VIDEO: Images from 2020’s LNU Lightning Complex Fires are impossible to erase from the minds of those in communities affected by them.
Fires burned right up to Interstate 80, then jumped the highway – eventually causing deaths and widespread destruction. So in an effort to prevent history from repeating itself, and trying to make sure lightning doesn’t twice-strike the same land, fire crews are hoping their use of prescribed fire will serve as a means of preventing a catastrophic wildfire in the future.
Fire managers ordered a series of prescribed burns for a 106-acre site between Vacaville and Fairfield along Nelson Road where crews treated about five acres on Friday. They’ll do more prescribed burning in the same area through the end of May across another 100 acres.
“Through fuel reductions and prescribed burns and putting black acres on the ground, creating a buffer — an area to where fire can’t jump or burn across — is gonna be huge to help protect our communities,” said Cal Fire battalion chief Robert Wettstein.
