The Air Pollution Control District for Santa Barbara County released a media advisory today alerting local areas of the Sedgwick Reserve Research Burn scheduled to take place Wednesday, June 23 depending on conditions.
This one-day burn will include 2 acres of grasses along Sedgwick Reserve in the Santa Ynez Valley, just east of and adjacent to Figueroa Creek. The prescribed burn is planned and coordinated by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department with Santa Barbara County APCD, San Luis Obispo APCD, San Joaquin Valley APCD, Ventura County APCD, and the California Air Resources Board. These entities aim to minimize impacts on air quality of surrounding communities by conducting the burn when the weather conditions are highly favorable to direct smoke away from population centers.
According to Santa Barbara County APCD, the burn will allow officials to study the effects of fire behavior on varying rangeland vegetation types and vegetative loads. Planned fires like this one typically burn less intensely than wildfires, and can actually help prevent the rapid spread of them.
Santa Barbara County APCD advises community members in these areas to take precautions tomorrow, especially those sensitive to smoke. They suggest avoiding strenuous outdoor activity and remaining indoors as much as possible when smelling smoke. If the conditions are not desirable tomorrow, the burn will be rescheduled.
To see a map of statewide prescribed burns, visit the Prescribed Fire Information Reporting System (PFIRS) website: https://ssl.arb.ca.gov/pfirs/firm/firm.php
