Forester studying lessons from Waterfall and Angora fires

The Waterfall fire on Carson City's west side five years ago cost an estimated $14 million. The Angora Fire at South Lake Tahoe cost a lot more than that.

But Nevada State Forester Pete Anderson said Friday that a number of good things came out of those fires - things that should help prevent future fires and help fight those that do happen.

"There was a lot of effort after Waterfall," he said. "We went through the burn-over and looked real hard at what happened that day."

Anderson said the result was a lot of changes to fix communication, command and other problems.

"Part of the recommendations was that we didn't have a single incident commander," he said.

That meant there was no single person in charge of what the various federal, state and local agencies were doing during the fire, which started on July 14, 2004, and took five days to knock down.

"We have to designate one single person to be the boss," he said.

Another issue was the lack of control over access.

"We all got plugged up in Kings Canyon," he said.

The result was burned vehicles and equipment and firefighters endangered.

He said the Nevada Department of Transportation and Nevada Highway Patrol also made some changes in procedure after traffic on U.S. 395 had to be stopped that week.

"I think one of the big things that came out of Waterfall is when you really get thrown into that situation, you build some pretty strong relationships," he said.

Anderson said he believes the different agencies would work together much better next time.

"I know going into the future, we would have a much different approach to an incident of that magnitude," he said.

One of the most important changes came from the blue ribbon task force studying the Angora Fire in the Tahoe Basin, which started on June 24, 2007, and burned 3,100 acres. He said SB94 is designed to put some teeth into fire prevention laws in the Tahoe Basin and surrounding counties, at Lake Mead Basin and Las Vegas Valley. The 2009 Legislature gave authority to the state fire marshal to impose defensible space requirements on businesses and homeowners.

"The progress we're making on the Nevada side is phenomenal," he said.

California, however, has been stalled by a lawsuit from environmental groups who think some of the changes go too far. Anderson said California is where some of the most restrictive permitting rules for clearing space around a home and other changes exist.

Anderson said if three homeowners on a cul de sac all take care of their property but a fourth doesn't, all are at risk when a fire happens. But local fire officials have had very limited ability to make that homeowner clean things up. Both Anderson and Carson City fire chief Stacey Giomi said giving the state fire marshal the power to impose defensible space rules gives local officials some back-up in those situations.

"There's got to be some consistency across jurisdictions," Giomi said. "We need to look at how the enforcement works."

He, too, said Nevada agencies have made dramatic progress in fixing some of the problems exposed by those fires.

Anderson said this legislative interim will be dedicated to studying the various laws and regulations dealing with fire prevention. That will enable him to bring his findings to the 2011 Legislature and, hopefully, implement them statewide.

"We need to go throughout the state and try to get consistency," he said.