Pile burning is an effective way of disposing of brush and woody material around your property or home. Learning how to construct and prepare burn piles requires an understanding of weather, permit requirements and material placement within your pile.
Below are some frequently asked questions regarding pile burning and some helpful locations to search for and acquire the required permits.
If you live in a State Responsibility Area (SRA), defined as anywhere in Santa Clara County that is not within an incorporated City or Town, you are allowed to pile burn as long as you have a CAL FIRE Residential Burn permit and have an air quality burn permit from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD). State Responsible Areas (SRA) fall under the jurisdiction of CAL FIRE with regard to burning.
You can determine if you live in the SRA by visiting their website https://bof.fire.ca.gov/projects-and-programs/state-responsibility-area-viewer/
This site shows where Local Responsibility and State Responsibility Areas are located. If your home or property falls within the unincorporated State lands follow the instructions within this document to gain permitting. If you fall within the incorporated Local Areas contact your local Fire Department for more information.
Burn seasons vary from year to year depending on fire activity and rain fall amounts. Typically the local CAL FIRE Unit will determine when it is safe for residents to start burning on their property after winter rain fall amounts and fuel moistures start to rise. Typically, “Burn Season” is between November and May, however there are some years when burning is not allowed due to drought. The best way to find out if it is declared burn season is to check the status of your county at https://burnpermit.fire.ca.gov/current-burn-status. Click on Santa Clara County and it will tell you whether burning is currently allowed in the County.
To apply for a CAL FIRE Residential Burn Permit you can visit https://burnpermit.fire.ca.gov to fill one out. Remember that CAL FIRE Burn permits are only valid for the calendar year in which they are issued and must be reapplied for annually.
Santa Clara County is under the jurisdiction of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD). BAAQMD requires a permit for residential pile burning and charges a fee based on the amount of material you want to burn. You can visit their website at BAAQMD.gov and search for permits, air quality, burn day status.
When you build a pile for burning, it’s important to build it in a way that it will burn clean and efficient with minimal smoke production. Make sure you build your pile with dried “cured” materials. It is not recommended to burn wet or freshly cut material as that will not burn cleanly and will create a lot of smoke while consuming. Curing time for vegetation depends on size of the material and can take between 3 months for smaller diameter material in the 2-4 inch range to up to 6 months for larger diameter material in the 4-6 inch and larger range. Start building your pile with smaller diameter material at the base and then add larger material on top of the smaller material. This allows for a good base of heat to convect thru your pile. Build your pile as vertical as possible to allow for that convective heating. Make sure the center of you pile is covered with burn pile wax paper. If the center of the pile stays dry it will start even if it is rained on.
When constructing a residential burn pile it’s important to remain in the 4 ft by 4 ft size. 4 ft wide by 4 ft tall and spaced out by about 15 to 20 ft between piles if multiple piles are being built. Make sure you have at least 10 ft of ground clearance to bare soil around each pile. It’s also important to not build your pile directly under trees with overhang directly over your pile, this could create a way for the pile to escape into the tree or create heat damage to your overstory.
Build your pile on flat ground if possible. If you have to build on a slope make sure to increase your ground clearance on the uphill side to avoid escape. It is also recommended that if you dig a trench on the downhill side to catch any material that might “roll out” and potentially cause an unwanted fire.
Make sure to have a water source near by for extinguishment and always be in attendance while the pile or piles are burning
Do NOT burn treated wood, Poison Oak or trash.
If you have all appropriate permits and your piles are built with adequate clearance you can burn your piles on “Permissive Burn Days”. A Permissive burn day is declared by the BAAQMD when the atmosphere is clean enough and winds are strong enough to disperse your smoke. Burning is only allowed on permissive burn days. You can find out if your area of Santa Clara County is in a permissive burn day by going to BAAQMD.org and searching “Burn day status”. Burns are usually allowed between 9 am and 3 pm on burn days with full extinguishment by sunset. When extinguishing your burn piles douse the piles with water and stir with a hand-tool. Piles should be cold to the touch when completely extinguished.
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