Oct. 17 North Complex Fire: Happy 2 month anniversary
It’s a momentous day for the North Complex Fire. Today marks it’s second month anniversary and Incident Command Team 4, which has led the effort twice, is turning the reins over to Incident Command Team 11.
Last night Jake Cagle, the systems operations chief who spawned quite a local following and a T-shirt fundraiser, gave his last briefing last night. He was joined by Baby Yoga, a cuddly being that has been making the rounds with fire crews thanks to a 5-year-old named Carver from Oregon who wanted to make sure the firefighters weren’t alone. In leaving, Cagle thanked the community again for the welcome his team has received, not once, but twice.
The new team has been watching the incident closely, was briefed in all areas of the incident, and is rested and prepared to work toward the goal of complete containment and suppression repair. This is the fifth deployment this summer for CIIMT-11.
Yesterday crews made progress on identifying and extinguishing hotspots, continued fire suppression repair, and patrolled the containment area to ensure that the wind event did not cause flareups. Today, crews are focused on all of these objectives and continued suppression repair. Key areas of concern are watershed, repair to damaged roads and culverts, and removal of weeds and brush piles.
All customers affected by Public Safety Power Shutoffs imposed by PG&E have had power restored. For more information on PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoffs, please see the website linked below.
Forest closures remain in effect and hazardous conditions still exist. The public is asked to stay out of forest closure areas, as interference with fire suppression could delay or impede firefighting efforts. Law enforcement will be patrolling the area.
Residents in the La Porte and Bucks Lake areas are asked to use caution as fire personnel are still working in the area. Drive carefully and watch for fire equipment.
Operational briefings will be posted to the Plumas National Forest Facebook Page every other day at www.facebook.com/USFSPlumas Team Planning meetings (daily at 6 p.m.) and will be available to watch via Zoom (https://usfs.zoomgov.com/j/1602646317).
