Cal Fire piloting air curtain incinerator at Cobb Mountain
- Cal Fire
- Posted On
COBB, Calif. – Cal Fire has a fleet of 10 air curtain burners, originally deployed in the southern region of California by its tree mortality task force to address beetle kill.
Now, thanks to that arsenal being made available in the northern region, the Cobb Area Council secured grant funding from Lake County and Cal Fire for piloting and utilization of one Series 220 FireBox Burner in the Cobb Mountain area.
Air curtain burners, also called air curtain incinerators, are used to dispose of forest waste generated from fuels reduction projects in areas where the debris cannot be left on-site, and broadcast or pile burning is not an option.
“The curtain burners are very good at burning slash and brushy-type material, allowing the reduction of fuels on homeowners properties and increasing forest resiliency,” said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Brian York. “This project itself is a benefit for the community in the fact that not everyone is able to do fuels reduction burning on their property. This is a great way for them to have a location where they can drop off their materials to be consumed by the air curtain incinerator.”
The Cobb Mountain site is located at the cross of Highway 175 and Adams Springs Road.
Three, single-day, pilot test burns have been run at this site, most recently on Monday, Nov. 28.
The Cobb Forest Stewards, a subcommittee of the Cobb Area Council, and Seigler Springs Community Redevelopment Association are operating these trial runs of the air curtain burner. They have been approved and are supervised by Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit.
“As the kinks are worked out, we hope to see future sites developed within the Lake County area,” York said.
Made by Air Burners out of Palm City, Fla., these FireBox Burners self-contain a fire. An air curtain burner works by pushing high velocity air over the top of the burn chamber, creating a curtain of air which the rising smoke cannot penetrate.
The unburned particulates are pushed back down into the chamber where they reburn until
they are light enough to rise through the air curtain.
The air curtain reduces particulate matter, or smoke, which results from burning clean wood waste, to an acceptable limit per United States Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.
These burners add another tool in the effort to reduce forest fuel loading levels and help mitigate devastation from future catastrophic wildfires.
Cal Fire’s Humboldt-Del Norte Unit, in partnership with the Willow Creek Volunteer Fire Department, has also deployed an air curtain burner in the Willow Creek area. That project is open Nov. 17 to Dec. 31.
Another air curtain burner has been operated by the Butte Unit.
Future community access to the Cobb Mountain site will be announced at a later date.