San Benito County residents made good on ther burn permits
Wednesday morning, sending about 20 columns of smoke into the
atmosphere and causing alarm for some residents.
San Benito County residents made good on ther burn permits Wednesday morning, sending about 20 columns of smoke into the atmosphere and causing alarm for some residents.
“We’ve been getting calls all morning asking if there is a fire,” said Capt. Rick Wadsworth of the California Department of Forestry in Hollister.
Since the CDF declared an end to fire season Nov. 11, it has issued nearly 100 burn permits, Wadsworth said.
“It’s very smoky out there,” he said.
A hazy smoke lingered over downtown Hollister late Wednesday morning, permeating local businesses with whiffs of smoldering fires in the distance.
“The smoke is just laying around,” said Wadsworth, explaining why the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District sent a notice to CDF to stop the burns as of noon Wednesday.
“They’re very late sending out the notice,” he said. “Nobody is going to know they have to stop burning because people call once to the air board to see if they can burn that day. Nobody is going to call back.”
The MBUAPCD also expected the CDF to enforce the stop-burn notice, but Wadsworth said that was the air board’s job.
