Crews tackle tall grass as fire season heats up in Fresno County

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- If you've driven on immoderate highway, you've astir apt spotted gangly writer and weeds that could airs occurrence hazards.

Caltrans crews person stayed engaged mowing the gangly writer and removing weeds that person grown implicit the past fewer months.

"We are getting into it, and it takes astir 2 months to get done each the areas, and we are starting wrong of Fresno, and past we volition grow out," said Larry Johnson with Caltrans District 6.

Larry Johnson with Caltrans says crews person hundreds of miles to cleanable up the assemblage and support radical safe.

"We bash inquire for immoderate patience due to the fact that we person a batch of roads to cover, a batch of medians, a batch of embankments, truthful it takes time," said Johnson.

In 2024, the Fresno Fire Department responded to astir 1,500 vegetation fires.

The Fresno County Fire Department is conscionable arsenic engaged and appreciates the enactment underway due to the fact that it's 1 little imaginable aboriginal fire.

Gary Couch says they already person plentifulness to woody with.

"It's starting to prime up. So far, it's been 2 to 3 a day," said Gary Couch with the Fresno County Fire Department.

Couch says a grassfire tin commencement successful galore scenarios.

"It's going to beryllium a dragging chain, a blown tire, an accident, idiosyncratic pulled connected the broadside of the road, and erstwhile they accelerate, possibly it's a blistery exhaust, truthful galore antithetic things," said Couch.

Couch urges everyone to beryllium cautious and instrumentality precautions.

Grass and weeds alongside highways aren't their lone concern.

They besides privation radical to support their spot clean, leaving abstraction for firefighters to support their homes from flames.

"If they sojourn the Fresno County Fire webpage, connected there, they tin click connected the weed abatement page, and it tells them, if they person a spot of 5 acres, little oregon more, it tells them however to instrumentality attraction of their property," said Couch.

You person until the extremity of May to conscionable the Fresno County Weed Abatement Standards; aft that, you could look a fine.

If you spot an country with gangly writer that you consciousness is concerning, you tin email your interest to csr.dot.ca.gov and interaction Caltrans directly.