PINE MOUNTAIN (Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011, 10 a.m.)—Captain Gary Killian of Pine Mountain Fire Station #58 said that fire crews are being dropped by helicopter along ridges southwest of Pine Mountain today. They are continuing with the prescribed burns in fire break areas.

"Everything is so wet that it is a little slow to burn," Killian said, "but we have to get started with the project to be finished before fire season starts again."

He said the crews are being dropped in by helicopter this morning and they will walk out, near Apache Saddle, sometime this afternoon.

Each year, piles of debris from cleared fire breaks are stacked up during fire season and left until they can be safely burned following seasonal snows. When the rainfall and snow have moistened surrounding vegetation it is safer to conduct a "prescribed burn." Burning the debris piles is expected to continue through January and into February.

This is part of the January 14, 2011 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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