Sugar Fire nearly doubles in size and pushing east

Last night’s push of the Sugar Fire toward Lassen County is eerily similar to the Bear Fire’s descent on Butte County last year. Both fires originated in Plumas, but ultimately inflicted some of the heaviest tolls on its neighbors. Yesterday afternoon the Lassen County Sheriff began issuing evacuation warnings for residents in Lassen County and this morning the California Highway Patrol asked the public to check on the status of Highway 395 before traveling, as the fire continues to push east.

Last night during a community meeting, fire officials shared more details about the fire’s progress, which had spotted across Frenchman Lake. They revealed that some structures have been lost in the Carmen Road area, but couldn’t give particulars until assessment teams access the area. In response to questions about Frenchman Lake area cabins, Jake Cagle, the system operations chief and primary spokesperson, said that information would be provided as it became available, but he didn’t want to speak prematurely about any situations.

This is a fast moving fire and information is constantly changing. It’s also apparent that the incident command team is still learning the area and its road designations. Plumas Forest Supervisor Chris Carlton encouraged the public to get their information from the Incident Command team, and not listen to rumors. But that information sometimes is lagging. In response to a question as to why there was only one dozer assigned to the fire, Jake Cagle said there were several dozers on the fire and he didn’t know where that misinformation came from. It came from Incident Command’s own daily briefing sheet published and disseminated just that morning. This morning’s briefing sheet has updated that information to 11 dozers.

Latest information

Here are some other details: The Sugar Fire is now 23,855 acres and 11 percent contained. In better news, the Dotta Fire is 670 acres and 76 percent contained.

There are 27 crews, 14 helicopters, 61 engines, 7 water tenders and the aforementioned 11 dozers.

The Sugar fire experienced significant fire growth yesterday, nearly doubling in size. The fire remained active throughout the night, despite hopes to the contrary, and is progressing east toward Adam’s Peak where it crossed the escarpment west of Doyle. The fire is burning around Frenchman with numerous spot fires now on the east side. Strategic firing operations are being conducted for structure protection. The fire is also pushing north toward the Dixie Lookout. Firefighters worked to gain containment on the southwest and northwest edge of the fire near Sugar Loaf.

Today firefighters will assess and reevaluate strategies for containment focusing on the escarpment area west of 395 and structure protection. A new branch was established today along the Hwy 395 corridor near Constantia Road including BLM, CAL FIRE and local resources.