Debate over Woodside fire plan heats up Debate over Woodside fire plan heats up (July 14, 2004)

** A key problem: There's not enough water to meet fire-suppression standards in some areas of Woodside.

By Andrea Gemmet
Almanac Staff Writer

In Woodside, agreeing that more needs to be done to protect the town from fire danger is easy. Figuring out who should do it and how to pay for it is turning out to be a lot harder.

Ever since a 10-acre wildfire was sparked on the Fleishhacker estate in central Woodside two years ago, town officials have been working on a comprehensive fire-management plan with the help of consulting firm Neville & Associates.

Progress is being made on some fronts -- in this year's budget, the Town Council committed $30,000 toward clearing brush and other fire hazards along roadsides and other town-owned property. Last week, a herd of more than 600 goats began chomping their way through flammable foliage at the 14-acre Kite Hill preserve in the Woodside Glens, said Town Manager Susan George.

Other factors adding to Woodside's wildfire risk appear to be more intractable. While previous sections of the proposed fire-management plan deal with building materials, overgrown private property and public education, the final section presented to the council at special meeting June 14 focused on the Uniform Fire Code, a set of national standards for everything from electrical wiring to fire hydrant spacing.

A key problem is that there's not enough water to meet fire- suppression standards in some areas of Woodside, where aging pipes cannot provide the minimum level of water flow to put out fires, according to code standards.

Of the six water districts serving the town, four are small independents that have no reasonable hope of paying for the extensive upgrades necessary to bring their water systems up to code, said Woodside fire Chief Mike Fuge.

A representative of the Woodside Mutual Water Co., which serves 44 households, said it would cost more than $70,000 per household to upgrade the water system.

The other two, California Water Co. and the Redwood City water district, make regular upgrades to their water systems, Chief Fuge said.

The Woodside Fire Protection District, which serves Woodside, Portola Valley, and nearby unincorporated areas, amended the fire code when officials adopted it, significantly lowering water-flow requirements.

The town has yet to act on adopting the fire code.

"The end result is either a 9- or 18-minute water supply for fire protection from a hydrant that is twice as far from the structure as is permitted under the Uniform Fire Code," the consultants said in the report, noting that the fire code requires a one-hour water supply.

"The district does not think they have to meet that nationally accepted standard," consultant William Neville said. "The district believes the current (system) is adequate because never, to the chief's knowledge, have they run out of water."

Chief Fuge said he took exception to Mr. Neville's comments. Of course, fire officials want a better water system, he said.

Fighting fires

Chief Fuge said the district has developed firefighting tactics to overcome the poor water flow in some parts of town.

Firefighters don't rely on aging pipes and unreliable water tanks, but bring a water tender truck. Besides the regular fire response, Woodside fire coordinates with the California Department of Forestry to provide a wildland-fire response that brings airplanes and a bulldozer to take care of any embers, he said.

"In my time, I have seen an incredible improvement in the water systems but also incredible growth in vegetation in the hills," Chief Fuge said. "We do as much as we can, but we'll never be able to eliminate all (the risks)."

Councilman Pete Sinclair questioned the wisdom of adopting a fire code that set water system standards the town could never hope to achieve.

"I'd hate to see us adopt codes that are not realistic," he said. "The fire district (officials) are the experts -- they're the ones living with the problems."

However, the town should have legally sound reasons for watering down the fire code standards, said Ms. George.

"I agree -- in parts of the town it is ludicrous to think we would ever be able to meet the standards in the code, but we need to feel relatively comfortable that it is defensible," she said.

Mayor Paul Goeld concurred with her.

"If there's a big fire, we're going to have a line of people (in here) raising holy hell, saying 'You knew and you didn't do anything,'" he said.

Besides debating the codes themselves, there was little meeting of the minds when it came to who has the responsibility of enforcing the codes. Fire hazards on private property, such as dry brush, untrimmed weeds and debris-clogged roofs, have been identified by the consultants as the biggest wildfire threat to the town.

Mr. Neville suggested the town contract with another agency if the Woodside fire district refuses to do the enforcement. He wants the fire district to conduct inspections and enforce fire codes, above and beyond the regular outdoor inspections the district currently does.

Chief Fuge protested, saying Mr. Neville had only asked what the district's current practices were.

"Obviously there's a communication problem between the town and the fire district," Mr. Sinclair said. "The consultant is saying one thing and the district is saying another. This is turf-defending and not working together."

Town and fire district officials did agree to sit down with water company representatives to try to come up with a coordinated way to improve the water systems.

Since the council was only scheduled to receive the consultants' report at the meeting, further wrangling will have to wait for subsequent public hearings, as yet unscheduled.

Overall, the discussion of the fire-management plan was fairly contentious. Consultants accused the fire district of being uncooperative, a fire district director accused the consultants of being out of touch with reality, and several council members questioned why the town needed the consultants at all.

By the meeting's end, a number of ruffled feathers were smoothed over, but it was clear that many issues are far from being resolved.

Chief Fuge said he was glad that the council expressed support and understanding for the fire district at the end of the evening, which he called "one of the low-points of my career."

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