Officials Wary as Brush Fire Season Starts : Safety: Dense vegetation produced by heavy winter rains fuels apprehension.

The brush fire season could be long and especially dangerous this year because of heavy winter storms and late spring rains that produced dense vegetation, fire officials said Wednesday, the official start of the season.

“On the positive side, the moisture is up in the brush right now,” said Michael Freeman, Los Angeles County Fire Department chief. “That’s good, because it’s not hazardous until it dries out.”

The bad news is that much of the brush will dry out in the late summer and fall, when warm Santa Ana winds increase the danger of wildfires, Freeman said. Similar conditions, created by heavy rains, in 1993 led to wildfires across the Southland that scorched tens of thousands of acres and destroyed hundreds of homes.

“The fall’s going to be a time of real concern,” he said.

The abundance of grass along roads and near homes “can create a wick for a bigger area of brush,” Freeman said.

Last year, which was relatively dry, the county Fire Department responded to about 1,900 brush fires, most of which were contained without serious damage, officials said.

Firefighters from Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange and Santa Barbara counties participated Wednesday in a news conference in the hills northwest of Santa Clarita to discuss preparations for the fire season. Speakers emphasized the value of cooperation among the firefighting agencies in sharing helicopters and other equipment.

“No individual agency is going to be able to meet the needs of devastating fires [like those] we had in 1993,” said Capt. James Sewell of the Ventura County Fire Department.

Crews of firefighters and state inmates spent Wednesday igniting and then extinguishing fires as part of a 350-acre prescribed burn near Santa Clarita to destroy some of the brush in the area. The burn also served as a training exercise.

Tom Little, a firefighter specialist for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said the controlled burns will continue throughout the county for the next few weeks, until higher winds and low plant moisture make them too risky.

“We don’t want a fire to get away from us,” he said.

Fire prevention tips for residents were emphasized at the news conference. Freeman said all flammable vegetation should be cut to two inches high or less within 30 feet of homes, fences and other structures. He said all vegetation within 100 feet of structures should be trimmed to 18 inches or less.