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As the Dixie Fire in Butte County grows, the Sugar Fire in the Plumas National Forest north of Sacramento has become the first 100,000-acre fire in California this year.
The lightning-triggered Sugar fire ignited on July 2 and quickly gained momentum as crews battled extreme temperatures and strong gusts of wind.
In the days that followed, occasional fires and outbreaks made it difficult for firefighters to gain a foothold in the blaze, officials said. At one point, it grew at such a speed that its enormous cloud of smoke, ash and heat generated its own lightning bolt.
As of Friday night, the Sugar fire had reached 105,163 acres and was 70% contained.
In a morning briefing, U.S. Forest Service operations section chief Jake Cagle said the 100,000-acre “mega-fire” milestone was no longer uncommon in California, which has had a record wildfire season in 2020 and is already exceeding those numbers this year.
“These are the new standards now,” Cagle said. “We used to say ‘unprecedented and historic’. We are past that now.
While much of Sugar’s fire footprint has been contained, part of its western perimeter near Ross Canyon continues to present challenges for the team, according to Cagle.
He said crews started removing surface fuels from the area on Friday, but the terrain was “extremely steep and rugged”.
The Sugar Fire was one of two lightning-triggered fires in the forest around the same time that together have been dubbed the Beckwourth Complex Fire. The second blaze, the Dotta Fire, began on June 30 and was 99% contained on 594 acres by Friday.
Together they burned 105,757 acres.
Fire Incident spokeswoman Phyllis Ashmead said recent heatwaves and the ongoing drought in California saw the Sugar Blaze become the first to achieve “mega-status.” fire ”this year.
“It’s mainly the dry fuels that we have and the low humidity levels that really create these fires,” she said, noting that this type of fire behavior is usually only seen in August or in August. September.
“It’s extremely dynamic. … And it’s not just here, it’s in many areas. It’s the same conditions all over California, ”she said.
The burgeoning Dixie fire, which more than tripled Thursday night, is also of concern to 7,947 acres. By Friday night, it had grown by nearly 1,000 acres.
The fire broke out on Wednesday morning and was 9% contained on Friday evening, according to the California Department of Forests and Fire Protection.
The fire is burning in the scar of the 2018 camp blaze, but is moving north, away from populated areas, incident spokesperson Kimberly McGuire said. No house or structure is currently under threat.
McGuire said high winds on Thursday propelled substantial growth in the blaze. The region experienced high winds again on Friday and lightning is expected on Sunday and Monday.
“We have a lot of dry fuel, and this wind is really damaging the situation right now,” she said.
Locals said the proximity of the wildfire to the campfire fueled recalls of the devastating blaze, which killed more than 85 people and reduced the town of Paradise to ashes.
McGuire said Cal Fire officials are working hard to “reassure them that we are doing our best, and from now on we are really confident and positive that we are able to keep the fire away from the community of. Paradise “.
Firefighters are even using some of the containment lines from the 2018 blaze in the fight against the Dixie blaze, she said, helping to create a protective barrier for residents.
Mandatory evacuations for the High Lake area and the Butte-Plumas County line from Rock Creek to Tobin remained in place on Friday, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said.
Evacuation warnings are also in effect from eastern Tobin to Caribou.
Although teams are making progress on the Sugar and Dixie fires, conditions in California remain so conducive to ignition that the National Interagency Fire Center’s multi-agency coordination group this week raised the National Readiness Level to 5. – the highest level of forest fire activity.
The move was prompted by significant fire activity in many areas, the NIFC said in a statement.
“Given the persistent hot and dry weather, increasing initial attacks and large fires in the western United States, the decision to upgrade to PL 5 illustrates the complexity that fire managers face in ensuring that adequate firefighting resources are available for the protection of our nation’s life, property and natural resources, ”the group said.
This is the first such designation in 10 years. In 2002, readiness level 5 was set for June 21, and in 2008 it was set for July 1, according to the agency.
Cagle said the 100,000-acre milestone of the Sugar fire will likely be repeated this year, and noted that the North Complex fire in 2020 had covered 218,000 acres in about six hours.
On Friday night, the Bootleg fire in Oregon’s Fremont-Winema National Forest exceeded 241,000 acres and was only 7% contained, according to the US Forest Service.
Last year, California’s very first million-acre fire, the August complex, also spread to several counties and sent huge amounts of smoke and ash into the skies.
“This is what we’re going to continue to see until there is some kind of significant change in our weather or we come out of the drought,” Cagle said of the fire’s growth. by Sugar. “This is what we are seeing. This is what every fire sees.
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