Dixie fire in northern California injures 4 firefighters as crews scramble to protect homes

Firefighters hope a break in time will help them gain the upper hand over the massive Dixie blaze in northern California, which as of Saturday destroyed at least 184 homes and commercial buildings and burned 446,723 acres.

Five people remained missing on Saturday afternoon, although family members of two of them contacted authorities to say they were fine, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office said. All but one were from the town of Greenville, which was decimated earlier this week.

Containment of the blaze, which was burning north of Sacramento, fell from 35% to 21%, but it was a result of the blaze growing, not firefighters losing ground, officials said . The blaze is the third largest in California history and the largest current wildfire in the United States

“Even though we had what would be considered very low growth in fires, we still added 13,000 acres to the size of the fire,” said Rick Carhart, public information officer at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “So that shows how massive this fire is. “

Four firefighters were injured when a tree branch fell on them around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, officials said. Three were treated and released, and one remained hospitalized in stable condition.

Fire activity slowed down on Friday and is expected to remain minimal on Saturday, said Edwin Zuniga, another information officer on the blaze. Forest fire burns in Plumas, Butte, Lassen and Tehama counties.

“At the moment we basically have a blanket of smoke covering the fire area, which protects us from direct sunlight,” he said.

While the smoke resulted in dismal air quality throughout the region, it helped suppress the activity of the fires by keeping temperatures low, humidity values ​​slightly higher, and wind speed slightly lower.

“The fire kind of went out,” said Scott Rowe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

Cooler temperatures also help keep the atmosphere more stable, meaning there is less opportunity for the fire to send out a large plume of ash and smoke that can generate its own weather conditions and create dangerous firefighting conditions, he said.

“This is good news for our firefighters on the ground,” Zuniga said. “This gives them the ability to be more direct and aggressive when building containment lines. “

At the same time, the smoke compromised visibility, limiting the use of firefighting planes, authorities said.

“It’s definitely a compromise,” Carhart said. “When we have cleaner air, planes can fly and do their job, but we also have the potential for these more extreme fire conditions.”

Winds were expected to pick up later on Saturday afternoon and then again on Sunday evening, gusting 15 to 25 mph, which could help remove smoke from parts of the Sacramento Valley, but could also displace the fire. Rowe said. It is also possible that the winds are locally stronger in the area of ​​the fire, he said.

The fire broke out on July 13 near a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. power plant in Feather River Canyon and could have been caused by a Douglas fir falling on a power line, PG&E said. The utility said its equipment could also be the cause of the Fly fire, which started nine days later and eventually merged with the Dixie fire, as well as a separate wildfire in Magalia. which was put out to a quarter acre on July 14.

Despite improving weather conditions, Dixie firefighting crews remained vigilant on Saturday. Given the size of the fire and the historically dry conditions, exacerbated by rising temperatures caused by man-made climate change, those responsible for the fires feared that embers could at any time cross the containment lines and ignite point fires rushing towards populated areas. This scenario unfolded Wednesday night when the fire destroyed Greenville more than three weeks after it started.

“The vegetation is extremely dry, extremely receptive to fire,” Zuniga said. “Any little spark can start a fire and make a race. “

Crown fires, in which flames cut through treetops – out of reach of firefighters – also posed a challenge, spewing embers and sometimes forcing crews to retreat and out before the blaze, he said. he declares.

Communities around Lake Almanor remained threatened, especially on the western shore, where fire was near. Fire crews were assigned to the northern end of the Lake Almanor peninsula, where they patrolled for embers and built emergency lines in case the blaze reached the area, Zuniga said.

They were aided by planes that fly over firefighting planes and use infrared cameras to detect point fires.

“They can spot hot spots that are outside of our containment lines that firefighters on the ground could never find if they weren’t directed to them,” Carhart said.

There were around 5,118 people affected by the blaze, up from more than 5,200 days previously, but authorities described this as a normal fluctuation made necessary by the blaze raging for nearly a month.

“What is basically happening is that some of these resources are coming home to do a staff swap, do a reset or get new members on the engines or crews, and get back to the fire,” Zuniga said.

The fire burned through all kinds of different terrain – from steep, wooded areas to brush and flatter meadows – with its towering size posing logistical hurdles. Friday’s blaze overtook the Bootleg blaze in Oregon to become the largest in the United States this year.

“Just trying to make the plans and get everyone to the right places is a huge job,” Carhart said. “I would say that’s the challenge right now, is to take this huge fire and smash it to pieces and get it under control as best we can.”

Time was running out, as the favorable weather conditions were not to last long. A warming trend is expected to start early in the week, with temperatures exceeding normal by the end of the week, Rowe said.

“It’s going to be hot and it’s going to be nice, and the wind is going to blow so we know that – that’s just life in Northern California,” Carhart said. “So while we have this favorable weather, we’re going to take advantage of it and do all we can to get as far ahead as possible before the weather turns against us.”

Meanwhile, a federal judge on Friday ordered PG&E to further explain its role in starting the Dixie and Fly fires.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who oversees public service criminal probation following an explosion in one of its gas lines that killed eight people in 2010, also ordered the utility to provide by August 16 a list of all fires started by his equipment. away this season.

In an earlier court case, PG&E described a series of delays and incidents that occurred within hours of recording a disruption along a distribution line and a power outage at the dam. Cresta on July 13. As a result, an employee did not reach the location of the faulty equipment and observe the flames until approximately 10 hours later.

In the file, PG&E provided the following account:

At 6:48 a.m., as the dam lost power, PG&E equipment registered a disturbance along a distribution line. The current levels have exceeded the tripping threshold of the line, but they were not high enough for it to be de-energized.

A roving operator was dispatched to the Cresta dam and confirmed the outage, but it is not clear if this employee checked the fuses.

The company’s control center then dispatched a disruptor. The field order was characterized as non-urgent, and it was first assigned to a troublemaker in the wrong service area before being reassigned to someone closer over an hour longer. late.

The troublemaker walked over to the roadblock, addressing another ticket he had received along the way. Using binoculars, he spotted what appeared to be a fuse hanging from a pole on the circuit in a remote area across the river. To get there, he had to take Hwy 70, cross the river, and walk up a long unpaved access road that he sometimes couldn’t drive more than 3 mph.

Two or three miles from his destination, the troublemaker encountered a Butte County road crew performing maintenance on the bridge, blocking the only way to enter. He returned about an hour and a half later, and although the bridge was still closed, the crew appeared to have completed their repairs, so he bypassed the closure sign.

The spoiler finally arrived at the pole at 4:40 p.m. and saw that two conductors had tripped, a tree was leaning against the line, and a 600 to 800 square foot fire was burning.

When he radioed the dispatchers for help, no one answered. Still, a PG&E worker heard the radio report and notified Cal Fire at 5:06 p.m., the utility said.

Not knowing if help was on the way, the troublemaker attempted to fight the blaze on his own, taking a fire extinguisher from his truck and sliding 60 to 80 meters to where they were. flames. After emptying the extinguisher and a second, he used a McLeod tool to attempt to dig a firebreak near the access road. At that time, he estimated that the fire had reached approximately 1,200 square feet.

The Cal Fire plane arrived around 5:30 p.m. and a four-person ground crew was on the scene at around 7 p.m., according to PG&E. His truck could not cross the closed bridge, so the troublemaker got there and transported them to the other side, the utility said.

Cal Fire would report later that evening that the fire had reached 10 to 15 acres.