VACAVILLE– Starting on June 11 and concluding on June 13, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and California Medical Facility (CMF) Fire Department will conduct a controlled burn and training exercise near CMF and California State Prison, Solano. The burn is a joint exercise with several state and local fire agencies.
Prescribed burns are a major part of the California ecosystem, allowing the elimination of hazardous fuel conditions that threaten homes, resources and wildlife. Re-introducing fire to the landscape not only provides fire safety to neighborhoods by creating breaks in vegetation and fuels but also helps native plant and wildlife species return to their natural environment. Prescribed burns also reduce the risk of uncontrolled wildfires in populated, rural and Wildland Urban Interface areas that could negatively impact communities.
This training burn is planned to mitigate a wildland fire hazard adjacent to two state institutions and thousands of local homes. The exercise will create a firebreak throughout the summer of 2025, lessening the threat of potential wildfires. A similar exercise was conducted in June 2020 and proved instrumental to ensuring safety and security of the institutions as the LNU Lightning Complex fire burned in Vacaville.
The prescribed burn project will also provide important training opportunities and allow local and mutual-aid partners statewide to earn certifications in wildland firefighting courses and firing operations, which can be a crucial operational need during a wildland fire incident. The planned burn will be conducted like a large-scale fire incident, allowing multiple agencies to train together, improving inter-agency communication, tactics and command operations.
In addition to the CMF Fire Department resources, a number of neighboring agencies and counties including multiple Solano County fire agencies, Winters Fire Department, South San Francisco Fire Department and San Ramon Valley Fire Department, are sending additional personnel and fire apparatus. It is with the participation of these agencies that we can conduct an operation of this size and provide valued training to fire personnel and increase safety precautions for the surrounding community we work in and serve.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 2, 2025
CONTACT OPEC: OPEC@cdcr.ca.gov