Tinder in the Hills

When a sudden cold spell struck the vast eucalyptus groves in the hills above Berkeley, Calif., last December, 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 of the tall trees died. Planted at the turn of the century in an ill-fated lumbering venture, the trees have now become a grave danger. Forestry and fire officials warn that the 3,000 acres of dead trees will present an unprecedented fire hazard this summer. The usual changing winds of late August and early September could fan a cigarette-or lightning-caused fire and send flames sweeping through the surrounding hills toward the bay and an area with 300,000 residents.

The danger is compounded because the eucalyptus continually sheds both its thin bark--which hangs from the upper portions of the tree in long, tendril-like strands--and its leaves. Together, bark and leaves form a thick and highly combustible layer of "duff" on the forest floor. The increased fall from dead and dying trees has now piled up to depths of 12 in. to 18 in. in some areas; there, the ground is covered by as much as 50 tons of debris per acre. In strong winds on a hot day, the duff could burn so furiously that huge updrafts of air would be created as the fire sought oxygen to feed itself. In such an event, says Berkeley Forestry Professor Harold Biswell, "we might have a fire storm that would literally suck roofs off houses."

To avoid that possibility, forestry experts say, one of two measures must be taken. Cutting down the dead trees would reduce the danger by 85%. That would take three to six months and cost $5,000,000. Another way out is to reduce through controlled burning the amount of duff under the trees. In either case, however, delay could be perilous. Similar conditions, on a smaller scale, existed during a fire in 1970, and only the fact that the wind suddenly died down kept that blaze from becoming a holocaust.

To avert a major catastrophe, a task force headed by Alameda County Assistant Director of Civil Defense William Hildebrand is trying to work out a practical plan, and hopes to finance it by obtaining funds under the Federal Disaster Act. Besides jurisdictional disputes (30-odd separate local and state authorities are involved), there is one major hitch: the money is available only when a disaster is "imminent," and federal officials say that danger of a conflagration in August or September does not meet that requirement. But if the necessary preventive measures will take up to six months to complete, how much more imminent can disaster be?

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