From North Arm to Westwood and back again – saw some destroyed structures

Plumas News contributor Ken Donnell made a trip to North Arm in Indian Valley and then traveled to Westwood and back again checking out locations along the way. Here is a summation of what he saw.

At 3:30 p.m. Taylorsville was very quiet and he suspected that everyone who remained was patrolling fire lines. The fire was very active above Diamond Mountain Road as well as above North Arm Road. He also observed a large burn on the ridge above where Stampfli connects to North Valley Road.

He reported that most of the structures at the far end of North Arm, near Lights Creek Road survived, but approximately five structures did not.

Then he was off to Hamilton Branch where he reported all was quiet with no visible evidence of fire.

It was all quiet in Clear Creek as well, and firefighters at the fire station there reported that the fire was approximately 1 mile upslope on Little Dyer Mountain.

Donnell said that the fire remains very active approximately 5 miles south of Westwood on the north side of Dyer Mountain and Keddie Peak. Winds were light and blowing the fire toward Moonlight Valley Road and away from Westwood.

By 7:30 p.m. he completed a tour of Highway 147 from Canyon Dam through Hamilton Branch to Westwood and back and reported that all is quiet and strangely empty. The only sound is an occasional fire truck or water tender. He saw a lot of water trucks on Highway 147 just north of Canyon Dam, but did not see visible fire.

He said that there was a lot of dozer action near Westwood along Highway 36.

By 9 p.m. he was back at North Arm. “Of all the places I visited today, clearly the most volatile fires are happening in the North Arm valley. There are multiple fire fronts on both sides of the valley, and each has multiple hot zones. Plus there are random hotspots all over both ridges. There was also active fire all along the south side of Keddie Ridge.”