2020 Fire/Smoke Impact Reports

Questions and reports related to Sierra Nevada current and forecast conditions, as well as general precautions and safety information. Trail conditions, fire/smoke reports, mosquito reports, weather and snow conditions, stream crossing information, and more.
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maverick
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Creek Fire 9/7 Evacuation

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Fresno Co Sheriffs Dept:
On Monday, a total of seven Fresno County Sheriff’s deputies and three Fresno Police officers travelled to Florence Lake, Edison Lake and Mono Hot Springs to help evacuate citizens in those areas. They ended up making contact with 142 people, who are a mixture of hikers and campers. The smoke conditions worsened, so everyone was forced to shelter in place. They made the decision to all gather in one central location, Edison Lake (Vermilion Valley Resort). At 3:00 am on Tuesday, the Air National Guard and NAS Lemoore sent in a Blackhawk helicopter and a Chinook helicopter. They made a total of eight trips to transport out the 142 citizens and 10 officers by 10:00 am. They were all taken to the Fresno Airport. The operation went smoothly and nobody suffered any injuries.


Crews were also able to recover the body of a man who had passed away and fly him back to Fresno. On Sunday evening, an older gentleman arrived at Vermillion Store, located on Edison Road in Mono Hot Springs. The man collapsed due a medical episode. Life saving measures were taken, but he ended up passing away. Due to fire conditions in the surrounding area, EMS was not able to respond to the location, so plans are were made to fly the body out.


Our office would like to extend a special thank you to the staff members at Vermilion Valley Resort. Their hospitality was fantastic and made everyone’s stay very comfortable.
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9/7 Evac Video Footage

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Some video footage:
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Re: 2020 Fire/Smoke Impact Reports

Post by schmalz »

RIP to the person who died at VVR. I wonder if his death was caused in part by the smoke.
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Re: 2020 Fire/Smoke Impact Reports

Post by SSSdave »

Glad to see SEKI is also now forcing thru hikers out of the mountains since many may be obsessed with their objectives without adequate information about how serious current situations are.

Fire map at 5:30am this morning for the new Bear Fire in Butte County that is like many of the recent fires that have exploded. This fire has burned west all the way to the east shore of Oroville Reservoir. Just west of the reservoir is Oroville with many small mountain communities in danger to the west across the reservoir and southwest. Note the Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise was right on the other side of the Feather River. Like the Creek Fire, likely human caused. With a north airflow across the West Coast, we are now receiving a lot of higher atmosphere smoke from the recently burning large fires in Oregon and Washington.

The behaviors of these non-wind driven fires has been a bit different than those in the past that like the Camp Fire were wind driven. What we have now may be a result of two years with heavy precipitation, 2017 and 2019 with an average winter 2018 between building up a heavy amount of vegetation fuels, a dry 2020 winter where it was extra dry in February, a very dry June, and an extra hot August that has left it all super dry.

BearFire-map-090920.jpg
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Creek Fire Update 9/9

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SNF:
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Fork Fire In El Dorado NF 9/9

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Inciweb:
The Fork Fire in the Pacific Ranger District is now 2500 acres 0% containment and is spreading toward the 2014 King Fire burn scar in the Rubicon drainage on the Georgetown Ranger District.

The fire cause is under investigation. It began off Wentworth Springs Road, east of Gerle Creek and south of S. Creek Rd. Evacuations are in effect for Loon Lake, Gerle Creek and Rubicon Trail Area. Initial attack in progress. An incident management team is being mobilized.
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Tahoe NF Closed 9/9

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NTF:
Due to unprecedented and historic fire conditions throughout the state, the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region is announcing a temporary closure Order of an additional ten National Forests, meaning all eighteen National Forests in California are now closed.

ALL NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM ROADS, TRAILS, AND LANDS WITHIN THE TAHOE NATIONAL FOREST WILL BE CLOSED BEGINNING AT 5:00 PM ON SEPTEMBER 9, 2020.

Pursuant to 36 C.F.R. 261.50(e), the following persons are exempt from this Order:
•Persons with Forest Service Permit No. FS-7700-48 (Permit for Use of Roads, Trails, or Areas Restricted by Regulation or Order), specifically exempting them from this Order.
•Persons with a Forest Service non-special-use written authorization to conduct non-recreational activities, such as harvesting timber or forest products, or grazing livestock.
•Owners or lessees of land, to the extent necessary to access their land.
•Residents, to the extent necessary to access their residences.
•Persons engaged in a business, trade, or occupation are not exempt from the prohibitions listed above, but may use National Forest System roads to the extent necessary to carry out their business, trade, or occupation.

This Order is effective From 5:00 P.M. September 9, 2020 through September 14, 2020
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Humboldt-Toiyabe NF Closed 9/9

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HTNF:
Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest Temporarily Closes all Forest Lands in California

The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest will temporarily close all lands, including backcountry and wilderness areas, located in California on the Carson and Bridgeport Ranger Districts starting at 8 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10. All campgrounds (developed and dispersed), day use areas, trailheads, trails, and roads are closed to the public. No recreational activities will be allowed, including camping, hiking, hunting, fishing, or operating off-highway vehicles, etc.

“Although the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest is in the USDA Forest Service Intermountain Region, with this unprecedented fire situation we are aligning with the Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region’s closures for all National Forest System (NFS) lands in the state of California,” said Forest Supervisor Bill Dunkelberger. “The Pacific Southwest Region made this decision as a result of several explosive fires across the state and the historic fire danger, which has stretched fire responders to the limit.”

With the current fire activity across the west, fire resources are engaged in multiple incidents already and may not have the capacity to suppress new fire starts. With the combination of significant wind, extreme heat, and dry vegetation, any new fire will likely exhibit extreme behavior. This can create dangerous evacuation situations, especially for campers within the forest. The safety of the public and our firefighters remains our top priority, so it is important that the public follow these important closures for their safety, as well as the safety of our firefighters.

“We have also experienced this extreme type of fire behavior on the lightning-caused Slink Fire that has burned a total of 22,474 acres on the Carson and Bridgeport Ranger Districts west of Coleville, California,” added Dunkelberger.

This temporary emergency closure will be re-evaluated on Monday, Sept. 14, or as conditions change. People who are found guilty of violating this closure order could receive a maximum fine of $5,000 and/or six months in jail. In addition, anyone found responsible for starting a wildfire can be held civilly and criminally liable.

The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest thanks our partners and the public for their cooperation and understanding of this monumental fire threat. Fire officials would also like to remind visitors that the Nevada side of the Forest is in Stage 2 Fire Restrictions. NO campfires are allowed anywhere on the Forest, including within developed campgrounds, day use areas, and dispersed camping areas.

The one million-acre Bridgeport Ranger District has 375,721 acres in Mono County in California, while the 400,000-acre Carson Ranger District has a total of 270,260 acres in Alpine, Nevada, Lassen, and Sierra Counties in California.
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SQF Complex Fire 9/10 Update

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SNF:
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All California National Forest Have Been Temporarily Close

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USDA:

VALLEJO, Calif., September 9, 2020—Due to unprecedented and historic fire conditions throughout the state, the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region is announcing a temporary closure of an additional ten National Forests, meaning all eighteen National Forests in California are now closed. The closure of the additional ten forests will be effective at 5:00 pm today. These additional forests include the Eldorado National Forest, Klamath National Forest, Lassen National Forest, Mendocino National Forest, Modoc National Forest, Six Rivers National Forest, Plumas National Forest, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Tahoe National Forest, and Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. This decision will be re-evaluated daily as conditions change.

We had closed eight National Forests on Monday evening, Sept. 7, 2020. Explosive growth of fires throughout California during the day and late evening of Sept. 8th led to this updated decision.

“The number of large fires and extreme fire behavior we are seeing across the State is historic," said Regional Forester Randy Moore. "These temporary closures are necessary to protect the public and our firefighters, and we will keep them in place until conditions improve and we are confident that National Forest visitors can recreate safely. I ask all Californians and visitors to take these closures and evacuations seriously for their own safety and to allow our firefighters to focus on the mission of safely suppressing these fires."

The Forest Service thanks our partners and the public for their cooperation and understanding of this monumental fire threat. It is critical that all Californians and national forest visitors follow these important closures and restrictions for their own safety and the safety of our firefighters. Citizens with specific questions within their area may call their local forests for more information.

The Forest Service manages 18 National Forests in the Pacific Southwest Region, which encompasses over 20 million acres across California, and assists forest landowners in California, Hawaii and the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands. National forests supply 50 percent of the water in California and form the watershed of most major aqueducts and more than 2,400 reservoirs throughout the state. For more information, visit www.fs.usda.gov/R5.
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I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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