City Hall and all non-safety services will be closed to the public but available for appointments upon request from Monday, December 22, 2025, through Friday, January 2, 2026.

Prescribed Fire in San Rafael

Prescribed Pile Burn in Oak Woodland

Learn About Prescribed Fire

California’s landscapes are fire-adapted, meaning many native trees and plants are resilient to and in some cases depend on regular fire to remain healthy. In Marin County, ecosystems such as oak woodlands, redwood forests, and grasslands evolved over thousands of years alongside intentional burning practices led by Indigenous Peoples. These cultural fire practices helped maintain healthy, diverse landscapes and reduced the buildup of excess vegetation. As a result, many native species developed natural defenses and benefits from fire, including thick bark and fire-stimulated flowering, seed release, and regeneration.

Today, prescribed fire allows the San Rafael Fire Department and our partners to continue this proven land-management practice reducing hazardous fuel buildup, restoring ecosystem health, and helping protect our community from more frequent and intense wildfires.

Prescribed Fire: What Is It, Why It’s Used, and What to Expect

Different Types of Prescribed Fire

  • Broadcast burns which intentionally apply low-intensity fire across a large, predetermined area of land, mimicking natural fire patterns.
  • Pile burning, which is the intentional burning of concentrated piles of collected vegetation or “slash” from thinning wooded areas.
  • Burning with a “curtain burner,” that uses a powerful fan to blow a high-speed curtain of air across a fire, trapping smoke and sparks and creating a clean-burning, efficient combustion of wood and brush.

What are the Benefits of Prescribed Fire?

Restore ecosystem health:
Reintroduce fire as a natural ecological process to improve forest and grassland health. Managed fire helps recycle nutrients back into the soil, supports native plant regeneration, and creates a more diverse landscape that is better able to withstand drought, pests, and future wildfire.

Reduce invasive species and hazardous vegetation, including ladder fuels:
Remove invasive plants, dead vegetation, and excess growth that has accumulated over time. Reducing these “ladder fuels” helps prevent fire from moving from the ground into the tree canopy, where fires become more intense, harder to control, and more damaging to ecosystems and infrastructure.

Reduce wildfire risk, severity, and potential for spread to local communities:
Lower overall fuel loads to decrease the likelihood of extreme wildfire behavior. By reducing fire intensity and slowing the rate of spread, these treatments help create safer conditions for firefighters, improve opportunities for containment, and reduce the risk of wildfire impacting nearby neighborhoods and critical infrastructure.

Are Prescribed Fires Safe?

Prescribed burns require extensive planning that can take months or years. Before ignition, crews evaluate weather, vegetation, and air quality; survey for sensitive wildlife and rare plants; and prepare fire breaks, control lines, and safety zones. Burns are scheduled only when conditions allow smoke to disperse safely, and each project must be approved by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and local fire authorities.

On the day of the burn, conditions must meet the exact parameters of the approved prescription. A custom forecast from the National Weather Service and a small test fire confirm whether it is safe to proceed. Following ignition, fire personnel patrol the site for days or weeks to ensure the fire remains fully contained.

What Residents Should Expect:

You may see or smell smoke nearby. This is temporary. 

  • Stay informed by signing up for AlertMarin by visiting emergency.marincounty.gov and selecting “prescribed burns” alert group
  • Keeping windows and doors closed when possible. Visit AirNow.gov or our Smoke Ready page for current air quality conditions.
  • Limit outdoor activities, if you need to go outside you can wear an N95 if smoke is persistent.
  • Drive carefully as visibility may be reduced
  • Please do not call 911 unless you see fire outside the planned burn area
Close window