Sept. 18 North Complex: UPDATE – good day on the fire
7 p.m. UPDATE: Despite the threat of winds today, excellent progress was made on the fire. It is now 54 percent contained, and perhaps even more importantly, the threat to communities has been reduced.
And with better weather forecast in the upcoming days, the mood was decidedly upbeat during tonight’s evening update. Containment has been strengthened to protect the communities of La Porte and Little Grass Valley, as well as Bucks Lake, Haskins, Tollgate and Meadow Valley.
Smoke that was visible today came mainly from interior burning, but tonight and tomorrow, firing operations will begin to tie in areas of the fire and reduce the threat of spot fires. An additional hot shot crew is arriving tomorrow to assist with the operation.
Original story: Another day on the fire and another day of Red Flag Warnings, with west to southwest winds of 15 to 25 mph expected all day, particularly this afternoon into evening.
This brings additional stress for firefighters who want to focus on keeping the fire within its perimeter and battling spot fires. With resources stretched very thin, they would need to abandon those efforts and move to fire protection — especially in the Bucks, Haskins, Tollgate and Meadow Valley areas — where all residents are under mandatory evacuation orders. (An evacuation center is set up at Springs of Hope Church at 59 Bell Lane in Quincy.)
Firefighters are facing not only the winds, but exhaustion as this fire and others across the state have passed the one month mark with containment still elusive.
As of this morning, the fire is reported to be 287,7181 acres and 41 percent contained. The death toll remains at 15 and the daily count of damaged and destroyed structures is now 1,201. (All of the deaths and all but one of the structures are in the West Zone.)
Overnight on the South Zone, slightly calmer weather helped firefighters gain depth on mop up and containment on hand lines. Crews continued constructing indirect hand line tying into the middle fork of the Feather River along Fingerboard Ridge.
On the North Zone, fire activity was fairly calm last night. Crews worked on containing the spot fires north of Red Mountain but there was no significant growth. Firefighters will continue to hold and mop-up in that area today, preventing threats to current containment lines and getting around slopovers.
In the western portion of the fire, crews held the fire in check and plan to continue preparing Oro-Quincy Highway from the Four Trees area to Big Bend. The West Zone can be defined by drawing a straight line from Big Bend (northwest portion of the fire) directly southeast to the Sly Creek Reservoir. For details on that portion of the fire go to CAL FIRE Team 4 updates.
As for other areas of the fire, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office released this notice last evening: We would like to take a moment and remind the residents of Quincy La Porte Road from Highway 70 to Red Bridge AND the residents on Highway 70 between the Butte/Plumas County Line and Belden (this includes Belden, Storrie and Tobin) that your area is still under an evacuation advisory.
The Plumas National Forest and all other California national forests remain temporarily closed. Pacific Southwest Regional Forester Randy Moore said that based on forecasted winds and the potential for new fire starts and spreading of the existing fires, he signed a new closure order to extend to Sept. 21, but the situation will continually be reassessed.
Video operational updates and live broadcasts for all portions of the fire can be viewed on Plumas National Forest’s Facebook page.
Air quality will remain unhealthy throughout the area.
For full evacuation lists go to:
- Butte County Sheriff’s Office: https://www.facebook.com/bcsonews
- Plumas County Sheriff’s Office: https://www.facebook.com/plumascountysheriff
- Yuba County Sheriff’s Office: https://www.facebook.com/yubacountysheriff
The Claremont Fire broke out Aug. 17 as the result of a lightning strike. It forced evacuations and threatened the communities of East Quincy, La Porte Road, the Highway 70 corridor, Spring Garden, Greenhorn, Cromberg and Sloat during the past weeks. Only one outbuilding has been lost during the fire.
The Bear Fire also broke out Aug. 17 following a lightning strike. Initially it was left to burn because it wasn’t immediately a threat to people or property; it was in steep, rugged terrain; and resources were scarce due to the fires burning across the state. So though it held at 50 acres for a while, it grew to over 12,000 acres and threatened the communities of Bucks Lake, Haskins Valley, Tollgate and Meadow Valley. An evacuation order remains in effect for all of those areas and structure protection remains in the area.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
