Cal Fire officials suspend burn permits east of Sacramento as wildfire danger increases

Cal Fire on Sunday announced it is suspending burn permits in state-managed areas east of Sacramento due to worsening summer fire conditions.

The agency’s Amador-El Dorado unit moved to limit burning due to “increasing fire danger posed by the high volume of dead grass and hotter, drier conditions in the region,” according to a news release.

The suspension applies to Cal Fire-managed areas in Alpine, Amador and Sacramento counties, as well as El Dorado County west of Echo Summit and a portion of San Joaquin County. It does not apply to areas of AEU territory in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

“Although debris burning is useful to reduce flammable vegetation, the conditions in the vast majority of the Amador-El Dorado unit have reached the point where debris burning poses an unacceptable risk of starting a wildfire and it is no longer safe for the public to perform these types of burns,” said Mike Blankenheim, chief of Cal Fire AEU, in the statement.

It takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday and bans residents from burning branches, leaves and other “landscape debris.”

Cal Fire AEU’s territory includes the Caldor Fire burn area. The 2021 wildfire burned more than 221,000 acres across El Dorado, Alpine and Amador counties. Last week, officials in neighboring Cal Fire TCU territory — which includes Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, as well as portions of San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties — imposed the same restrictions.

The burn permit suspension does not apply to campfires on private property or at organized campgrounds.

The agency can issue temporary burn permits for certain health and public safety situations. A Cal Fire official will inspect burn sites and issue permits for “agriculture, land management, fire training, and other industrial-type burning,” the release said.

Cal Fire urged residents to prepare their homes for wildfires by clearing dead and dying vegetation, planting fire-resistant landscaping and finding alternative ways to dispose of debris, such as chipping it or hauling it to a green waste facility.