Aug. 10: Dixie Fire is 25 percent contained this morning

As of this morning Aug. 10 the Dixie Fire is 487,764 acres and 25 percent contained. It’s cautiously optimistic news, as everyone probably remembers that the fire held at 35 percent for several days until it exploded Aug. 4-5.

The latest destroyed structure count is 890 with another 16,000-plus threatened.

According to this morning’s incident command update:

On the West Zone, the fire remained active overnight due to low humidity recovery. Heavy smoke settled in the area reducing visibility. Southwest winds will average 16 mph with a 10 percent cloud cover. Fire behavior will be wind driven with fire growth to the northeast. Crews will continue to concentrate on structure defense, mopping up areas of probable concern, strengthening existing control lines, and focusing on multiple contingency lines.

On the East Zone, crews experienced mild temperatures overnight with high relative humidity providing favorable conditions to continue reinforcing containment lines. At the Evans Peak and Buffalo Ranch area, firefighters were focused on suppression as fire behavior picked up from late afternoon. Smokey conditions returned in the early morning and limited visibility for crews.

Updates

Increasingly, the incident command for the Dixie Fire is relying on video updates that have been broadcast on Facebook, but there is briefing this morning at 9 a.m. that will be viewable on YouTube.

The nightly briefings will continue to be held at 7 p.m. and will alternate between focusing on the East Zone (odd days) and the West Zone (even days).

This fire continues to expand into more and more territory, making it difficult to obtain the site- specific information that Plumas County residents are craving. Plumas News is continuing to do its best to provide that data.

This story will be updated following this morning’s briefings from the unified command and the two zones.