Adequate resources must be available to manage the fire, taking into consideration the reasonably foreseeable fuel, weather, and fire behavior conditions. Maintain certifications in your field office files, available for review. If you determine a prescribed fire to be out of prescription, you must implement the contingency plan immediately. If the contingency plan is not successful, treat the fire as an unwanted wildland fire. The next actions taken will be to achieve protection objectives, and we will determine this through implementation of a Wildland Fire Situation Analysis.
Visibility is a major consideration in smoke management.
Your planning for prescribed fire must include the potential for hazardous situations, including impaired visibility created by smoke both on and off our lands. All planning for prescribed fire must include consultation with appropriate State and local agencies. Your prescribed fire operations must comply with all State and local requirements. You must notify your cooperators when you ignite prescribed fires to ensure that you can quickly initiate and reinforce suppression actions if necessary. Local fire departments, qualified contractors or other cooperators can conduct prescribed fire operations on our lands.