Some sectors allowed burns with appropriate oversight
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) announced today the enactment of a burn suspension on all outdoor burning, which went into effect at 12:01 a.m. this morning, May 10.
The decision was made in light of the state’s second consecutive dry year and increasing fire danger conditions from dry and dead vegetation and warm and dry windy days.
The burn suspension suspends all outdoor burn permits for outdoor residential burning and for burning of landscape debris within the State Responsibility Areas of Sonoma, Lake, Napa, Solano, Yolo and Colusa counties.
In response, the County of Sonoma Fire Prevention Division has placed the same open burning ban and suspension in effect within all unincorporated areas of Sonoma County.
“While wildfires are a natural part of California’s landscape, the fire season in California and across the west is starting earlier and ending later each year. Climate change is considered a key driver of this trend. Warmer spring and summer temperatures, reduced snowpack, and earlier spring snowmelt create longer and more intense dry seasons that increase moisture stress on vegetation and make forests more susceptible to severe wildfire,” according to a Sonoma County press release.
The county fire prevention division will work with CalFire to determine when it is safe to lift the burn suspension.
“The burn suspension includes all open burning, though agricultural, forest management, fire training and other industrial-type burning may proceed if a CalFire official has inspected the area and issued a permit in the SRA or by the local fire chief in the LRA,” the press release states.The burn suspension is advantageous to fire crews because it helps by allowing a quick fire agency response to all fires observed after May 10, 2021, as they are assumed to be uncontrolled fires.
While all fires cannot be prevented by a burn suspension, the suspension can significantly help reduce the number of fires according to the press release.
Anyone responsible for an open burn without a valid written exemption from the burn suspension may be subject to a citation, fines and the cost of the fire agency response to extinguish the fire.
For more information please visit www.sonomacounty.ca.gov/PRMD/fire-prevention/
www.fire.ca.gov or www.ReadyForWildfire.org
