Mark Hartwig commiserated with Joan Hartmann over the loss of plantings that soften the lines of a house during Tuesday's Board of Supervisors hearing on power shutoffs. The fire chief and the Santa Barbara County supervisor's conversation came amid a discussion that included California's new "Zero to Five" defensible space zone — homeowners in wildfire areas should keep the greenery five feet away from outer walls.
Hartwig said he had to stop a couple of feet short when it came to the geraniums growing at his house. And Hartmann said she'd seen the research as a boardmember of the Fire Safe Council. "It's painful. I've put in all these plants because they soften the house," she said. "I have to admit, I haven't taken them all out, but I've cut them way back."
Drought or no drought, fires still broke out, either because the grass grew tall or the fuels underneath grew drier, said Garrett Huff, a division chief with Santa Barbara County Fire. "It looks green on the outside, but there's a lot on the inside that's like kindling."