Rick Gunn/Nevada Appeal A U.S. Forest Service firefighter holds a hose near one of the slash piles in a controlled burn west of the Lakeview Hills neighborhood Tuesday. The USFS is eliminating bitterbrush and Manzanita in a 25-acre area near the neighborhood in hopes of preventing catastrophic crown fires.
Western Nevada residents were humming "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" on Tuesday as agricultural burns blazed in Carson Valley and the U.S. Forest Service conducted controlled burns in Lakeview.
A large plume of smoke rose into the air in South Carson City prompting calls to the fire department.
The burn was just over the Douglas County line on property owned by Minden industrialist Don Bently.
Carson City Fire Marshal Stacey Giomi estimated emergency dispatchers received dozens of calls from residents reporting the smoke plume.
Agriculture burns typically occur all over Carson Valley on still days in the spring, when ranchers are clearing brush and weeds from their fields.
Ranch employees were burning on the Kirman Field along the Carson River. While the fire produced a large amount of smoke Tuesday morning, it was out by the afternoon.
U.S. Forest Service firefighters burned brush above the Lakeview subdivision, but few Carson residents noticed.
Frank Pemberton of the Forest Service said the agency only received a single call reporting the fire on Monday.
Pemberton said the Forest Service will continue to burn in Carson City until Friday or if weather makes it unsafe. He said the burning will be done by standards set by the Nevada Division of Environmental Quality, Washoe County Air Quality and the approved USFS burn plan.
A permit for open burning in Carson City may be obtained from the Carson City Fire Department's Web site at www.carson-city.nv.us/CCFD.
Carson residents must contact the fire department at least 24 hours before they intend to burn and obtain a permit number. They must call again for each day they plan to burn.
Giomi estimated there are about 200 burn permits authorized in Carson City every year.
He said agricultural burns must also obtain permits, but there are different rules.
Burning in Carson City starts on March 27 and ends on May 5.
Open burning for individuals begins in Carson Valley on Saturday, and will continue until June 6 or otherwise determined.
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