UPDATE, 3:56 p.m.: Mark Distefano of the Humboldt Redwood Company tells us that the fires up in the Greenwood Heights/Freshwater are theirs. Looks quite dramatic, but Distefano assures us that the fires are under control and behaving as expected.

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UPDATE, 3:33 p.m.: Sorry — took a while for it to dawn on us that there is in fact another burn underway closer to home, in the hills above Eureka.

We don’t have any information about that one, unfortunately, and for some reason we couldn’t get through to the usually on-it folks at the North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District, who would know. Maybe they’re swamped with other calls at the moment.

In any case, we’re seeing if we can get closer to figure out what’s going on. Bear with us.

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We get lots of press releases for controlled burns this time of year, but people are reporting that this one is very visible north of Arcata. No emergency!

Press release from Green Diamond, sent this morning:

Weather conditions permitting, Green Diamond Resource Company plans to conduct prescribed burning for fuel hazard reduction near Big Lagoon, today, November 29th. Burning operations are implemented in coordination with CAL FIRE and the North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District.  Please note that smoke may be visible in surrounding areas, including Highway 101, while prescribed burning activities are being conducted.  Green Diamond staff will be on site monitoring prescribed burning and fuels reduction operations.