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Located on Hazel Dell Road and Hidden Canyon, northwest of Watsonville (Santa Cruz). Started October 15, 2021 around 1440 hours PT. CAL FIRE – CZU is the lead fire management agency. Fire caused by the Estrada Ranch Prescribed Fire.
150 acres. 0% contained. Moderate rate of spread. Structures and powerlines are under threat and prompting evacuations (currently in progress). Firefighters are working throughout the night to strengthen direct control lines. Officials report there is retardant around the whole fire. The fire died down around 2100 hours on Friday night.
Social Media users posted some photos (we do not have permission for rebroadcasting) and stated the fire could be seen from areas such as West Gilroy, East Garrison and West Cliff Drive (Santa Cruz).
EVACUATIONS:
EVACUATION SHELTER: Evacuees are being directed by Officials to go to the Corralitos Community Church, 26 Browns Valley Road to meet with Red Cross volunteers. Need assistance? Contact them at 831-454-2181. (CLOSED 10/15/2021 @ 2200 hours PT due to light turnout).
EVACUATION MAPS: Evacuation maps can be located on CAL FIRE’s website here –> https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/ or at community.zonehaven.com.
Thank you for visiting our page and reading our post! This is the NW Wildfire Activity Report for Friday, October 15, 2021.
NEW WILDFIRES
Deer Loop Fire
Okanogan County, WA. 0.1 acre. Grass, shrub and timber. IC Wiggs. Dispatched 1238 PT. Contained/controlled/out at 1330 PT. Central WA Communications Center.
ONGOING INCIDENTS
Rough Patch Complex
Little Bend Fire. Firefighters remove hazardous fire fuels from the Alpha and Charlie Divisions. – Credit: Kevin S Abel, USFS.
18 miles SW of Oakridge, OR. Umpqua National Forest (USFS). Closed litter and timber. Started July 29, 2021 from about 20-plus lightning strikes hit the area. Jack Fire is part of this complex but is listed as a single incident due to being reported by fire officials as a separate standalone fire.
50,409 acres. 74% contained. Minimal fire behavior with smoldering observed. Area, road and trail closures still in effect. Expected containment on October 31, 2021. 46 total personnel. One helicopter assisting. $56.9 Million CTD.
NOTICE: Closures can be found on the Jack Fire post, which gives instructions where you can find maps.
Jack Fire
Fire along Calf Ridge looking towards Calf Creek on July 24, 2021. – Credit. USFS
31 miles E of Roseburg, OR. Umpqua National Forest (USFS). Closed timber litter and timber. Started July 5, 2021 around 1700 hours PT via a human-caused ignition. Fire management turned back this over to local USFS Officials.
24,165 acres. 83% contained. Minimal fire behavior with smoldering. Area, road and trail closures still in effect. Four total personnel along with one engine assigned. $44.7 Million CTD.
NOTICE: Pile burning operations in the Umpqua NF started on October 12, 2021. This is occurring near Laying Creek Road on Cottage Grove Ranger District near the Dellenback Trail on Diamond Lake Ranger District. It is also occurring near the Steamboat Ballfield and the 4712 Road on North Umpqua Ranger District.
Call 9-1-1 if you see any new wildfire starts. These operational incidents will be occurring on a regular basis until they have reached all of their prescribed fire objectives. These prescribed fires are to help reduce hazardous and heavy fire fuels to prevent further spread of future wildfires in the areas.
NOTICE: Some areas within the UNF are closed. Check out the newest USFS closure map on their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/UmpquaNationalForest or on inciweb’s website at inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/map/7771/0/127415.
Bull Complex
Night burn on September 9, 2021. – Credit: USFS
21 miles NE of Mill City, OR. Mt. Hood National Forest (USFS). Timber and closed timber litter. Started on the afternoon of August 2, 2021, after a lighting storm passed over sparking four new different fires on the south end of the forest. Five total fires would be detected on the 2nd and a fifth one on the 3rd: Janus, Kola, Ridge Fires in the SE area of the Bull of the Woods wilderness. Fourth fire in the Round Lake area. Fifth fire Orge Creek Fire.
24,894 acres with a 70% containment status. Minimal fire behavior with smoldering activity observed. 77 total personnel with one engine. One structure was lost. $35.1 Million CTD.
Schneider Springs Fire
Springs Canyon Fire – Credit: Ok-Wen NF
18 miles NW of Naches, WA. Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest (USFS). Fire managed by Thomas, Naches Ranger District Type 4 IC. Short grass, timber and brush. Lightning caused. Started on August 4, 2021.
107,322 acres. 91% containment reached. Expected containment by October 31, 2021. Minimal fire activity along with smoldering and creeping activities reported. 72 total personnel still assisting with two crews and five engines. $53.9 Million CTD.
Devils’s Knob Complex
A photo snapped from the Pickett Butte Lookout on August 1, 2021. – Credit: USFS
21 miles NE of Azalea, OR. Umpqua National Forest (USFS). Timber and hardwood litter. Started around August 3, 2021 after lightning strikes hit the area between July 29, 2021 through August 1, 2021. A collection of 25 wildfires began burning. It was quickly contained to 65% (today) and has been turned back over to the local IMT. Personnel will continue fire objectives of suppression repair, falling and clearing trees.
70,110 acres. 65% containment status reached. 184 total personnel with two crews and three engines. One structure destroyed. $62.6 Million CTD.
NOTICE: A TFR (temporary flight restriction) is still in effect. No unauthorized aircraft including Drones can be in the current airspace around the fire ground or around it. Please check your local flight restrictions for this TFR in effect.
Nason Fire
Smoke visible in August of 2021. – Credit: Mike Barajas, USFS
17 miles NE of Plain and 7 miles SE of the unincorporated area of Lake Wenatchee, WA. Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest (USFS). Being managed without a Type 1 or 2 IMT assigned with focus on a strategy other than full suppression. Burning in steep, rocky terrain and difficult to access. Started August 4, 2021 from lightning.
Minimal fire behavior has been reported. 1,321 acres. 90% contained. Two people are assisting. $300,000 CTD.
NOTE: Some details gleaned from various verified sources may have changed, as some agencies have stopped reporting within the last one-to-two days.
Here is the Friday Wildfire Activity Report via the WildCAD.net website. This post includes both open and closed incidents. This post was updated on October 8, 2021 at 2130 hours PT.
2021 BLM RX SUPPORT
A resource order for SRV7 was dispatched this morning (0848 hours PT) to respond to the Council, Idaho area as mutual aid. Incident #VAD-263. – Open Incident –
AUGUST COMPLEX
Support was dispatched via the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center at 1015 hours PT this morning. Resources are not listed. Incident # COC-1035. – Open Incident –
FRENCH FIRE
Mutual Aid was dispatched via the Vale Dispatch Center based out of Oregon this morning at 0853 hours PT to respond to the Wofford, California area. Incident #VAD-264. – Open Incident –
HORSE CREEK FIRE
Resources were dispatched via the Lakeview Interagency Dispatch Center at 0842 hours PT to an an area in Lakeview. Fire has burned 0.3 acres and was last checked some today. Incident #ORFWF-210477 P6 (0602) EK2B – Open Incident –
KLEIN CREEK FIRE
The call was dispatched at 1526 hours PT this afternoon to the Gifford Road area in Addy (Stevens County), Washington. Fire fuels include timber understory. About 0.1 acres has been burned. It has been reported that it is 80% mopped up. Dispatch Center is the Northeast Washington Interagency Communications Center. Incident #NES-2716, JLD-221 – Open incident –
NASTY FLATS FIRE
Call logged at 1446 hours PT. Resources were dispatched to the Nasty Flats area in Chelan County, Washington State. About 0.3 acres were burned. Fire fuels included grass, shrub and timber. The Incident Commander was DeSalvo. Fire was contained and controlled at 1700 hours PT. Dispatch Center was the Central Washington Communications Center. Incident #OWF-606.
WHITE RIVER FIRE
Dispatched via the Vale Dispatch Center, SRV 10 was deployed at 0848 hours PT to respond to Dufur, Oregon as a resource order to an incident. Incident #VAD-262 NF 56. – Open Incident –
Fire Fact – There are currently 31 wildfires burning across the United States as of today’s date. – NIFC
# # #
Incident Summary – The Dillion Interagency Dispatch Center received a report of a possible fire start near Haystack Mountain, east of the I-15 between the communities of (10 miles NE of Butte (MT) and Basin on July 31, 2021.
The cause was due to lightning.
Fire Operations – Helicopters were dispatched to the area to make bucket drops and continued to do so in aiding ground crews. Fire personnel were pulled from the area due to being deemed as unsafe for resources due to large boulders, steep slopes, difficult terrain, high number of dangerous snags, as well as no safe locations to insert or extract crews.
On September 6th, the fire spotted ahead and ignited unburned fuels on the interior, just east of Little Boulder Park. Structure protection was immediately put into place to guard high value nearby assets and structures in the area. Crews were able to re-establish strategies to enter the area to start fire suppression activities again.
Additionally, fire personnel have been successful with burnout operations on the northeastern side of the fire (burning off unburned fuels to protect private property and structures. This was/is occurring south of Boulder.
Command – The Great Basin Type 2 IMT, Team #4 assumed command back on September 22, 2021.
They are also managing the Placer Fire incident.
Current Status – Fire behavior is moderate with flanking, backing and group torching. There has been 20,535 acres burned and a 67% containment status reached.
Fire Response – There is currently 428 total personnel assigned to this incident, along with 11 crews, 16 engines and five helicopters.
Damage Assessment – Two structures destroyed. $7.7 Million Dollars (CTD).
The fire started on August 14, 2021 around 1845 hours PT.
Located 15 miles NE of Paradise; Two miles E of Omo Ranch; Four miles S of Grizzly Flat and 16 miles NE of Plymouth. Burning in El Dorado, Amador and Douglas Counties in the El Dorado National Forest in the State of California.
Initially started as a brush fire but quickly turned into a wildfire. The cause is still under investigation. No preliminary has been released by either Law Enforcement and/or the Fire Marshal as of yet.
Fire fuels include timber, light slash and brush.
CURRENT STATUS
Credit – USFS
221,775 acres.
93% contained. Expected to be fully contained by October 16, 2021.
782 structures have been destroyed.
81 structures were damaged.
35 structures are currently are threatened.
Five injuries to both firefighters and to civilians have occurred as released by Fire Officials.
There has been a total cost-to-date (fire suppression and containment effort expenses) reached at a whopping $249 Million Dollars.
FIRE RESPONSE
Credit – USFS
Fire management is under USFS CIIMT Team 13’s Incident Commander (IC) Mike Wakoski.
Currently, there are 1,336 total personnel assigned along with eight helicopters, 34 crews and 75 engines.
Incident Cooperators –
City – Georgetown FD, Placerville FD, Mosquito FD, Garden Valley FD,
County – Amador Sheriff’s Office, El Dorado Sheriff’s Office, Irrigation District, Government, FD, DOT, EMSA and the Office of Ed.
District – Indian Diggins School District, Grizzly Water District, Marshall Medical Center, Barton Health and Lake Valley Fire District.
Federal – Dept. of Ag.
State Fire Resources – CALFIRE, CALTRANS, CAL OES Fire, State Water Resources Control Board, KAMPS and CAL EPA.
Tribal – Shingle springs Band of Miwok Indians FD.
Utilities – Sierra Pacific Industries, Grizzly Flats Community Service District, SMUD, AT&T, Volcano Telephone and Verzon.
Cause is under investigation. No preliminary report has been released as of yet.
Located 15 miles NE of Paradise; Two miles E of Omo Ranch; Four miles S of Grizzly Flat. Burning in El Dorado, Amador and Douglas Counties, California in the El Dorado National Forest.
Initially started as a brush fire but quickly turned into a wildfire.
Fire fuels include timber, light slash and brush.
CURRENT STATUS
221,775 acres.
91% contained. Expected to be fully contained by October 16, 2021.
Pioneer Fire District, El Dorado County FD, Placerville FD, Mosquito FD, Garden Valley FD, Georgetown FD, CAL OES Fire, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians FD and the Lake Valley Fire District.
El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, Amador County Sheriff’s Office and the CHP.
Sierra Pacific Industries, PG&E, El Dorado Irrigation District, Grizzly Flats Community Service District, SMUD, AT&T, Grizzly Flats Water District, Volcano Telephone, State Water Resources Control Board, KAMPS and Verizon.
El Dorado County, CAL TRANS, Indian Diggins School District, El Dorado County DOT, El Dorado County Office of Education, El Dorado County EMSA and El Dorado County Dept. of Agriculture, CAL EPA.
Marshall Medical Center and Barton Health.
USFS, El Dorado National Forest and Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (USDA), USFS Fire – California.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Greater Nevada CU – accepting donations of essential items to support impacted fire victims/evacuees/business owners/etc. Most effective way is to make monetary donations to the American Red Cross. Go to GNCu.org/RedCross
A professional feller and a lookout safely bring down a hazard tree. Credit: USFS/Lakeview (OR)
INCIDENT SUMMARY
Located 15 miles NW of Lakeview, Oregon.
Ignited on Tuesday, September 7, 2021, around 1345 hours PT.
Undetermined cause.
Fire fuels include: timber, brush and medium slash.
CURRENT STATUS
Minimal fire behavior with smoldering.
91,795 acres.
85% contained. Expectations to contain by October 5, 2021.
DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS
10 structures lost.
$23.7 Million Cost-to-Date for fire suppression and containment efforts.
FIRE STAFFING, INCIDENT COOPERATORS
USFS, Fremont-Winema National Forest
IMT2, NW Team 12 – ICP located at the Lakeview Fairgrounds. Closed to public. Open only to essential personnel. ICs are Jeff Dimke and Bobby Shindelar.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office – local law enforcement.
Lake County Office of Emergency Management – broadcasts emergency alerts to local impacted communities during fire and disaster events.
Located 20 miles NW of Naches and 10 miles west of Nile, Washington in the northern Cascade Mountain Range on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest (USFS).
Lightning storm passed over the area on August 3, 2021.
Started August 4, 2021 at 1230 hours PT, caused by lightning.
Fuels include short grass, timber and brush.
Determination and hard work seen in this photo leads to successful suppression goals reached.
COMMAND
Managed by the NV IMT3, Team 3; transferred from the NW Team 10.
Assumed command on Thursday, September 30, 2021, at 1800 hours PT.
These are the men and women on the fire lines.
RESOURCES
370 personnel.
Nine crews.
20 engines.
Two aircraft.
11 other types of heavy equipment.
Burnout operations as seen in this photo.
INCIDENT COOPERATORS
USFS – Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest: Location where the fire is burning.
NV IMT3, Team 3: Fire Management team.
NWS IMET Operations: NWS Spokane responded to the incident on September 29, 2021, to help with weather forecasts.
NWS Spokane (WA): Part of the NWS IMET Ops team. Helping with fire weather reports/mapping.
NWS Pendleton (OR): same as Spokane.
WA DNR: Thanks to the many Incident Cooperators including fire resources from North Carolina who spent two weeks in September here in Washington State.
InciWeb: Provides fire updates from various sources.
NW Interagency Coordination Center: Coordinates wildfires and all risk incidents for 11 agencies in Washington and Oregon.
Yakima Office of Emergency Management (OEM): Provides essential information to its communities, such as evacuation notices, alerts, etc. during emergencies.
Yakima County Sheriff’s Office: Local law enforcement agency, issues and implements evacuation orders to impacted communities.
Structure protection in effect by using tactics of a hose lay and sprinklers to protect high values.
SIZE UP
107,118 acres.
55% contained.
CURRENT STATUS
Minimal fire behavior with smoldering activity observed.
Highly trained/skilled EMTs and medics care for wildland firefighters on the fireline. These are men/women whom are a part of the Rapid Extraction Module (REMS) Team. This resource is an essential resource, which is fully outfitted with gear to extract firefighters from almost any remote location. Helicopters are used as an alternative if they are unable to reach them. Ambulances on standby with some with four-wheel-drive wait for extracted patients to transport to area hospitals.
FIRE OPS
Today, firefighters were successful in reaching their operational objectives, as favorable conditions enabled them to strengthen containment lines, conduct hazard mitigation, repairing damage suppression lines and monitoring overall fire activities.
Communities love their firefighters and show their support for them. These men and women work extremely hard to protect properties and to stop wildfires at all cost. Nice work, firefighters and to all those involved or support before, during and after the incident!
RESTRICTIONS
Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR). No Drones in Fire Zones.
This image shows the heavy impact on the lands from wildfire touching its landscape.
CLOSURES
Forest service closures in effect. Check out what is open or closed by visiting the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest website – https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts
Mutual aid or Incident Cooperators come from all over the nation. This photo shows a wildland fire engine being loaded up onto a Port of Anchorage barge, bound for Seattle. The crews were flown to Seattle to pick up their engines and drove them to their intended fire incidents (intended destinations).
Alaska strike teams assigned to this incident were compromised of five- Type 6 engines. This is one of them.
PHOTOGRAPHY
All images in this post are the property/credit to the Schneider Springs Fire Incident (Social Media) Facebook Page. NW Fire Blog does not retain any rights to these images, only to the content included in this post.
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS (Overall incident)
September 30, 2021:
As of today’s post, the CTD has reached an all-time $51.1 Million Dollars.
September 12, 2021:
Our last post showed CTD was listed at $35 Million Dollars.
The SCHNEIDER SPRINGS FIRE is burning about 20 miles northwest of Naches and 10 miles west of Nile, Washington in the northern Cascade Mountain Range.
The fire was sparked by lighting that passed over the area on August 3, 2021, which ignited short grass, timber and brush on August 4, 2021, around 1230 hours PT.
The fire has burned 102,407 acres and reached a 17% containment status.
Current Status
The fire’s behavior remains today as moderate with flanking, backing and creeping. Pockets of fire fuels are being burned by surface fire with occasional flare-ups.
Division Alpha – structure protection in effect with some mop-up operations. Firing operations being conducted as needed.
Credit | USFS
Division Delta – structure protection to continue with one of their fire objectives to complete line construction. They will work to prep the control line and will look towards future operations of going direct when possible.
Division Hotel – main fire objective is to tie in around the Cliffdell down to the river, as their main focus as it is critical to get this completed as soon as possible. They will also continue to monitor and patrol portions of the line.
Division Oscar – crews are working tirelessly to patrol and repair portions of the line, as well as hold and improve the firing operations around Burnt Mountain. Mop-up operations in effect for any new or existing hotspots.
Night Ops – They are working to continue much of the same with providing structure protection and defensive firing as needed. Crews will monitor and hold.
Repair Group – Working in the Bethel Ridge area and will conduct priority repair work as directed.
A rainstorm passed over the area but produced little to no precip over the area.
If you've never seen the energy generated by a wildland fire…this is an 😳incredible example! This time ⏱️lapse video from the #SchneiderSpringsFire shows a smoke column on Forest Road 199 taken a couple days ago.
— Northwest Interagency Coordination Center (@NWCCInfo) September 4, 2021
It continues to threaten several local communities and structures, prompting evacuation orders to remain in effect along with area, road and trails still closed. Some have been reduced down to Level 2 from 3, after rain fell over the fire area.
A Temporary Flight Restriction or TFR is in effect, therefore no drones or other aircraft will be allowed to fly over the fire area. Collisions can occur if drones intrude upon the TFR, putting fire personnel in the air and on the ground in grave danger and it is illegal to do so. Heavy fines and jail time can be give for violations. Questions? Contact the Naches Ranger District at 509-653-1401. Fire Line staffed 0800-1900 daily at 509-653-1468. #NoDronesInFireZones
Resources
Command is under a PNW2 Type 1 IMT Incident Commander (IC) R. Allen with 601 total personnel under their direction, along with 13 crews, 36 engines and eight copters.
A Red Cross shelter was opened on September 9th at 1500 hours PT (3pm) at the Summit View Church of Christ located at 100 N. 72nd Avenue in Yakima, Washington 98801.
On September 8, 2021, the National Interagency Fire Center or NIFC for short, deployed two wildland firefighting hand crews from Quebec, Canada.
Credit | NIFC
Incident Cooperators include: NWS IMET Operations, NIFC, WSP, DOE – Central Region, City of Yakima Government, Yakima County Government (Sheriff’s Office, OEM), Yakama Nation, Quebec (CAN) hand crews, Northwest Interagency Coordination Center (NICC), NWS Pendleton (Air Quality reports), Crystal Mountain Resort, NWS Seattle, CK Fire and Rescue (South Puget Sound Strike Team), Zigzag Hotshots, Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, Jackson Hotshots, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest (Oka-Wen NF), NWS Spokane, Oregon Smoke Info, Joseph Elfelt (Mapping), Red Cross NW, National Forest Foundation, Bureau of Land Management (BLM),
Significant Events
This firestorm was deemed a megafire on September 10, 2021, with the fire broke the 100,000+-acre record.
On August 23, 2021, there were 16 active wildfires with the (Schneider Springs Fire) over 67,000; Lick Creek Fire at 80,000+, Cub Creek Fire at 70,000+ and Whitmore Fire over 58,000+ acres.
On August 11, 2021, Social media commented on weather being cooler and wetter helping firefighters contain the wildfire, but it seems that was just a hope.
The cost-to-date for fire suppression and containment efforts have reached $35 Million Dollars of today.
The COUGAR PEAK FIRE is a newly reported fire by us today and this is what we know so far. The fire is located about 15 miles northwest of Lakeview, Oregon in timber, brush and medium slash.
It ignited on September 7, 2021, from an undetermined cause, around 1345 hours PT.
Special Request
Oregon State Police, U.S. Forest Service, Lake County, Oregon Sheriff and ODF are asking for the public’s help on possible human-caused wildfires in Lake County. More info: https://flashalert.net/id/OSPOre/148341 If you have information, please call 1-800-442-0776 or *OSP from mobile. Reference Case # SP21257103.
Current Status
At the time of this post, the fire behavior has been reduced down to minimal activity with creeping, isolated torching and smoldering.
The fire is still threatening numerous structures and evacuation orders are still in effect, along with road and trail closures being closed.
There has been 86,170 acres consumed and there is no containment of this fire at this time. Fire officials do have a fire plan in how they expect this fire to be contained by October 5, 2021.
Resources
About 793 total fire personnel including overhead and support staffing is assigned to this incident, along with 17 crews, 65 engines and six copters.
The Incident Command consists of Unified Command with Kevin Stock with the USFS and Scott Magers with the Oregon State Fire Marshals Office.
Incident Cooperators include: the American Red Cross, Fremont-Winema National Forest, Lake County (OR) Government, Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), Inciweb, Wildcad.net and the National Fire Interagency Center.
To learn more about wildfires or to get direct updates via this fire, you can visit the COUGAR PEAK FIRE Facebook page or still follow us for more great fire news. https://www.facebook.com/CougarPeakFire2021
Damage Assessment
About 10 structures have been lost.
Total cost-to-date for fire suppression efforts have reached $4.1 Million Dollars.
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