Rain puts damper on CAL FIRE's prescribed burn in Sonoma County

SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- In the North Bay, fire season is far from over. On Monday, CAL FIRE crews conducted a large controlled burn inside Trione-Annadel State Park in Santa Rosa. It's way to clear dry brush and grasses ahead of fall and winter rains, but the elements threw firefighters a curveball.

Nearly 100 CAL FIRE crews were on the ground, lighting fires inside Trione-Annadel State Park.

The controlled or prescribed burn is a way to eliminate years of dry brush which could fuel a future wildfire on Bennett Ridge in Santa Rosa that burned in 2017.

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"This was part of the Nuns Fire, that decimated the subdivision to the west. So this was a project with California State Parks and CAL FIRE to create a buffer from that neighborhood and that future wildfire event," said CAL FIRE Chief, Ben Nicholls.

The plan, to burn up to 70 acres inside this huge state park.

"Ultimately, these places are fire dependent ecosystems, so bringing fire back in is part of our obligation," said Naftali Moed from California State Parks.

But the elements put a damper on things. The prescribed burn started strong but had to be called off early because grasses were too wet from overnight rains. Lit fires quickly fizzled out.

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"Unfortunately, that fall burning window is very fickle, so we went from offshore winds a couple of weeks ago to today, we can't get things to burn the way we need them to burn," Nicholls said.

Rain showers continued into the afternoon. Homeowners praised firefighters for their effort.

"For the prescribed burn, if it's keeping everyone safe that seems like a good thing," said Hilary Rragami.

Firefighters say they'll be back on Tuesday to try and burn again.