Officials Sanction Chaparral Burn Test

A disagreement between the South Coast Air Quality Management District and a group of agencies planning a large experimental chaparral fire in the Angeles National Forest was resolved Tuesday, district officials said.

The fire will be set no sooner than Monday, depending on weather conditions, said Capt. Scott Franklin, vegetation management coordinator for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

District staff members had been concerned that the fire was not a normal “vegetation management burn,” one that is designed to burn off dangerously high brush that might catch fire accidentally, said Cindy Simovich of the smog district’s legal staff.

If the primary purpose of the blaze was research and not management, then the U.S. Forest Service and its partners in the project would have been required to apply for a special variance, a process that could have delayed the fire, she said.

But, after discussions with representatives of some of the agencies planning the fire, she said, “we determined that the scope of the burn will not exceed the scope of a vegetation management burn.”

She said the county Fire Department, which will help the Forest Service set and control the blaze, agreed to meet conditions the district requested to ensure that there will be no adverse effects on air quality in the Los Angeles Basin.