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Cal Fire prescribed burn, Coarsegold, June 11-12, 2019 (courtesy Cal Fire)

Highway 41 Prescribed Burn Completes Ahead Of Schedule

COARSEGOLD — With a combination of favorable conditions, dedicated resources, private landowner cooperation and professional collaboration, Cal Fire and its allies have completed a prescribed burn on Highway 41, with no additional impact to traffic anticipated at this time along the corridor.

Originally scheduled to take place over three nights beginning Tuesday, June 11 through Thursday, June 13, the prescribed burn encompassed the east side of Highway 41 from the Friant-Kern Canal at mile marker 6.95 to Road 200 at mile marker 17.91 in O’Neals, creating a large fuel break while reducing highway hazards and high fire suppression costs.

Intended to help reduce the fire threat to unincorporated communities around Coarsegold, O’Neals and Hidden Lakes, the operation wrapped up a day earlier than initially planned.

“We had good burning conditions, the weather was favorable, our resources collaborated and the project flowed well,” says Cal Fire Battalion Chief Shaun Fairbanks.

No new burning is prescribed for tonight, according to Fairbanks. Crews and equipment will remain throughout the project area, chipping brush piles created from pruning and brush removal along private landowners’ fuel breaks. Chipping after the prescribed burn will not impact Highway 41 traffic. Engines will patrol the area for the next couple of days in order to ensure safety.

Cal Fire, in cooperation with Caltrans, Pacific Southwest Research Station/Fresno State University, California Highway Patrol, San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District and private landowners, completed the project as part of Governor Newsom’s Community Wildfire Prevention and Mitigation Report (Executive Order N-05-19), issued on Jan. 9.

For more information visit Fire.ca.gov

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