Controlled Burn at the Eastern site / BurnE01
Philippe S. Cohen
June 3 and 4, 2001
Controlled Burn Along the Eastern Site on June 5
We chose to burn the eastern site first because of the higher fuel loads and higher humidity in the early morning. This was also a time when winds are less variable. As you can see in the first image, the first task was to review the burn plan with the participating fire crews. CDF was the lead agency, with Palo Alto Fire Department and the Midpenninsula Regional Open Space District crews also participating.
The second image gives a panoramic view of the burn site looking south. The start of the burn with drip torches can be seen in image BurnE15, which occurred at the eastern end of the site. While the burn site is composed almost entirely of annual grasses and yellow starthistle, you can see in images BurnE42 and 43 that the flame lengths get surprisingly high. In some images one can see fence posts that are about 5 feet tall and provide some scale.
The fire proceeded through the grass at a very rapid rate, at one point Asst. Professor Scott Stephens (UCB) clocked the fire front moving about 1m/second.
By image BurnE63, a backburn was started with about half the site already burned. The last several images show the site immediately following the completed burn and some of the mop-up activity.
The entire burn, from start to last flame was completed in about 40 minutes.