The Alameda County Fire Department (ACFD) will be conducting a controlled vegetation management and training burn at the Alameda County Sheriffs Regional Training Center in Dublin, CA on Monday, June 13th and Tuesday, June 14th. The Alameda County Sheriffs Regional Training Center is located at 1289 Madigan Road. The controlled burn will be conducted between 8AM and 3PM, and will be burned in small, low fire intensity sections in the area between the County Jail and Barner Avenue. In total, the training burn will be approximately 100 acres.

Prescribed vegetation management burns are carefully planned and controlled burns that must meet a strict criteria of fuel conditions, weather parameters, smoke management and fire safety guidelines. When all conditions (prescriptions) are met, firefighters burn while monitoring the set criteria, fire behavior and designated fire control lines.

The low intensity fire in the natural environment will reduce the opportunity for destructive, uncontrolled fires and to provide safe vegetation fire training. This area in the Tri-Valley is susceptible to rapidly moving fires in the late summer and early fall. The prescribed burn will increase the defensible space for residents in the area and the Sheriffs Regional Training Center.

Though the benefits of prescribed burning are clear, some residents are worried about the possibilities of fire spreading to adjacent properties and smoke intrusions in populated areas. Good management will reduce these concerns. The ACFD will be notifying the local community through different types of media (press release, website, social media and “Code Red”) including a door-to-door campaign the weekend prior to the burns. ACFD Recruit Firefighters will visit homes north of Gleason Drive along the Tassajara Road corridor to ensure each resident is reminded to keep doors and windows closed from the morning of June 13th through the morning of June 15th.

When burning conditions and risks are appropriate, prescribed burning is usually the preferred strategy for vegetation management to reduce the possibility of future uncontrolled, destructive fires.