CA wildfires: Dixie Fire expands; Tamarack, evacuations update | The Sacramento Bee
FIRES
Inform. Inspire. Involve.
Dixie Fire Grows as Firefighters Brace for Windy, Dry Conditions
California's largest wildfire continued to grow Wednesday as thousands of firefighters prepared for a tough fight ahead with the anticipated return of dangerous weather.
A red flag warning was issued through Thursday across much of the northeastern part of the state (and throughout a large swath of the West) because of hot, bone-dry conditions with winds up to 40 mph. That could drive flames through timber, brush and grass, especially along the northern and northeastern sides of the vast Dixie Fire.
“I think we definitely have a few hard days ahead of us," said Shannon Prather with the U.S. Forest Service.
Firefighters were able to save homes and keep large stretches of the blaze at bay, but flames jumped perimeter lines in a few spots Tuesday, prompting additional evacuation orders for some 15,000 people, fire officials said.
Firefighters were still working to protect the small Northern California mountain community of Greenville as the 3-week-old fire grew to over 274,000 acres across Plumas and Butte counties.
Heat from the flames created a pyrocumulus cloud, a massive column of smoke that rose 30,000 feet in the air, said Mike Wink, a Cal Fire operations section chief.
The fire has threatened thousands of homes and destroyed 67 houses and other buildings since breaking out on July 14. It was 35% contained as of Wednesday morning.
About 150 miles to the west, the lightning-sparked McFarland Fire threatened remote homes along the Trinity River in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The fire was only 5% contained. It had already burned fiercely through more than 20,000 acres of drought-stricken vegetation.
Similar risky weather was expected across Southern California, where heat advisories and warnings were issued for interior valleys, mountains and deserts for much of the week.
Heat waves and historic drought have made wildfires harder to fight in the American West. Scientists say climate change has made the region much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to produce more extreme weather, sparking more frequent and destructive wildfires.
More than 21,000 firefighters and support personnel were battling 96 large fires covering 1.9 million acres across 14 states — including a massive brush fire on Hawaii's Big Island — the National Interagency Fire Center said.
Oregon’s Bootleg Fire, the nation’s largest at nearly 414,000 acres, was 84% contained, with firefighters busy mopping up hot spots and strengthening fire lines.
“Crews are working tirelessly to ensure we are as prepared as we can be for the extreme fire weather forecast for the next couple days," a U.S. Forest Service update said.
Wildfire updates: Dixie Fire explodes in size, crews prepare for ‘critical’ and ‘eventful’ day
The massive Dixie Fire exploded heading into Wednesday morning, expanding over 20,000 acres and causing officials to issue new evacuation orders as crews struggled to contain the fire.
And with a red flag warning set to come into effect at 1 p.m. Wednesday, officials do not expect the rapid growth to slow just yet.
“Yesterday was pretty eventful, but today might be even more eventful,” said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Josh Campbell in a Wednesday morning incident briefing.
In its morning incident report, the state fire agency said the fire encompassed 274,139 acres (428 square miles) — an area nine times the size of the city of San Francisco. Containment remained stagnant at 35% between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Rapid growth overnight propelled the blaze to become the 8th-largest in state history by acres burned.
Just under 5,000 firefighters are battling the fire, which ignited July 14 above the Cresta Dam in Feather River Canyon in the burn scar of the deadly 2018 Camp Creek fire. Crews are fighting the fire in two zones: the east, which is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, and the west, which is managed by Cal Fire.
In the Wednesday morning update, officials attributed the fire’s rapid growth to unstable weather conditions through the day Tuesday. High temperatures and low humidity allowed the fire to surge, while winds pushed the fire north past containment lines.
But weather conditions may prove to be even worse Wednesday and Thursday. A red flag warning comes into effect through Thursday at 8 p.m., and officials warned Wednesday morning of high level winds and low humidity that could create rapid expansion.
“All the fire danger today is maxed out ... this is all lining up against us,” said fire behavior analyst John Cook. “It will spot, it will run, it will torch … We’re not doing anything wrong, this is just a very, very bad situation.”
Officials issued new evacuation orders in Plumas County Tuesday evening as the north front of the fire expanded rapidly. The entirety of the town of Chester, the Lake Almanor peninsula and the whole northeast side of Indian Valley are now under evacuation orders.
The new orders add on to a series of evacuation orders and road closures already in place across Plumas County and northeast Butte County.
A total of 67 structures have been destroyed by the fire, and the Associated Press reported that the small town of Indian Falls accounted for more than half of those losses. Cal Fire estimated Wednesday morning that over 12,180 structures remain threatened by the fires — up 5,000 from the estimate Tuesday morning.
Officially, the fire’s cause remains under investigation. But Pacific Gas and Electric Co. disclosed shortly after the fire began that its equipment may have played a role in the wildfire’s ignition. On Monday, PG&E told public regulators that its equipment might also be to blame for the Fly Fire, which ignited east of the Dixie Fire on July 22 and later merged with the blaze.
TRINITY COUNTY WILDFIRES
Large thunderstorms last week sparked multiple blazes in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Of over eight blazes that began, two have grown to a significant size: the McFarland Fire and the Monument Fire.
The McFarland Fire ignited in Trinity County south of Highway 36 near Wildwood. The U.S. Forest Service said Wednesday morning the blaze was 20,005 acres and 5% contained.
The fire is burning on the border of Trinity and Shasta counties. Officials said that wind is creating “critical fire conditions” that could last through Friday morning, but added that crews could potentially slow the blaze with help from the August Complex Fire burn scar from 2020.
“The McFarland Fire is burning in very dry vegetation and has the potential to spread due to very active fire behavior,” said the U.S. Forest Service in a Wednesday morning incident briefing. “Firefighters are concerned with fire moving into tree canopies, uphill runs, rollout and long-range spotting.”
An evacuation order is in place for the town of Wildwood.
The Monument Fire, also burning in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest south of Del Loma, grew to 15,000 acres Wednesday morning with 0% containment.
The fire more than doubled in size from Tuesday to Wednesday morning after “burning actively through the night,” officials said in a Wednesday morning update. Crews have seen significant spotting from the fire, allowing the blaze to cross Trinity River and Highway 299 in multiple areas.
An evacuation order is in place for the areas of Big Bar, Del Loma and Cedar Flat.
Officials expect hot and dry weather patterns to fuel the fire’s expansion through at least Wednesday, but said that cooler temperatures could “potentially bring some relief” in the later half of the week.
TAMARACK FIRE
The Tamarack Fire, once a major threat responsible for the destruction of several structures in California and Nevada, appears to be under control.
The fire has charred 68,696 acres near Markleeville and over the Nevada state line as of Tuesday night. The fire expanded minimally over the last four days and crews bumped containment up to 82%.
The Tamarack Fire was sparked by lightning July 4 and remained small and mostly inactive for weeks as the Forest Service decided to let it burn in the remote Mokelumne Wilderness. By mid-July, winds whipped up the blaze, and it burned into Markleeville, eventually pushing east through Alpine County into Nevada.
Alpine County officials have confirmed that at least 15 structures were destroyed by the fire. In Douglas County, Nevada, preliminary surveys showed 13 structures damaged or destroyed south of Leviathan Mine Road.
No comments:
Post a Comment