Some East Bay folks saw smoke on the top of a nearby wildland and breathed a sigh of relief knowing that it was done to protect them.
KTVU was allowed to watch the project in progress and also spent time monitoring the progress of 35 major high-risk wildfire abatement projects going on state wide for the last eight months. Joint fire agencies used the cool, slightly windy day to do a prescribed, controlled burn in the Painted Rocks section of the John Muir Land Trust near Rheem, Moraga and Orinda.
"Today is training. So, we're not only honing our own skills, but we're getting our residents used to seeing a little bit of smoke in the air, rather than a lot," said Dennis Rein of the Moraga-Orinda Fire District.
The idea of rarely, if ever doing prescribed burns, has become unworkable and unsafe in our new era of wildfires.