Lack of brush clearance faulted in California wildfire

LOS ANGELES (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS) - Federal authorities failed to follow through on plans earlier this year to burn away highly flammable brush in a forest on the edge of Los Angeles to avoid the very kind of wildfire now raging there, The Associated Press has learned.

The U.S. Forest Service said that months before the massive fire erupted, it obtained permits to burn away the undergrowth on more than 1,700 acres in the Angeles National Forest. But just 193 acres had been cleared by the time that the fire broke out, the agency said.

The Forest Service defended its efforts, saying that weather, wind and environmental rules limit how often these "prescribed burns" can be conducted.