RANCHO BERNARDO -- The organizer of a fire safety meeting in Rancho Bernardo on Wednesday night said she was disappointed by a low turnout.

"We needed to fill this whole room, and I was a little surprised we didn't," said organizer Trisha Bennett, who lost her Lake Hodges Hills home near Escondido in last October's wildfires. "The public is apathetic."

More than 50 people attended the meeting at the Rancho Bernardo Presbyterian Community Church. Bennett said 1,000 should have been there.

While disappointed in the public's turnout, she was particularly upset that members of the county Board of Supervisors did not attend the meeting, but rather, sent representatives.

"I had about 25 questions I was going to put to them," said Bennett, who formed the Lake Hodges Hills Fire Safety council after the 2003 fires.

A few people confronted representatives of Supervisors Bill Horn and Pam Slater-Price after the meeting, at times raising voices and calling the young aides "sacrificial lambs" sent to a meeting filled with homeowners impatient with the county's response to wildfires in 2003 and 2007.

Much of that anxiety was fueled earlier in the meeting in a presentation by Bill Hoffmann, a businessman and member of the San Diego Fire Safety Forum.

Hoffman reminded the audience that Proposition 172, passed by California voters in 1993, specifically cited fire safety as one of the needs that would be funded by a half-cent tax. Billions of dollars have been raised in the state through that proposition, including $258 million in San Diego County, which has used the money only for law enforcement, he said.

A recent grand jury report recommended reallocating that money for fire safety, which Hoffman said could bring $40 million a year.

The county also has a reserve fund of $725 million, but will not use it, Hoffman said, because supervisors insists it is for emergencies.

"What are we faced with?" he said. "We've had two massive fires, and those aren't emergencies?"

Others speakers included California Chaparral Institute Director Rick Halsey and Bill Middleton, retired assistant fire chief for San Diego. Both are members of the San Diego Fire Safety Forum.

Halsey asked how many people in attendance had lost homes to fires, and a third raised their hands.

"We live in a fire-prone environment," Halsey said. "Fire is as important here as rain. We didn't know that until five years ago."

Halsey said San Diego County has a history of seriously inadequate fire-protection services, and he urged people to become active in pushing for greater action and awareness.

Location, fuel management and building design are crucial for fire prevention, Halsey said.

"We have to look at the total fire environment," he said, explaining that there are areas where homes simply should not be built.

"A lot of homes in the last 10 years looked like they were built to burn," he said about roofing material he referred to as "kindling."

Halsey also said fuel management does not mean merely clearing away vegetation, but replacing wooden fences and keeping wood piles away from homes.

Outlining things the county must do to improve fire safety, Middleton said the first and foremost need is a consolidated fire department like the ones that exist in all other Southern California counties.

Middleton said he has been interviewed recently on radio stations outside the county, and he was asked a question he never hears here: "Why aren't the people outraged?"

Also at the meeting, Rancho Penasquitos resident Bob Hatch shared what he had learned about Australia's program of prepare, stay and defend as a way for citizens to fight fires.

Rather than relying only on a professional fire department that often is overwhelmed during large wildfires, Hatch said Australia has a program that teaches residents to be prepared to fight fires themselves.

People who are unprepared or unable to stay and fight are told to evacuate immediately because those who leave at the last minute often are the ones to perish, he said.

The Australian program was instituted in 1983 after a fire that killed 47 people and destroyed 2,000 structures.

Of those who died, two out of three were found just outside their homes, trying to leave at the last minute. In the 2003 San Diego County wildfires, 12 out of 16 people who died were found just outside their homes, he said.

People who were trained in the Australian program, however, were safer during large wildfires because they either evacuated sooner or stayed to fight the fire with proper equipment and training.

After 1983, people who had trained in the program saved 99.9 percent of threatened houses while 66 percent of unattended houses burned, he said.

For more fire-prevention information, visit the San Diego Fire Safety Forum's Web site at http://sdfiresafety.org.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.