Staff Report
Santa Barbara County has new rules for burning debris piles, including a coming ban on all debris burning in Santa Ynez Valley townships.
Burning permits issued by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department fall into three categories: agricultural, hazard reduction, and residential backyard. Permitted pile burns are different from prescribed burns, which involve standing vegetation.
The changes, which apply to all areas served by the county Fire Department, include:
- Revised ignition times: 10 a.m. for all categories in the Santa Ynez Valley and for all residential burns countywide, and 7 a.m. for agricultural and hazard reduction outside of the Santa Ynez Valley
- Implementing No-Burn Township Areas where no permit burning will be allowed, based on county urban limit lines in areas where residential parcels of three acres or less are clustered.
Recreation fires will still be allowed. The Santa Ynez Valley township area will have a grace period of about a year for previous permit holders, with the change effective when the county Fire Department transitions to a winter preparedness level in winter 2019-20.
- Allowing separate “burn day” determinations for four Santa Barbara County burn zones
- Limiting pile sizes for residential back yard and hazard-reduction burns to 6 feet in diameter and 4 feet high.
- Launching a burn-permit information map showing active burn permits and township areas, with address-search capability
All types of burning are allowed only on permitted burn days as determined by the California Air Resources Board, county Fire Department, and Air Pollution Control District. Burn days are determined by the time of year and the weather.
Every day, the county Fire Department announces on a recorded phone line at 805-686-8177 whether burning is allowed for those with permits. The burn day designation is now also available at www.sbcfire.com/permit-burning/.
The county also encourages chipping and other alternatives to burning. Find more information at www.sbcfire.com/chipping.
For more information about the new rules, visit www.sbcfire.com/permit-burning/ or www.ourair.org/permit-burning.
