VIDEO: CAL FIRE crews are lighting off prescribed burns near the Coarsegold area, along Highway 41.
Crews starting near Road 200, down to Highway 145, continuing through Thursday, from Highway 145, all the way to the Madera canal.
The burns are meant to stop fire and save money, and hopefully, make this fire season less catastrophic.
As cars zoom by below, fire rages on the east side of Highway 41, at Road 406, south of Coarsegold.
CAL FIRE crews, tools in hand, turning an 11-mile stretch along the golden hillsides bright red, with flame.
104 acres.
"We produce a controlled environment with the fire, where we're capable of suppressing anytime if something changes, like weather or smoke direction into traffic," CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Shaun Fairbanks said.
Officials say, they see more than a dozen fires along the 41 each year.
Controlled burns used to be done in the past.
Now, the areas left are susceptible, sometimes, to human error.