Angel Island burn resumes Sept. 23, putting smoke back over the bay

Crews plan to resume the prescribed burn on Angel Island as early as Sept. 23, putting smoke back over the Tiburon Peninsula and much of the bay two weeks after they called off the same operation partway through.

California State Parks, Cal Fire and the Marin County Fire Department burned just 62 of the 260 acres targeted at Angel Island State Park after igniting Sept. 8, then canceled the rest of that week’s burning after talks with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The agencies now say they could keep burning through Sept. 24, depending on wildfire activity, what crews and equipment are free, the weather, how the smoke is predicted to move and how dry the fuel is, according to a joint news release from the Marin County Fire Department and State Parks.

Officials again asked residents not to call 911 to report smoke from the island.

The agencies expect smoke over much of the bay from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on burn days, and some may still be visible up to three days after ignitions. Officials urged anyone who smells smoke to limit the time they spend in it.

“We work closely with the Air Quality Management District, and we really look for those small windows that have the greatest ability to disperse the smoke in the least impactful manner,” Graham Groneman, a division chief with the Marin County Fire Department, said in the release.

The burn targets fuel loads in the island’s grasslands and coastal scrub and is paid for through Proposition 4, the climate bond voters approved in 2024. State Parks uses prescribed fire there on a rotation and burned vegetation piles on the island in late January.

“We were able to burn 62 acres on the island with the fuels reduction that we’ve accomplished, reducing the chance of a catastrophic fire on the island,” Sean Jerry, a division chief with Cal Fire’s Sonoma Lake Napa Unit, said in the release.

The park stays open on burn days, but portions of the Ida and Sunset trails and the park’s fire and perimeter roads will close during the burn and for one to three days afterward, and the summit of Mount Livermore will be off-limits on some burn days. Officials urged visitors to follow posted closures and directions from park staff and fire crews.