The Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) Fire Technology Program will conduct a training burn at Lake Sonoma Dam on Wednesday, June 1, Thursday, June 2, and Friday, June 3, 2022. The prescribed burns will start between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., weather permitting, and conclude by 3:00 p.m. Morning fog or hot and dry conditions may affect start and end times.
The 80-acre burn allows The Army Corps of Engineers the opportunity to perform their annual visual inspection of the Warms Springs Dam while conducting a firing operations class to train local firefighters. This part of SRJC’s Fire Program training helps firefighters understand how a wildfire burns and how to use intentional ignitions to suppress wildfires and conduct prescribed burning.
“This course allows local fire agencies the opportunity to participate in Wildland live fire training by planning and purposely reducing fire fuel in a controlled environment,” said Fire Technology Program Director Ken Sebastiani. “This real-time training will help firefighters be more prepared and safer while battling devastating wildfires. Santa Rosa Junior College is grateful as always to the Army Corp for allowing the use of their facility to make the training a reality.”
While smoke will be visible from early morning to afternoon, it will be periodic rather than nonstop. The larger areas burned on June 2 and 3 will produce more smoke than burning on June 1. Smoke will be monitored for dispersion after each plot is ignited and firefighters will remain on-site to ensure complete extinguishment after completion of training each day.
Controlled vegetation management burns are carefully planned and must meet strict criteria for ecological benefit, weather parameters, smoke management, and fire safety guidelines. When all conditions are met, trained wildland firefighters conduct the burn while monitoring the set criteria, fire behavior and designated fire control lines.
For more information on the SRJC Fire Technology Program, please visit https://pstc.santarosa.edu/fire-technology.
