Two Fire Bans Take Effect Friday in Sierra County

DOWNIEVILLE — Two fire bans take effect Friday in Sierra County, one on national forest land and one on private property, and they reach different places for different reasons. Tahoe National Forest Stage 2 restrictions begin August 14 and run through October 31. Acting Forest Supervisor Matt Lane signed the orders Thursday in Nevada City, replacing the Stage 1 restrictions that had been in place since June 23.

On the forest, the practical change is that wood fires, campfires, and stove fires are prohibited except in a charcoal grill or fire ring provided at a developed recreation site maintained by a campground host. Loganville, Wild Plum, and Sardine are among the sites in the North Yuba country with those rings. Anywhere else, a wood fire is a violation.

A California campfire permit does not buy an exception, but it still allows a portable ring, stove, or lantern burning gas, kerosene, jellied petroleum, or pressurized liquid fuel, fitted with a shut-off valve and kept at least three feet from anything flammable. The orders also prohibit smoking outside a vehicle or a cleared area, running engines off designated roads and trails, welding or using an open-flame torch, and discharging a firearm anywhere except the Sierra Valley Shooting Range.

The second ban is the county’s, and it works automatically. Chapter 31.06 of the Sierra County Code is written to move in step with the Forest Service rather than wait for a separate local vote, and it takes hold the moment the Forest Service unit with the greatest presence in the county goes to Stage II.

The relevant section states, “Building, maintaining, attending, or using outdoor fires, including campfires, bonfires, pit fires, tiki torches, portable stoves, charcoal/wood-fueled barbeques or any other open flame fire, is hereby prohibited on all private lands within the unincorporated area of Sierra County and public lands within the unincorporated area of Sierra County which are not owned and/or controlled by state or federal governmental agencies whenever the U.S. Forest Service agency with the greatest presence in Sierra County enacts a ‘Stage II’ fire restriction order or when open flames are restricted in hosted campgrounds on Forest Service land during conditions of extreme fire hazard. This prohibition shall stay in effect until lifted by the U.S. Forest Service, or unless rescinded by the Board of Supervisors.”

Loyalton is the exception, and it is a jurisdictional one rather than a fire-danger one. Because county code reaches only unincorporated areas, it stops at the city limits. National forest land around Loyalton is still under the Tahoe Stage 2 orders.

The county code does leave room for cooking. Personal propane barbecues and smokers are allowed on a hard, noncombustible surface, clear of anything that could catch overhead or alongside, and the same terms apply to barbecues and smokers fueled by compressed wood chips that produce no open flame. Propane patio, umbrella, and heat-strip heaters and propane fire rings are permitted under the same conditions with monitoring, though torpedo heaters are not. A commercial or professional barbecue or smoker may be used with 30 feet cleared around it, continual supervision, a fire extinguisher on hand, and the fire fully out before the unit is moved.

A violation of the ordinance may be charged as a misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine, up to six months in county jail, or both, or as an infraction carrying a $500 fine.