SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After cool weather provided a brief respite early in the week for those fighting the Dixie fire, warmer temperatures and stronger winds roared the fire’s leading edge back to life Wednesday, sending smoke into the Sacramento Valley and continuing to threaten homes in Butte, Plumas and Tehama counties
Officials warned Wednesday that the weather changes could lead to “unstable” fire patterns through the week.
Although the cooler weather slowed the massive wildfire’s growth slightly, the fire still expanded by around 9,000 acres headed into Wednesday morning. In its Wednesday morning incident report, the state fire agency said the blaze encompassed 217,581 acres (340 square miles) and was 23% contained.
More than 5,300 firefighters are battling the blaze, which ignited July 14 above the Cresta Dam in Feather River Canyon, in the burn scar of the deadly 2018 Camp Creek fire. The fire is California’s largest so far this season, and California’s 14th-largest of all time by acreage.
“Don’t let this thing lull you into a false sense of security,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Merrick Fields told crews at the Wednesday morning briefing, addressing the change in the weather. “This fire is not going to be over and done with until it’s covered in a blanket of snow... There’s going to be resources committed to this long into the fire season, and it is not even August yet. So we’ve just got to keep our heads in the game.”
Northerly winds pushed smoke into the Sacramento Valley midday Wednesday, creating hazy and smoky conditions across the capital region and causing Sacramento County to issue an air quality alert.
Air quality monitors from the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Pollution Control District registered an AQI reading of 172 downtown just after noon, and a reading of 177 in Arden Arcade around 1 p.m.
Jamie Arno, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Pollution Control District, said that the thickness of the smoke from the fire came as a surprise for air quality experts. AQI levels spiked quite quickly just before noon as smoke rapidly blew into the area.
“While we did expect smoke from the Dixie fire to enter the region today, we didn’t expect it to be so dense,” Arno told The Bee. “... The best sensor and monitor for these things is your nose. When you smell smoke, it means you are breathing it, which is unhealthy, and you should go inside. So Sacramento residents should rely on their nose as well as on our air quality readings.”
Heller said the wind is expected to switch directions and the inversion should lift a bit into the afternoon, and most of the smoke should leave the area by late afternoon.
Arno added that the a Delta breeze should keep the smoke out of Sacramento at least through the weekend. Arno expects all smoke to be out of the area by Thursday morning.
According to Cal Fire’s Wednesday incident report, the Dixie fire has destroyed 54 structures so far. The Associated Press reported that 36 of those structures were in the Plumas County town of Indian Falls, population 53. The town was all but destroyed by the fire.
Over 10,720 structures were threatened by the fire as of Wednesday morning.
Numerous mandatory evacuation orders remain in place, including for the communities of Meadow Valley, Bucks Lake, Prattville, Big Meadows and Lake Almanor West in Plumas County; Butte Meadows, Jonesville, Philbrook and High Lakes in Butte County; and the area of Colby Creek in Tehama County.
Detailed information on evacuation zones spanned seven pages of Cal Fire’s incident report. Many roads are closed, including stretches of Highway 36, 70 and 89.
Officially, the fire’s cause remains under investigation by Cal Fire. But Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in a July 18 filing to state regulators said its equipment may have started the fire.
Cal Fire is battling the Dixie fire in unified command with Lassen National Forest.
TAMARACK FIRE
Firefighters appear to have turned the tide on the Tamarack fire, pushing containment up to 59% and keeping expansion minimal through the beginning of the week. The Tamarack Fire is burning in Alpine County and Douglas County, Nevada.
Rain early in the week helped crews push containment up beyond the 50% mark, allowing the California and Nevada governors to visit the fire site Wednesday and speak about containment efforts.
The Tamarack fire charred 68,393 acres as of Wednesday morning, after expanding just 200 acres the previous day.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak held a joint news conference in an area on the state line. Both leaders praised the collaboration between the states in managing the fire, but also called on the federal government to provide more resources.
“California and Nevada have long-standing partnerships that are well established,” Newsom said. “But inevitably there will be more of these (fires) over the course of many years. So this notion of interdependence ... is the spirit that unites all of us, and the spirit that defines also our urgent call for more federal support.”
“At the end of the day, the U.S. Forest Service is understaffed and under-resourced,” Newsom added. “It has been for years and years and years. ... You look at the federal pay for these men and women, it’s deplorable, it’s unacceptable.”
Both governors called on the federal government to raise the pay for those fighting fires, adding their voices to growing criticism of the way the U.S. Forest Service has handled wildfires this season.
The Tamarack Fire ignited by lightning in early July on U.S. Forest Service land and began to grow explosively in mid-July amid heavy winds. The U.S. Forest Service has faced criticism for originally leaving the small fire to burn itself out.
The Alpine County Sheriff’s Office lifted all mandatory evacuation orders Wednesday, and Douglas County did the same on Monday. Some areas of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest remain closed.
An interactive map from the Alpine County Sheriff’s Office shows that at least 15 buildings were destroyed within the county. Estimates for Douglas County have not yet been released.
OTHER CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES
▪ The Beckwourth Complex, which previously held the title of California’s largest wildfire so far this year, has remained stagnant for the last week.
The fire complex is now 98% contained and officials lifted all evacuation orders and warnings.
The larger of the two fires within the incident, the Sugar fire, flared and destroyed several homes in the town of Doyle in mid-July. The fire ultimately burned over 105,000 acres.
Like the Tamarack fire, lightning started the Beckwourth Complex in early July.
▪ The Lava fire, which raged in Shasta-Trinity National Forest in late June and early July, has remained at around 78% containment for nearly two weeks. The fire is burning in the rugged terrain near Mount Shasta, making it difficult for firefighters to access the fire to mop up.
Despite the stagnant containment, the fire has expanded minimally over the past two weeks. The only minor expansion occurred in wilderness areas near Mount Shasta.
The fire flared at the beginning of the month, forcing evacuations for thousands of Siskiyou County residents. The fire also burned through thousands of acres of marijuana farms run by the local Hmong population.
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