Letter to the Editor: Why is this allowed to happen?

I’m a year-round resident of Lake Almanor. I’ve been through several large forest fires.
Two of the large contractors here have been given permits to burn huge piles of pine needles, tree branches, etc. They bring in many truck and trailer loads daily to burn on their property. The problem is that I and others live here and are heavily impacted by the smoke. During the inversion level period, every early morning, air quality is at zero for several hours it seems. There’s very little air to breathe because of the smoke. I phoned Peninsula Fire and was told to phone CalFire. I phoned CalFire and was told they can do nothing.
This burning has gone on for weeks already and won’t stop until all burn permits are pulled sometime in late June.
It seems that the need for these companies to make even more money outweighs the need for the residents to have good air quality.
How and why was this allowed to happen?

Peter Skeels
Lake Almanor