Why are prescribed fires so important to prevent wildfires?

AccuWeather

Adam Mendonca, deputy fire director with the U.S. Forest Service, explains why prescribed fires, also known as controlled burns, are critical to prevent wildfires.

Transcript

00:00We want to learn more about how these fires spread and what it takes to actually contain them.

00:04Yeah, and Adam Mamdassa is Deputy Fire Director for the U.S. Forest Service. He joins us live

00:12with more. Thank you so much, Adam, for joining us. First question right off the bat,

00:16is drought making fire prevention more difficult to manage?

00:22Yeah, thank you for having me. Thrilled to be here and to start right off, yes.

00:26So as we look at the conditions when these fires start,

00:30vegetative moisture levels is really important. And so as we look at drought, definitely a factor

00:37as we look at how fire moves across landscape, and it really does influence just how difficult

00:41these fires are to deal with. And we're wondering how effective

00:45controlled burns are in managing the fire risk. I know that you're in D.C., we're in Pennsylvania,

00:50and some of these controlled burns happen most springs in many of these areas. Can they be done

00:55safely in California, and are they effective? Yeah, so prescribed fire, or these controlled

01:01burns, are critical for how we try to manage the vegetation. So you're really trying to reduce the

01:07amount of consumable material out there, so what can burn, and prescribed fire is a great way to

01:13do that. And so they are very effective at actually combating these fires. What's so

01:20difficult about prescribed fire, though, is that you really try to conduct that when the conditions

01:25are right, so that you can burn the areas you want to burn, and not have them get outside those

01:29areas. And so, to your point, many of our prescribed fires occur in the spring. We will do them

01:34throughout the year, though, based on the conditions, when the conditions are right.

01:37And so, for California specific, we have an active prescribed fire program in the federal

01:42government, but we also work with partners like the states to control burns across jurisdictions.

01:48So key components for folks, we know that they impact folks with things like smoke,

01:53but they are our best tool for actually trying to reduce the risk of fire, and help us with these

01:59types of situations. And Adam, are crown fires, those are fires that spread from the tops of

02:06dry trees, becoming a more common fire threat? So, we do see more high-intensity fire, so

02:14really quick, one thing to know for folks, so crown fire, there's two types of crown fire,

02:19you have dependent, that's where you got to have fire underneath it, preheats the trees,

02:23dries them out, and then there's independent, and that's where crown fire will just run across

02:27the tops of the trees. Independent crown fire, still pretty uncommon. So, we don't see a lot

02:33of that, but we do see a lot of dependent crown fire, we're seeing more and more of those types

02:38of fires, and it goes back to, there's a lot of vegetation on the ground that has built up over

02:43the years, it gets to burning, it pretreats, or it dries out that vegetation, those crowns

02:49of those living trees, and it allows fire to move through there. So, going back to your previous

02:53question, that's why prescribed fire is so important. We look at trying to remove that

02:58vegetation from the understory, or the undergrowth, so that it doesn't pretreat those trees, it

03:04doesn't dry them out. And so, because independent crown fire is so rare, if we can take care of that

03:10vegetation under the trees, we can truly reduce the risk of having a crown fire move through these

03:15areas. A lot easier to control these cooler burning fires if, again, things are managed well.

03:21I know a lot's changed over the past hundred years with philosophies of fire management.

03:25Adam Mandonka, Deputy Fire Director with the U.S. Forestry Service. Thanks again, Adam. Thank you.

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