Lassen Fire Safe Council closes in on Janesville fuel break pile burning

A contractor for the Lassen Fire Safe Council has completed more than 400 acres of pile-burning operations as part of its Thompson Peak Initiative and the burning may continue for the next two weeks.

For the last several weeks, High Sierra Fire, Inc., of Janesville, has had crews safely igniting piles of debris generated from the construction of the Janesville Fuel Break, a LFSC/TPI project.

The Thompson Peak Initiative is part of LFSC’s program to identify and thin forests with high hazardous fuel loads. The TPI was formed in June 2019 to plan and execute a comprehensive fuel treatment project to protect Janesville, Milford and the adjacent Plumas National Forest.

Jerry Vice, owner of High Sierra Fire, said the pile burning project could be complete within two weeks.

“Some of the area is at a higher elevation where there is a lot of snow,” Vice said. “We hope it melts off and we can get in there and finish it before fire season. Generally, on good days, we can crank out 20 or 30 acres a day.”

Residents may see smoke from early morning, which subsides in mid-afternoon as the burning crews focus on monitoring activities.