Dixie fire becomes biggest in California

As the Dixie fire becomes the biggest wildfire of the year in California, new questions are raised about how authorities handled the Tamarack fire near the Nevada state border.

In one letter to Vicki Christiansen, head of the US Forest Service, Representative Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove) asked why the Tamarack fire burning in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest was placed under “watch status” for several days after its discovery.

“Why was this decision made? McClintock wrote. “What legal authority has authorized the [U.S. Forest Service] to allow this forest fire to burn instead of immediate total suppression? “

As of Friday morning, the Tamarack fire had reached 58,417 acres with just 4% containment, the Forest Service said.

Earlier this week, it swelled over the Nevada state border for the first time, and on Thursday afternoon sparked a 2,500-acre spot fire near Highway 395 which continues to grow.

In an update on the incident, Forest Service officials said the Tamarack fire started on July 4 after a lightning strike in the Mokelumne Desert “on a rocky ridge with scattered fuels and barriers natural to the spread of the fire, “and noted that there were several other high priority fires burning at the time.

On July 16, “high winds caused the fire to spread rapidly downstream,” the agency said, and “with this change in fire, resources were quickly dispatched to the site.”

More details on the fire management strategy are to come, US Forest Service spokeswoman Erica Hupp said, noting that teams currently remain focused on managing the significant growth of the fire and the protection of neighboring communities.

The fire caused evacuations for residents of Alpine County and Douglas County in Nevada. Evacuation warnings have also been issued in Lyon County, Nevada.

“Our intention is to keep you fully informed of fire activities and our suppression efforts as the incident progresses,” the Forest Service said.

Yet even as besieged crews battle the area’s fires, the Dixie blaze in Butte and Plumas counties continues to expand.

The blaze reached 142,940 acres on Friday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said, representing an overnight gain of about 30,000 acres. It is only 18% content, an official said. The blaze has now overtaken the largest blaze in the state, the fire at the 105,000-acre Beckwourth Complex, which is now almost fully contained.

Wind-blown embers from the Dixie fire also started a point fire, dubbed the Fly fire, which spread to 1,650 acres without containment, prompting additional evacuations.

At a community briefing Thursday night, Cal Fire deputy incident commander Chris Waters said the Dixie blaze was unlike anything he had experienced in more than two decades of fighting the fires .

“The fire behavior conditions we are facing right now are truly unprecedented, and at historic levels,” he said, noting that long-range point fires – some up to five miles – are “beyond what I have seen in my career.

Fuels, including dead and green vegetation, are at drought levels that are typically not seen until much later in the year, he said, and fire releases extreme amounts of energy under the form of gigantic columns of smoke and pyrocumulonimbus clouds.

Conditions will worsen this weekend, according to Julia Ruthford, meteorologist at the Dixie fire.

Humidity levels hovering above the blaze are already in single digits, with wind gusts along the region’s highest peaks reaching 40 mph.

“Over the past week we have seen a very critical combination of different elements of fire occur, and this trend continues,” said Ruthford. “Unfortunately, this critical pattern will continue and worsen over the next few days.”

Firefighters will face even drier conditions this weekend as temperatures rise by at least five degrees, Ruthford said, noting unstable conditions will also allow columns of smoke to grow even more as the gusty winds rise advance Friday and Saturday.

“I would really love to have better news to tell you, something good to put in the forecast,” she said, “but it looks like we’re really going to be looking at the next three very critical days ahead.”

Evacuation orders and warnings related to the Dixie and Fly fires have been issued in much of Butte and Plumas counties. The affected areas can be viewed here.

Animals at the Plumas County Animal Shelter on Mill Creek Road will need to be picked up if the East Quincy evacuation warning becomes mandatory, officials said on Friday.

The Tehama County Sheriff’s Office also issued evacuation warnings for areas on the way to the fire.

And although the Dixie fire has become the biggest fire of the year in California to date, it is not even half the size of the massive Bootleg fire in Oregon, which s is expanded Friday to more than 400,000 acres.

The lightning blaze – currently the largest blaze in the United States – ignited on July 6.

In the weeks that followed, he cut power lines, nearly derailing California’s power grid and sending smoke across much of the continent.

The Bootleg fire was 40 percent contained on Friday.