm and the founder/chairman of the Laguna Beach Insurance Free Choice Discussion.
The effort has become a model program for the nearly 50 Fire Safe Councils across California. Fire Safe California brings public and private sectors together to work on innovative ways to make communities safe from the ravages of brush fire. Spearheaded by the California Department of Forestry, it also prominently features the insurance industry.
Through its members' combined expertise and resources, it helps communities across the state mobilize to become fire safe. The effort has become a model for similar Fire Safe programs in Colorado, Oregon and Nevada. The Western Insurance Information Service, a nonprofit and nonlobbying insurance industry group, has been a key player in the Fire Safe program since its inception.
In Laguna Beach, insurance companies have worked with the community to make sure that insurance protection remained accessible and affordable to homeowners. In turn, the community has taken steps to protect itself from fire—making Laguna a better risk for insurers. Insurers have also donated funds to help promote fire safety in the community, as well as contributions to improve the city's ability to fight brush fires.
"Laguna Beach is a model of how a community and the private sector can work together to make their neighborhoods safe from fire," said Candysse Miller, WIIS regional director. "Five years after the Southern California firestorm, communities across the state and the western United States are looking to the lessons learned in Laguna in order to protect themselves from a similar catastrophe."
WIIS and the California Fire Safe Council have a free brochure about brush fire safety available by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to "Fire Safe" c/o WIIS, 3530 Wilshire Blvd. No. 1610, Los Angeles, CA 90010. For more information about the Fire Safe Council or the fifth anniversary of the Southern California firestorm, contact WIIS at 213-738-5333 or 915-277-8799.