Fire Managers on the Bradshaw Ranger District plan to continue burning piles within the Prescott Basin (Senator Highway, Copper Basin, Walker Road and Deering Park), pending favorable weather conditions. Ignitions will start on Tuesday, February 16th and continue through Friday, February 19th if conditions remain favorable. Fire personnel continued to monitor previous ignitions from last week with totaled approximately 105 acres. Smoke impacts are expected to be light in the surrounding areas. Pile burning helps to reduce hazardous fuels adjacent to the wildland urban interface and increase ecosystem and community resilience.
In the interest of safety, forest visitors are reminded to obey all traffic signs and use caution when traveling in the vicinity of the prescribed burn as firefighters and fire-related traffic will be in the area.
The purpose of this project is to reduce hazardous fuels following thinning and fuelwood removal activities. Reducing hazardous fuels will help reduce the threat of high severity, high intensity wildfire to the public, adjacent private property and communities. Burning of debris left over from brush-crush and thinning projects require moisture in the surrounding vegetation and typically produces much lighter smoke than broadcast burning.
All prescribed fires activity is dependent on the availability of personnel and equipment, weather, fuels and conditions that minimize smoke impacts as best as possible and approval from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (www.azdeq.gov).
Messages will be posted to social media when managed fires are ignited on the Prescott National Forest:
For fire information please call (928) 925-1111; or stay up to date on Prescott National Forest news by checking the Prescott NF website and following us on Facebook and Twitter.
