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El Dorado County Supervisor for District 2 Ray Nutting got a visit from half-a-dozen Calfire engines, a bulldozer, two water tenders and nearly 50 inmates from Growlersburg Monday afternoon. Responding to 911 calls both from the neighborhood and from Nutting’s ranch in the remote south county, Calfire spent several hours trying to control about 5 acres of burning brush, small trees and debris.
Calfire public information officer Teri Mizuhara described the incident as an “escaped controlled burn” that “kept crews pretty busy” throughout the day. Noting that the first call came in at 12:53 from Sierra Springs, Mizuhara said fire equipment was dispatched from the Camino Calfire command center at 12:55 and Growlersburg hand-crews were alerted immediately. Another call came in from Nutting’s property at 1:08 p.m. she said, explaining that residents other than Nutting’s family live on the more than 600-acre ranch.
In addition to Calfire and Growlersburg, Mizuhara said personnel and equipment from El Dorado County Fire Protection District, Pioneer and Diamond Springs Fire also responded. She explained that each of three hand crews is made up of about 15 inmate firefighters.
Nutting was quick to respond to the Mountain Democrat’s request for information and comment Tuesday afternoon after editors received emails from concerned citizens asking for follow-up information about the incident. The supervisor, now serving in his fourth elected term, represents much of the rural area of the county. He has traditionally advocated for an aggressive, countywide effort to reduce forest fuels that contribute to catastrophic wildfire and explained that he and his sons had been raking, piling and burning pine needles, leaves and other debris over the course of several days.
“The boys and I were doing fuels reduction when the wind came up. It caused a flash fire that went straight up the hill from the house. It’s a steep, steep slope that faces south and gets sun all day and had dried out more than I thought,” Nutting explained, adding that while the underneath was still moist, the top layers were dry enough to burn. There was still snow on the ground in many areas of the property, and he described a “flash fire under such conditions as very rare.”
Nutting acknowledged that adding material to an existing burn pile on a “no-burn day” represented a technical violation. The burn pile had been active for three or four days and “theoretically, we were burning on a burn day,” he said. The addition of more material, causing the pile to reignite and eventually to consolidate with other piles constituted the violation.
Calfire’s Mizuhara explained that her agency does not issue citations for this kind of case during winter months and that the violation would come under the jurisdiction of the county’s Air Quality Management District.
“I made a mistake by putting material on a fire,” Nutting acknowledged. “I’m in violation and have to take a course in fire protection, and I’m already in touch with Dave (Johnston, air pollution control officer). It’s totally embarrassing, but they have to treat me like anyone else who burns on a no-burn day.”
He added that he has learned that in future there must be greater clearance when burning on a steep slope.
Dave Johnston replied to the Mountain Democrat by email Wednesday and explained his agency’s response to the infraction. He noted that there have been ” a lot of violations recently because there have been more no-burn days.” The state determines each day whether or not it will be a burn or no-burn day, he said.
Contact Chris Daley at 530-344-5063 or cdaley@mtdemocrat.net. Follow @CDaleyMtDemo.
But Ken nowhere in the article does it say anything about burning slag piles it says pineneedles and leaves. I’ve never seen a 4×4 burn pile of leaves last more than one day. Ray is a clown that gets away with everything. It’s got to stop sometime people have had enough
Cookie, I was a little late to check out the link to Hildabeast’s glasses speculative article. WHAT DOES IT MATTER, COOKIE??? I mean, really. Who gives a $hit what the Hildabeast wears? She is the next potus. Deal with it. Look forward to four years of conditioning. WHAT DOES IT MATTER!!!
Phil, that -45 degree in Kansas I mentioned. Wind chill -45. And, you’re right of course, Hillary will be our first women president so bad mouthing her glasses is meaningless (as in, what does it matter?).
James, Kirsten nailed it! I’m making my rounds of the grand children and great-grandchildren thanking them in advance for their future contributions to my well being. One of them told me a story of Eskimos sending the elderly adrift on ice bergs. Personally, I’d like something better. But I guess he who pays the piper calls the tune.
Ray says he wants to be treated like everyone else and then says he feels they sent too many people and equipment and he should not have to pay. Wonder what he would say if lives were lost or homes burnt and his neighbors were the first to go. His thoughts are what scare most and how he puts his spin on everything, quit lying and face the truth. No excuse for what he did and has done and continues to think he can get away with. Own it Ray
How appropriate, the village idiot Steers, who hunts with an AR-15, republican Central committee member and just all around BS wannabe wish I was in the military stay at home daddy coming to Ray Nuttings defense.
Have James E and Phil V been smokin weed or just plain looney? Oh, don’t tell me–they’ve gotta be friends of Steers and Nuttin.
Mr. GTownWhisler, how could you be so wrong. Me buddies with Steers and Nutting? Sorry, not so.
I do some back and forth with Phil because I think he is redeemable — I want him to come over from the dark side. And JeffPlacerville, Mr. Steers served in the military so he is not a wanna be military. He served and served honorably. He is however without question, a Republican!
Getting back to the original conversation – The residents who live within the three local fire protection districts should be contacting the board of directors for each of those districts to ask if they plan to bill Mr. Nutting for the cost of their agency’s response. And if not, why.
For those who live in the Pioneer District and just approved Measure F – an additional property assessment -did you intend for the proceeds from Measure F to be used to fight fires on Nutting’s ranch – for free. Don’t forget that it was Nutting who strongly recommended that the Pioneer Fire Board run an effort to seek that benefit assessment and that they use his own campaign consulting team of Dellinger and Alarcon to run the campaign. The DA did file a civil complaint against Dellinger and Alarcon for their misuse of Pioneer District funds on campaign efforts. Just seems like every time you turn around, Ray is backing, working on, somehow involved in the more questionable issues in this county. His fingerprints are everywhere.
We should all be asking the districts that responded exactly what it cost each of them to respond that day.
I live in one of those districts and hope that they will bill Nutting for their time and services. I believe we all fully support the individual districts providing mutual aid to other districts within the county and throughout the region and state. Fire is devastating and no one wants to see one rage through a community or even one home. However, I now wonder what the coverage was like for the rest of the county while the three local districts and Cal Fire were at the nutting ranch. I am not questioning the need for these agencies to respond and, yes, other districts step in to cover but it goes without say that resources for the rest of the county were stretched thin. My point is more that through his ignorance, arrogance and pure lack of responsibility, he put the rest of this county at risk. He should be counting his lucky stars that there was not another major incident in the county at the same time that would have needed those same resources.
As far as the Air Pollution Control District, the Board of Supervisors also serves as the Board for the Air Quality District. It is the Board of Supervisors/Air Quality Board that appoints the Air Pollution Control Officer, Dave Johnson, the man tasked with determining the fine, if any, that Nutting will receive.
As a member of both Boards, for what 16 – 17 yrs now, he knows the rules and again as with everything else opts to believe he is above them.
For as long as most have know him he makes a point to talk about timber, resource management and efforts to prevent catastrophic wildfire – guess he thinks he is even above his own rules.
Colonel, GTown Whistler must be a simple black/white, left/right, evil/good, dumb/smart, sour/sweet liberal/conservative kinda dude. HEY WHISTLER! The real world is a little more complex and nuanced. The Colonel shows potential. Can’t we all just get along?
Look out Ray that fire tax stuff has come back to haunt you, Dan and Chris, I’ll bet that you will have to testify and then tell them how many times they had to put out those “out of control burns” at your place.
Just what has been covered up and all about your visit to Garden Valley Fire to pull the same tax there.
Seems as if the past has come back and now it will be hard to explain it all away but we know you will try and it will make for some interesting reading/comment.
Ray, please just resign! Finally, for once, do the right thing. You talk big about timber and forest resources, but it just lookslike you are an arrogant doofus about how to really use them. You are mixed up in so many shady things and you just keep lying. You don’t give a rat’s you-know-what about your neighbors or constituents or even if one of our houses burns down because all the firefighters are repeatedly at your house because you are stupid. Please just do the right thing and don’t drag this county down any more. We have just seen too much of your lying and disregard to not believe that you are just dirty.
You get who and what you voted for at the ballot box, local, state and federal. MPG vs VIP Money-Power-Greed vs Values-Integrity-Principles.
My question is, what will Ray Nutting’s punishment be for letting his fire burn out of hand. It states clearly, when and IF you call that if your burn-project burns out of hand that you will be held liable. If nothing will be done to him for this, I would like to know why? So much so, that I would consider filing my own personal lawsuit against Mr. Nutting. I have no knowledge of who he is except for what I have read the past few days. I just want, for a change, the laws to APPLY to everyone. Not like the govenment does but as a local community like El Dorado County and it’s cities and town would do. By the way, GOOD for Sheriff D’Agustini. He and Joe Arpaio are the very BEST at what they believe and do. My name is Larry Velasco, AMERICAN
This is not Mr. Nutting’s first offense – nor his second. This had been going on for years. Regular people pay penalties but not for Mr. Nutting. County sweeps under the rug. Tonto is 100% correct. Look it up thourgh the public records act. You’ll be amazed.
And the beat goes on, now information is that another person has been injured on “Ray’s Ranch” requiring a trip to the ER and involves dringing and driving and crashing. How many more people have to be hurt before the authorities step in and do something, “Ray’s run a muck Ranch” needs to be exposed and all those who know should come forward to stop this before another death happens. His get out of jail card needs to be collected ASAP…..