Fire personnel complete 200 acres of prescribed fire near Angelus Oaks

Project adds to community defense work started decades ago

Fire personnel of the San Bernardino National Forest completed major activities on a prescribed fire covering 200 acres in the Angelus Oaks area.

There will be smoke visible throughout the week, but resources will be on site everyday checking control lines until it is officially declared out. The site will be staffed with two engines, tonight.

Wildland firefighters started the work in the Front Country Ranger District, April 30, and treated 26 to 56 acres everyday through May 3.

Approximately 85 fire personnel, including three crews from Los Padres and Cleveland National forests, were on site for the operation. In addition, 10 personnel were assigned as contingency resources. Personnel with resources staffed the area during the nights.

Bryan Vergne, Burn Boss and Fuels Officer for the Front Country, thanked the crews for staying engaged and diligent in their efforts.

“A lot of hard work and planning went into making this community defense project a success,” Vergne said. “The support of the community and forest leadership really allowed us to get out there and, hopefully, provide to the public a healthier forest to recreate in and enjoy. A job well done by all.”

Every morning of the project, fire personnel gathered for a briefing describing their day’s objectives and then went to the site to perform a test fire. This was to ensure ignitions would meet burn plan objectives and for evaluating smoke drift. Smoke was continually monitored for potential impacts to communities and State Route 38.

The work included the burning of slash piles and understory burning. Slash piles consisted of logs, chunks, bark, branches, stumps and broken understory trees or brush. In underburning, firefighters lit surface fuels, but not the overstory canopy; surface fuels included grass, leaves, pine needles, fern and tree moss.

One of the objectives of the broadcast burn was to reduce the potential for catastrophic fire spreading to the community of Angelus Oaks, according to Justin Grunewald, Burn Boss Trainee of the project and Superintendent of the Mill Creek Hotshots. The work also reduces potential negative effects from future wildland fire to both agency and adjacent private lands while restoring fire-adaptive ecosystems. Firefighters applied their drip torches to start the broadcast burn and create a mosaic pattern; other personnel implemented hose lays and established hand lines to keep the fie within project boundaries – all the while dealing with steep and rugged terrain.

Grunewald thanked everybody involved in the operation for their support and patience.

“It feels really good to be a part of something this significant for the Front Country,” Grunewald said.