The Ventura County Fire Protection District has “adequate personnel on scene and I also sent one of our firefighters to the county command post to alert us,” if the fire deviated from its controlled pattern.Chief Skeels said that controlled burns involve hand crews, engine companies and water tenders, “those who can do any work that needs to be done if the fire goes in the wrong direction.”The relentless heat wave - temperatures in the Santa Clara River Valley have neared or exceeded 100 degrees day after day for weeks - has dramatically lowered the moisture content of the already dry brush and turned the hillsides into a potential inferno.“We’ve been getting a lot of calls,” about the controlled burn, said Chief Skeels in a phone interview as the smoke from the burn drifted northeast. “It looks real threatening to the average onlooker, and people are right to be alert to that.”
Adams Canyon controlled burn causes alarm
August 15, 2003
Santa Paula News
Adams Canyon was again a hot issue when what appeared to be a large wildfire Thursday morning was in fact a controlled burn of dry brush, according to a Santa Paula Fire Department official.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesAdams Canyon was again a hot issue when what appeared to be a large wildfire Thursday morning was in fact a controlled burn of dry brush, according to a Santa Paula Fire Department official.Chief Paul Skeels said that the burn, which sent out a large head of smoke visible from throughout the city, created a flurry of phone calls to the Santa Paula Fire Department, 911 emergency dispatchers and Santa Paula Fire Station #1.The SPPD did not receive advance notification that the controlled burn was planned, he added, but the subsequent “information we’ve been given is that up to 300 acres of a prescribed burn is being conducted to reduce fire hazard.”Ventura County Fire District personnel conducted the controlled burn.“My understanding is that the lighting off of the burn was at 8 a.m.,” for a test run, with the actual burn slated to occur between 9 and 11 a.m. when it becomes a “matter of letting it burn itself out.”
