Official: Where there's smoke, there's controlled fire

Smoke billowing in the skies is not necessarily a reason to be alarmed this summer.
 
The controlled burn season gets underway this month. 
 
"It's just a lot of smoke," Rural/Metro Fire Marshall Curt Foster said of recent incidence of smoky skies over parts of Yuma County.
 
Rural/Metro Fire Department, the authorized agency to issue burn permits in Yuma County, oversees controlled household, commercial and farmland burns around the county, excepting the cities of Yuma, San Luis and Somerton.
 
While year-round burning is permitted, the months of June, July and August typically see an increase in the incidence of smoke from controlled burns.
 
Farmers are beginning to burn wheat field stubble, which produces the large plumes of smoke appearing throughout the county, Foster said.  These fields are generally burned in the morning to allow the smoke to dissipate by the afternoon. 
 
"These burns are very, very safe," Foster said. "They are authorized and very controlled."
 
Foster added that controlled burns, especially farm field burns, will continue throughout the summer. Therefore, smoke will be visible in the county, from the Wellton and Tacna areas to Mexico, but residents should not be concerned. 
 
Rural/Metro issues announcements before controlled burns in an attempt to minimize fire concern regarding the smoke as well as alert residents with breathing or respiratory problems, he said.
 
If smoke becomes a health issue for individuals with asthma or other respiratory and breathing problems, Rural/Metro can extinguish fires, he said, but only as a last resort.
 
Foster stressed that people simply need to be aware controlled burns are occurring in the area and understand that controlled burns have been conducted safely in Yuma County for 100 years.
 
Rural/Metro has been regulating controlled burns in Yuma County for the last nine years to maximize safety and minimize risks. A majority of burns are carried out smoothly, with only a few burns a year growing to an out-of-control state, Foster said.
 
"We respond to an out-of-control burn as an uncontrolled fire and extinguish it." said Foster, who has been monitoring controlled burns for all nine years. 
 
Rural/Metro personnel schedule burn days to ensure safe, controlled burns based on environmental conditions and can cancel burns accordingly. They issues instruction sheets to burn permit recipients, including burn hours, distances fires must be from structures and other general safety practices. 
Individuals are required to call prior to burning and again when the burn is complete. Rural/Metro is on standby during all controlled burns and even conducts burns for some farmers or land owners, Foster said.
 
A majority of controlled burns are on farmlands, especially during the summer months, but permits are issued to households for old papers, yard clippings, etc. and a few permits are issued to commercial facilities, he said.
 
For more information on controlled burns or acquiring permits for them, contact Rural/Metro at 782-4757.