BLACK HILLS, S.D. (KELO) –The U.S. Forest Service is out in the Black Hills for a prescribed burn.
The weather conditions today were favorable for the hazardous fuels reduction work.
This prescribed burn has a holding crew with fire engines communicating with those in the burn on where to move and cover.
“And then the firing crew there’s also a person in charge of that. And they’re kind of broken out lighting that fires in a pattern that allows us to kind of maintain the fire behavior that we want to meet those objectives that we’re trying to accomplish for the burn.” Fire Management Officer Tom Roerick said.
Some of these precautions that determine burns include moisture, the weather, pine regeneration and more.
This prescribed burn will feature around 25 wildland firefighters that are working together to manage the lines and slowly burn through roughly 30 acres. This prescribed burn is taking place off of Victoria Lake Road which is just nearby the McGee Fire that took place back in December.
These fires help clean up areas impacted by previous fires and can help slow down any future blazes.
“A couple different things we’re trying to accomplish. You know, we’re trying to reduce that hazardous fuel loading so that when we do have wildfires out in this area, whether that be human caused or lightning caused. We’ve got the capability on the ground with reduced fuel loading to be able to pick up those wildfires a lot easier.” Roerick said.
Crews will continue to work on this prescribed burn and manage it over the next few days.
