SAN JOSE — Down the road from a Smokey the Bear sign warning of moderate fire danger, flames engulfed the dry grasses and shrubs of the Calero County Park’s rolling hills in south San Jose Tuesday morning, sending a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen from miles away.
But firefighters did not speed to extinguish this blaze, as they normally might.
Santa Clara County Parks and Cal Fire Santa Clara Unit jointly conducted a 165-acre prescribed burn in the park, aiming to control the amount of fuel on the hill to prevent future fires from burning out of control. The fire was planned to have the last flames set by 3 p.m., with mop-up to continue until the smoke was completely gone. A second prescribed burn was planned to take place at Joseph D. Grant County Park on Thursday, according to a news release.
“It’s been 75 years since we have had any fire in the area,” said Kyle Peczkowski, a natural resources program coordinator for Santa Clara County Parks. “This helps prevent wildfire by creating blocks within the park that we know have a history of fire, that if fire does approach, we can then predict how the fire will behave in these areas that have already been burned.”
Firefighters take part in a prescribed burn at Calero County Park on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in San Jose, Calif. The 165 acre low intensity fire was used to reduce fuels and improve ecosystem health. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
“We can expect a certain lower intensity fire behavior over here,” he added, providing Cal Fire with known fire lines they can use when fighting nearby fires.
Prescribed burns are usually carried out in the spring and fall — during the beginning and end of fire season when fire crews are less busy fighting wildfires. They also want to ensure fuels have enough time to “cure,” or dry out, he added.
“We rely heavily on professional firefighters, along with our internal firefighter staffs,” Peczkowski said.
Though Tuesday’s burn was initially planned for the spring, it was postponed due to fire activity during that time.
“We’re constantly reassessing the situation to make sure that we’re doing it at a safe time and that we have the resources,” said Chelsea Burkett, public information officer for the Cal Fire Santa Clara County Unit.
“The vegetation has been priming for the entire summer,” she added “We’ve seen a lot of different heat waves here.”
In the fall, officials can plan burns to occur on days that will have more humidity in the evening, helping with the area’s recovery, Peczkowski added.
“That’s why it’s safer,” he said.
In order to control where the fire burns, fire crews use a drip torch to set the fire to back down the ridge and move against the wind, ensuring that the wind does not drive the fire out of control, Peczkowski added.
“We control where we put fire by how we are lighting it, and where that is on different aspects of the topography,” he said.
In order to choose which areas are prioritized for prescribed burns, Santa Clara County Parks creates a vegetation management plan, taking into account what types of fuels are present, weather patterns and the ability to control the fire in a given area, which is impacted by the presence of trails and roads where burn units can be safely stationed, Peczkowski said.
“Fire can be used as a good, safe tool in land management, especially in a setting like this that’s close to homes,” Peczkowski said. “This is something that we want people to become more used to so this is not an experience that causes anxiety or any kind of stress around it.”
Because of how quickly the grasses grow, this burned area could be ready to burn again as early as next year, Peczkowski added. But it is unlikely that it would happen that soon naturally.
“Let’s allow it to do its natural thing because this is a natural occurrence,” Peczkowski said. “We’ve excluded fire from this area for so long so that if a fire were to come in here in an uncontrolled setting, it could be devastating.”