LAKE ISABELLA, Calif. (KERO) — The heavy rains that came with the recent storms washed a lot of debris down the mountain and into Lake Isabella. On Friday, April 14, the US Forest Service conducted a massive controlled burn of debris that the people of Lake Isabella have spent the last few weeks fishing out and piling up.
The Forest Service says they hope to burn 500 piles.
"Today, I am the burn boss for the Lake Isabella burn," said Richard Baker with the U.S. Forest Service. "We are wanting to restore balance back to the lake as far as the amount of fuel loading we got from the flood damage."
Controlled burns aren’t an uncommon practice for the Forest Service. Typically, they occur in order to remove excess fuel, like dry dead wood, from an environment. Friday's burn was unique because it was designed primarily to get rid of the debris that has been removed from the lake.
"So, the last three weeks we've had crews out piling the debris that collected in the lake from the recent flood that we had and they've piled it, and now we're burning it before the lake comes back up again and the debris ends up in the lake," explained District Fire Management Officer Justin Gagnon.
"Today we have an accumulation of 60 firefighters on scene," added Baker.
Local officials working with the Forest Service say safety is their top priority.
"We operate with the Forest Service underneath a burn plan," explained Al Watson, a ranger with the Kern River Ranger District. "So we develop the plan so that it talks about things like wind speed and relative humidity, because the last thing we want to do is, even though we are just burning piles, is start a fire that could actually then spread into the adjoining landscape."
"We cut line every pile, which is removing the vegetation around the pile to keep it from spreading," added Gagnon.
The goal is for the debris to be burned completely.
"We have firefighters that are monitoring it, and they are doing what we call chunking the piles," said Watson. "That's taking the material that didn't burn on the outside of it and put it into the inside of the pile so we get as much as one hundred percent consumption as possible."
The piles were made deliberately.
"There's a method to it. You want them tightly compacted and built tall not flat and wide," explained Gagnon. "I mean, lighting piles is fun. People look forward to it. Building the piles is the work, ya know, and getting to burn them is more enjoyable."
Ranger Watson remarked that after weeks of collecting debris and piling it up on the shores, it was satisfying to watch it burn, akin to mowing your lawn.
IN-DEPTH: CONTROLLED BURNS IN CALIFORNIA
According to the California Air Resources Board, approximately 125,000 acres of wildlands are treated with prescribed burning every year in California, and the rate of treatment is expected to rise as the technique is used more frequently.
Advocates of controlled burning say the practice, which stretches back to precolonial times in America, reduces the risk of catastrophic wildfires.
So far this year, there have been a total of 116 permitted burns across the state, 29 of them just this month.
