Antioch: Fire Crews to Continue Controlled Burns

If you see smoke along the rolling hills of Antioch, no need to panic as the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District will be continuing controlled burns and training today on underdeveloped property. Yesterday, Dispatch received just over 150 calls as residents were unaware of the burns that would be occurring.

Here is a press release

On Wednesday, June 19th through Friday, June 21st fire crews from the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District will be conducting controlled training fires on the undeveloped property located near Canada Valley Rd and Vista Grande Rd in the City of Antioch.

This project is an ongoing and cooperative effort between the property owner, City of Antioch, and the Fire District to clean up, secure, and mitigate the fire hazard that currently exists on the property while providing wildland fire training for our crews.

Beginning on Wednesday, firefighters will introduce low intensity controlled fire to remove the extremely dry grass that exists on the property. We will be burning large areas of dry grass to remove the available fuel so that in the event an uncontrolled wildland does start in the areas the fire cannot gain the type of intensity that can threaten the surrounding community.

During this training exercise, we will be controlling the spread of the fire which is much safer, requires fewer resources, and is much more cost effective than an uncontrolled fire. Live fire is expected to commence at 1000am each day. Smoke will be visible from the Antioch, Oakley, and Brentwood areas. Drivers along the Highway 4 bypass can expect to see smoke west of the bypass during burning operations.