A 20-acre controlled burn, organized and executed by a collaboration of fire protection agencies, conservation organizations and the City of Sonoma, scorched the Montini Preserve directly above the Field of Dreams Monday morning, June 23. The burn drew a few dozen citizen observers, media members and Sonoma Mayor Patricia Farrar-Rivas.
Planned in meticulous detail and outlined in a 13-page Incident Action Plan, the burn engaged nearly a dozen fire trucks along with a small army of firefighters who both ignited a string of grass fires and then controlled the direction and intensity of the burn as the flames traveled down the west flank of the hillsides just above the City of Sonoma.
Organizers of the burn carefully calculated the weather conditions predicted for the morning, both to minimize the risk of winds driving the flames toward developed areas, and to reduce the amount of smoke that could drift into town.
Firefighters from the Sonoma Valley Fire District and Cal Fire did the hands-on fire control, while members of the Sonoma Ecology Center and the Sonoma Resource Conservation District participated in the planning.
Photos by David Bolling
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