Incident Overview
Image options: [ Today’s Update:
Firefighters fully engaged the fire today as the relative humidity dropped and afternoon winds increased fire activity testing their containment lines. Intensified fire activity along the west flank of the fire prompted the use of air tankers to drop retardant in an effort to restrain the fire within existing containment lines. Helicopters were also called upon to cool flare-ups near containment line in an effort to prevent spotting across the lines.
Crews will continue to work through the night to hold the fire within the containment line, and strengthen these containment lines by burning unburned fuels next to them. Given today’s fire activity, firefighters will remain alert for any spotfires outside the containment lines; responding aggressively to any new spot fires.
Visitors are encouraged to use caution when travelling on Forest Road 11 to and from McCloud Reservoir due to heavy fire traffic, particularly over the holiday weekend.
Fire Behavior and Smoke:
Winds are expected to remain light this morning. The forecast calls for increasing winds from the southwest throughout the afternoon with gusts up to 20 mph along ridgetops. The winds will push smoke northeast of the fire area into communities including McCloud.
Public Safety:
Smoke will continue to pose health concerns. Local air quality conditions and forecasts are available at http://airnow.gov/index.cfm action=airnow.main. For smoke conditions in McCloud, visit the Forest Service real time smoke monitor site at http://tinyurl.com/92xqbzn. Residents are encouraged to visit the “Protect Yourself from Smoke” website for smoke protection information at http://www.cdc.gov/Features/Wildfires/.
In the interest of firefighter and public safety, the Shasta-Trinity National Forest has issued emergency closure areas. These closures will remain in place until the area is safe for the public. Please see the Forest Orders and closure maps on InciWeb (address above).
Community Meeting:
A community meeting was held tonight at McCloud Elemetery School, located at 332 Hamilton Way, McCloud, CA. Incident Management Team members from the Unified Command provided an update on firefighting efforts and answered questions.
Basic Information
| Incident Type | Wildfire |
|---|---|
| Cause | Lightning |
| Date of Origin | Saturday August 18th, 2012 approx. 10:07 AM |
| Location | 4 miles west of Big Bend, CA |
| Incident Commander | Mcgowan And Flores |
Current Situation
| Total Personnel | 1,875 |
|---|---|
| Size | 40,948 acres |
| Percent Contained | 30% |
| Estimated Containment Date | Saturday September 15th, 2012 approx. 12:00 AM |
| Fuels Involved | Timber litter and understory, brush and hardwood stands intermixed. Fire area has conifer, brush, hardwood stands, logging slash, and pine plantations. High live to dead ratio in brush exists and conifer stands have a heavy loading of dead/down material. |
| Fire Behavior | Smoke is expected to linger overhead a good portion of the day keeping humidities up and temperatures lower reducing some fire activity. As the smoke clears fire activity is expected to increase. Fire behavior included isolated torching, short range spotting, and surface fire spread could be possible. |
| Significant Events | Forest road closures remain in effect. |
Outlook
| Planned Actions | Crews will continue to patrol and secure direct and indirect containment line. Crews will also continue to improve existing containment line, and prep contingency lines, which includes the construction of contingency line along Bald Mountain Ridge to the McCloud River. Additional burnout operations will be conducted if conditions are favorable. |
|---|---|
| Growth Potential | Extreme |
| Terrain Difficulty | Extreme |
| Remarks | A 12-15 acre spot fire just east of Dutchman Peak was contained and mopped up yesterday. Total area burned includes 28,663 acres of Forest Service land and 12,248 acres of private land. |
Current Weather
| Wind Conditions | 2-5 mph SW |
|---|---|
| Temperature | 74-79 degrees |
| Humidity | 14-32% |
Filed under: my neck of the woods, Northern California, Shasta County, Wildfires Tagged: | Bagley Fire, Big Bend, McCloud, Siskiyou County, Wildfires
