The state Department of Forestry have scheduled a pair of prescribed burns near Flagstaff starting Thursday. Fire managers plan to burn 750 acres on the Observatory Burn, five miles west of Flagstaff and just west of the Naval Observatory and directly south of Interstate-40. Project managers will implement strategies to limit smoke impacts to I-40 and nearby communities, including Bellemont and neighborhoods within the Flagstaff-area. The project will be broken into multiple blocks and may take a few days to complete in an effort to reduce smoke impacts and mitigate the drifting and settling of smoke. Another burn will take place on the Crater Sinks Project, located southwest of Flagstaff and west of State Route 89A. Smoke from the 500-acre project could affect the highway and could settle into Oak Creek Canyon overnight. Both burns are expect to last past Thursday.