Posted on 06/05/2007 8:02:22 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. - Firefighters were trying to contain a wildfire that had burned about 2,400 acres of grass and brush in Sequoia National Forest and was spreading into wooded areas Monday.
Officials asked residents in a recreation area called Horse Meadow to evacuate their cabins and trailers after the Goldledge Fire inched about a mile away from the private property, said Geri Adams, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman.
"We're getting some really strong winds and the humidity is low, so the fire is really active," she said.
The fire started across the street from the Goldledge Campgrounds on Sunday, about 10 miles north of Kernville, she said.
"It was definitely caused by humans," Adams said, though she did not have more details.
Firefighters were still at zero containment Monday evening though they were able to keep the flames away from nearby Kern River Golden Trout Resort, she said.
The area where the wooded area where the fire spread was at 7,000 feet altitude and has a mix of different pine trees.
About 500 firefighters from Kern and Los Angeles counties, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service were helping the U.S. Forest Service with the fire, Adams said.
Report for Goldledge as of Jun 4, 2007
(Wildland Fire Incident)
http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/#
Thanks Norm. Somehow I missed that before leaving today.
There were a couple different fires in the area today.. could get real nasty ..
Wind-driven Sierra fire forces evacuations, closes highway
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20070605-1717-wst-sierrafire5thld-writethru.html
ASSOCIATED PRESS
5:17 p.m. June 5, 2007
COLEVILLE – Winds gusting up to 65 mph fanned a Sierra wildfire that forced the evacuation Tuesday of up to 200 people near the California-Nevada line and the closure of a 40-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 395.
With airtankers grounded in the sustained winds of 40 mph, the fire tripled in size from an estimated 200 acres to more than 600 acres along the Sierra’s eastern front by Tuesday evening, said Mark Struble, a spokesman for the Sierra Front Interagency Fire Dispatch Center.
About 50 homes in Mono County between Coleville and Walker were immediately threatened and another 150 structures were in the area of the fire burning primarily in grass, sagebrush and scrub pine about 45 miles south of Carson City, Nev., he said.
“It is growing. We don’t know exactly what direction it is heading,” Struble told The Associated Press.
“The winds are really swirling,” he said, adding that the forecast called for sustained winds of 20 to 35 mph with gusts to 55 mph overnight.
No damage to homes or injuries had been reported but the fire did burn over some equipment at a temporary firefighter camp behind Coleville High School, including a refrigerated storage until and several portable toilets, Struble said.
More than 225 firefighters were battling the fire along with at least 14 fire engines, three water tenders and a bulldozer, Struble said.
Local commanders put orders in for a Type I federal incident team that will bring hundreds more firefighters to the scene but that could take more than a day, he said.
Authorities evacuated the grade school and the high school in Coleville about 8 miles south of the Nevada line Tuesday morning as well as several neighborhoods with as many as 200 residents over a 5-mile stretch from Coleville south to the northwest edge of Walker.
“They have been safely evacuated,” Struble said.
The U.S. Post Office in Coleville was evacuated later in the day. The mail was safeguarded and alternative delivery plans were being made for Wednesday, he said.
In addition to fueling the fire, the high winds prevented any attack on the flames from the air.
“You can’t really put a safely loaded airtanker or helicopter up in wind gusts to 50 mph. And even if you could, the drop would go blowing off away from the flames. So all you really are doing is putting a crew at risk,” Struble said.
Walker is the town where a C-130A airtanker on contract to fight fires for the U.S. Forest Service crashed while attacking a blaze on June 17, 2002, killing all three crew members.
“It is actually very close to where that airtanker went down,” Struble said.
On the bright side, some rain was included in the forecast overnight.
“It would be nice if we could get some rain on it,” Struble said. “The fire jumped over Highway 395 and there are a lot of irrigated fields there so maybe that will help too.”
The California Highway Patrol closed U.S. Highway 395 just before noon from Holbrook Junction in Nevada at State Route 208 south to California State Route 182 in Bridgeport. It remained closed into the night.
The high winds rekindled the fire, named the Larson Fire, which had been smoldering since lightning started it on Friday near Coleville High School.
At Carson City, the winds gusting up to 33 mph forced the closure of a city street and left the sheriff’s office and courthouse without power for several hours when tree limbs broke off onto a power line.
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