Category Archives: Forest Fires

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.  — Shifting winds posed new challenges for firefighters battling a blaze in Southern California coastal mountains that threatened ranches and rural homes and kept a major highway shut down for days. The Alisal Fire charred more than 24 square miles of dense chaparral in the Santa Ynez Mountains west of Santa Barbara. Containment was just 5% Wednesday evening. While the scenic region along the Pacific shoreline is lightly populated, the blaze was a threat to more than 100 homes, ranches and other buildings, fire officials said, including a ranch once owned by Ronald and Nancy Reagan …A historic drought in the American West tied to climate change is making wildfires harder to fight. It has killed millions of trees in California alone. Scientists say climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

The Alisal Fire continued to wreak havoc on California’s Central Coast, ballooning to more than 13,000 acres by Tuesday night with 5 percent containment, according to Santa Barbara County fire officials.  Authorities had already shut down a major thoroughfare and ordered mandatory evacuations as powerful winds swept across the state and fueled the rapidly growing fire that erupted Monday afternoon in the Los Padres National Forest.  U.S. Highway 101, which stretches from California through Washington state, remained closed Tuesday near Santa Barbara. High winds fueled the fire overnight, helping it to jump all four lanes of the highway and spread to Tajiguas Beach.  Approximately 100 structures were threatened, federal officials said, which includes ranches and homes. Around 600 firefighting personnel were working to contain the blaze Tuesday, the U.S. Forest Service said.

The Haystack fire outside of Boulder grew to 17,009 acres Thursday, and is now 41% contained, officials said, as residents continue to move about in a town that sometimes is shrouded in smoke. The fire, caused by lightning July 31 near Haystack Mountain to the east of I-15 between Butte and Basin, now has 440 personnel assigned to it. Also helping are four helicopters, 13 engines and 13 other pieces of heavy equipment. Fire activity in the dead and down trees is expected to increase in the next two to three days, however no significant growth is anticipated, fire officials said. Full containment is expected by Oct. 31.

SILVERTHORNE, Colo. – Hundreds of people remain evacuated from their homes on Tuesday following a wildfire that started near Silverthorne on Monday. As of Tuesday afternoon, 183 are under the mandatory Summit County evacuation due to the Ptarmigan Fire. A new evacuation order was issued just before 11 a.m. for Upper Angler Mountain. …The U.S. Forest Service says the fire is between 80-100 acres after “unprecedented growth” of 40 acres overnight. Officials say it is growing north and east. There’s still no containment. The fire had grown rapidly in shifting winds overnight Monday. …It is burning in a heavy mixed forest of aspen, dead standing and downed lodgepole pine and spruce. “We also need to look at the safety of the firefighters that we’re putting on the ground and to send them up into that beetle kill timber is very dangerous,” said fire incident commander Eric White.

When the Dixie fire sparked in Plumas County on a warm afternoon in July, few could have known that it would morph into the monster it soon became. A downed tree, a blown power line fuse and a small ring of fire were all it took to create the second-largest wildfire in California history.  In the days and weeks after the fire began, it produced one ominous sign after another — generating its own lightning, burning clear across the Sierra and, most horrifically, reducing the town of Greenville to ashes.  Soon it was threatening to surpass the size of the August Complex of 2020, the largest wildfire in California history, which burned more than 1 million acres.  But after nearly two months of nonstop expansion, something shifted. Seemingly overnight, the weather grew more favorable, the fiery terrain leveled out, and crews were able to turn a corner on the massive blaze.

Island-based Coulson Aviation’s night-flying, high-tech helicopter fleet is being showcased on the CBS news program 60 Minutes tonight.  Its quick response force comes from partnering technology with custom operating procedures and the ability to drop many thousands of gallons of water and retardant in specific locations.  “It’s proven out everything we thought it could do, it can do and more,” said Wayne Coulson, chief executive of the Coulson Group of Companies.”  The company’s two C-47 Chinook helicopters in California have been equipped with computerized tanks capable of carrying 3,000 gallons each.  The fleet works during the day, too, but what’s uncommon is its ability to drop huge amounts of water or retardant in precise locations during the night when other aircraft are normally grounded.  “We are the only commercial operator in the world that runs at night,” said Coulson.

Evacuations were ordered Thursday in a Northern California community as a new wildfire spread, authorities said. The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office issued a mandatory evacuation order because of the Fawn Fire burning in the unincorporated Mountain Gate area north of the city of Redding at the far north end of the Central Valley. … The number of residents affected was not immediately known. … Some 2,000 structures were threatened. The fire has grown to nearly 2 square miles (5 square kilometers) since it started Wednesday afternoon and was just 5% contained. The fire was burning in heavy timber on steep, rugged terrain amid hot, dry and gusty conditions. Statewide, more than 9,000 firefighters remained assigned to 10 large, active wildfires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Officials are advising those in the Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley to limit their time outside as wildfire smoke and ash fills the air. Air quality remains a concern in California thanks to severe active wildfires and health experts are warning people to limit their time outside. Wildfires are also threatening California’s historic sequoia trees. Officials evacuated communities near Sequoia National Park as the Windy and KNP Complex fires got closer. On Wednesday, officials showed reporters how Sequoia National Park’s famous Giant Forest has been protected from the KNP Complex fire by years of using carefully set and controlled fires to burn away vegetation that can serve as wildfire fuel. …Statewide, more than 9,000 firefighters remained assigned to 10 large, active wildfires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

THREE RIVERS, California — Four famous giant sequoias were not harmed by a wildfire that reached the edge of Giant Forest in California’s Sequoia National Park, authorities said. The Four Guardsmen, a group of trees that form a natural entryway on the road to the forest, were successfully protected from the KNP Complex fire by the removal of nearby vegetation and by wrapping fire-resistant material around the bases of the trees, the firefighting management team said in a statement Sunday. The KNP Complex began as two lightning-sparked fires that eventually merged and has scorched more than 37 square miles (96 square kilometers) in the heart of sequoia country on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. …A large area of Northern California was under a red flag warning for extreme fire danger Monday due to dry offshore winds that can raise fire danger.

Weekend weather may help firefighters get a stronger handle on blazes burning in Northern California.  During the week, winds were mostly calm at lower elevations throughout the Sacramento Valley, but high mountain breezes fanned the Antelope Fire and River Complex of fires on Friday, according to the National Weather Service. That will likely change this weekend as light rains fall throughout the interior of Northern California.  Clean up efforts and containment continued on the Dixie Fire as evacuated people returned to their properties this week — including residents of Old Station in eastern Shasta County.  Thus far this year, more than 7,500 fires burned 2,295,662 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Four fires burning this month are among the 20 largest fires on record in California.

One of California’s most famous groves of giant sequoias is threatened by a small but intense wildfire burning in Sequoia National Park, officials said on Wednesday. The roughly 7,000-acre KNP fire complex is burning about a mile away from the Giant Forest, home to the largest tree on earth by volume, dubbed General Sherman, said Rebecca Paterson, with the National Park Service in Three Rivers. About 115 employees have been evacuated from the park, along with residents of the eastern part of the town. The park was closed on Tuesday as the fire began to threaten the Giant Forest, one of about 30 such groves and most visited, she said. The fires making up the complex grew significantly on Tuesday with zero containment… The complex, made of two blazes that are burning near each other, was started by lightning strikes. It is burning in steep canyons, fueled by dry timber and chaparral.

As crews continue to work to contain the massive Dixie Fire  and its rate of spread slows, residents of Old Station are being allowed to return home. The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday morning that the evacuation order for the mountain community has been reduced to a warning. The evacuation shelter in Burney will close at noon Tuesday, the sheriff’s office said. …The Dixie Fire exploded last week and made a run at Old Station, but firefighters were able to save the community. The blaze burned dangerously close to Old Station on Thursday, but officials have said that other fuel breaks closer to homes, contingency lines and retardant-dropping air tankers helped prevent the eastern Shasta County from burning. The wildfire is the second largest in state history and had burned 960,470 acres as of Tuesday morning. The fire was 75% contained.

TULARE COUNTY, Calif.  — The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office has issued more evacuation orders as the KNP Complex Fire continues to grow within the Sequoia National Park. Sheriff’s officials say residents living in the community of Sycamore must leave now as the wildfire poses an immediate threat to life and properties. …Fire officials said the Paradise Fire crossed across the Generals Highway and is inaccessible from the ground. Crews have been making water drops from the air to try to slow the spread. Meanwhile, firefighters on the ground were suppressing the Colony Fire, but dead trees are a significant safety concern, officials said. The Cabin Fire has been suppressed. 

A wildfire spreading rapidly in the Fremont-Winema National Forest has more than quadrupled its size in two days.  The Cougar Peak fire was discovered Tuesday afternoon about 15 miles northwest of Lakeview, a rural southern Oregon town and the Lake County seat. The blaze grew to about 20,000 acres by Wednesday night, according to the U.S. Forest Service’s Lakeview Ranger District.  Then, by Friday morning, it had grown to 83,339 acres.  The fire is completely uncontained, and its cause is under investigation.  Swaths of the county — from the national forest in the west to U.S. 395 in the east — remain under Level 3 “go now” evacuation orders. 

Multiple wildfires started by a recent lightning storm continued to grow in steep, difficult to reach areas of Sequoia National Park, the National Park Service said Sunday. The Paradise and Colony fires, which combined are being called the KNP Complex, have scorched more than 1,000 acres and fire crews have 0% containment on either blaze, according to the Park Service. Lightning struck several spots in the park on Thursday, officials said, starting multiple fires with the two largest of particular concern. …Voluntary evacuation warnings were issued for the Silver City and Cabin Cove area, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office announced. …“The KNP Complex Fire is still inside the National Park, but is spreading quickly,” the sheriff’s announcement stated. “There is a possibility that it will spread into these communities.” …Air crews have been able to drop water and retardant on both blazes. …Sequoia National Park could be closed in the coming days.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, California — A weather system affecting northwest California was expected to bring dry lightning and blustery winds through early Friday, unleashing a risk of new wildfires as thousands of firefighters have been making headway against existing blazes. A warning for dangerous fire weather took effect in much of fire-scarred Northern California Thursday afternoon and was expected to last through at least 11 a.m. Friday. “The combination of isolated dry lightning and gusty winds with the dry fuels will bring the potential for critical fire weather conditions,” the National Weather Service said. …The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Wednesday that firefighters were making significant progress against the flames in part because weather had improved. More than 14,600 firefighters were on the lines of 13 active, large wildfires in California on Thursday.

Wildfires burning throughout Northern California prompted new evacuations on Wednesday, including in communities in Siskiyou, Shasta and Trinity counties. This year, California fires burned more than 2 million acres, destroying more than 3,000 thousand structures in their paths. Their swift speeds and dry conditions prompted closures of almost every national forest, state wilderness areas and parks throughout the state. Most of the fires are concentrated in the northern part of the state, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. That includes the three of the largest blazes in the state’s history:

• The mammoth Dixie Fire, which at 922,507 acres is the second largest fire after last year’s August Complex.
• The Caldor Fire, which threatened South Lake Tahoe last week, remains the 15th largest.
• The Monument Fire burning in Trinity County is the 18th largest.

A new wildfire was burning and growing rapidly on the Fremont-Winema National Forest on Wednesday, about 15 miles northwest of Lakeview, a rural Oregon town and Lake County seat. The Cougar Peak fire was discovered about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday and had grown to approximately 20,000 acres by Wednesday night, according to the Lakeview Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service. The cause is under investigation. Officials say that the current fire behavior and record low dry fuels are making the Cougar Peak fire extremely resistant to control tactics and processes. The blaze was growing rapidly enough that Gov. Kate Brown invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act, putting the State Fire Marshal in charge of battling the fire. The fire is growing in mixed conifer and brush and is threatening lands protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry.