| A slash pile by some cabins is burned during the prescribed fire. |
The Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands successfully carried out a prescribed fire to remove slash piles created from reducing fuels along a portion of Reeder Creek.
Approximately 60 slash piles were burned along the creek between numerous summer homes. There was no threat presented to any of the homes during the prescribed fire operation. Division personnel from the Southeast Area Office developed a prescribed fire burn plan for this portion of the project.
The plan was reviewed and approved by personnel in the Division’s Salt Lake office. In order to implement a prescribed fire the Division must work with the Utah Division of Air Quality’s smoke management program.
The first step is providing the Air Quality smoke management program with an advanced list of prescribed fires including the type of burn, location and expected number of days to complete the project.
The next step entails providing a copy of the burn plan to Air Quality for their review and acceptance as it relates to smoke management and air quality concerns which are mitigated in the burn plan. A request form to burn if all conditions in the burn plan appear will be met in the near future is submitted two days before the anticipated burn.
If there are no others planning to burn in that same general area you are placed on a daily approval burn list. If the smoke dispersal conditions are met during the time frame you have applied to burn we notify dispatch we plan to burn.
Upon arrival at the site we will contact dispatch to let them know we plan to light a test fire. The test fire is done to insure the prescribed fire conditions set in the plan will be met by observing the fire behavior and smoke dispersal of the test fire. Weather observations may be taken also to confirm on site conditions are within the burn plan prescription.
If every thing looks good the crew start to ignite the prescribed fire. They notify dispatch that they have started. Upon completion of the burn they notify dispatch they are done.
The division is required to file a form with air quality smoke management indicating the successful completion of the prescribed burn. If the burn was not completed that is reported and a request for additional time to complete the burn is submitted.
The form provides an estimate of the tons of material consumed by fire that is run through a formula to estimate the amount of particulate the prescribed fire placed in the air. This provides air quality with data on the amount of smoke placed in the air throughout Utah from prescribed fire. It tracks any air quality or smoke concerns that might occur from a burn.