Two Sundays ago I drove home from Reno, Nev. on Highways 299, 44 and 89. By the following day, large stretches of those highways were closed and wildfires caused by 1,800 lightning strikes were raging through the area.
Over the course of the following week, I researched the fires and wrote several updates about the progress being made to contain them. So when the opportunity came on Thursday, Aug. 7 to take some photos of the fires, I jumped at the chance.
Contacting the NorCal Incident Management team, I set up a time to meet with an information officer at the fire command center at the fairgrounds in McArthur, approximately 60 miles southeast of Mount Shasta.
I was welcomed by information officer Richard Hadley, who offered to take me on a tour of the fire area. He issued me a long sleeved yellow fireproof shirt and a safety helmet, which I was to wear anytime I got out of the truck.
Hadley explained that he was from Auburn and that when he isn’t on an assignment with NorCal, he’s a fire planner with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. We chatted about the different fires he’d been on in the past few years as we drove out of McArthur southeast on Highway 299.
He continued by explaining that the fires, which had been ignited on Saturday, Aug. 1, were broken into two groupings: the Hat Creek Complex, which is being managed by the federal Northern California Incident Management Team II, and the Shasta Unit Lightning Complex, managed by CAL FIRE. Though the fires are in close proximity to one another, Hadley said they were complex enough to need management by two teams.
The Hat Creek Complex consists of three major fires: the Butte, Brown, and Sugarloaf fires, as well as 34 smaller ones. The SHU Lightning Complex consists of six large fires, including the Cassel, Gomez, Cave, Backbone, Goose and Chalk fires. Thirty-four smaller fires are also part of the SHU Complex, Hadley said.
Then we approached the junction at Highway 89 and headed through a roadblock into the midst of the fire area, where the Brown and Sugarloaf fires had moved through just the day before.
Eerie skeletons of what had been tall, stately Ponderosa Pines stood stark against the smoky sky. Here and there, smoldering logs and bits of vegetation would show a lick of flame as the wind whipped through.
Although the highway seemed deserted in certain stretches, it was obvious that work had taken place there not long before. Trees which were severely burned halfway up their trunk and posed a threat to those working beneath had been cut down.
Hadley said the puddles of thick white foam we saw in various places worked well to control wildland fires by forming a barrier that stays in place.
I asked Hadley what happens to wildlife during a forest fire. He said most small animals like chipmunks and rabbits stay in their burrows and that they’re usually fine. In unusual instances of fast moving fires, he said a deer or bear may get trapped by the flames, but rarely.
When I asked about the trees, Hadley explained that if trees are burned around the base but still have green needles, they have a good chance of making it. However if the needles are brown, they probably won’t survive. Many trees, such as Ponderosa Pines and oaks have the ability to withstand fire due to their thick bark, Hadley said.
Driving further along 89, we came across fire crews “mopping up.” They walked along the fire’s perimeter searching for smoldering areas they could put out, much like distinguishing hundreds of small campfires.
The crews we were meeting in the Hat Creek Complex had come to the Lassen National Forest from all over the United States, Hadley said. We stopped to photograph a group of firefighters from Idaho, who were busy mopping up just yards from several homes, and across the highway from a church and a field of cows.
As we moved on, we continued to see hundreds of firefighters going about their work to contain the Sugarloaf fire, which at that time was a little larger than 8,000 acres and only 15% contained.
Bulldozers worked under the instruction of a dozer boss, who showed the driver exactly where to make a fire line. If the fire did blow back to the area, the line should keep the flames contained, Hadley said.
Personnel from Pacific Gas and Electric had crews out in the process of repairing electrical lines which had been damaged.
When we got to the Junction of Highway 44 and Highway 89, just north of the community of Old Station, we passed another road block and wound our way up the rocky hill where winds had caused the fire to break its line the night before.
Fire crews were using ropes to scale the rocky cliffs in order to detect loosened debris and to mop up where the fire had made a run uphill.
Despite firefighter’s best efforts, the Forest Service’s relatively new lookout point had burned in the run. We took a left and drove the small distance to the lookout, which gave a panoramic view of the valley we had just travelled through. The day before, the entire valley had been filled with an ocean of green trees; today it was a view of charred treetops, singed rock, and a large column of yellow smoke rising from the next hill over.
The large signs which explain the geography of the area were bubbled with heat. The hundreds of trees which provided visitors with shade were either charred to black or badly singed.
After taking a moment to look across the valley, we got back into the truck, drove back down 44, and travelled to Old Station. Residents there had been without power for about 24 hours already, and the smoke from nearby fires was oppressive. Hadley said that his job, when he isn’t escorting reporters around, is to go into the communities surrounding the fire and keep them updated on what exactly was going on.
We passed Old Station’s Fire Department, where dozens of water tenders and structure fire engines were stationed in case they were needed again to protect homes and other buildings.
Due to the higher humidity, a few rainshowers and no lightning activity in the area, firefighters were getting a good handle on the fires, Hadley said. The area where flames were active was quite a distance from the road, and it would be difficult to get a good view of them.
We turned around and travelled the way we had come, but this time we took a right onto Cassel Road, toward the CAL FIRE-managed 4,100 acre Cassel Fire.
As we got closer to the darkest smoke, we saw dozens of CAL FIRE crews engaged in various tasks. Most firefighters were busy mopping up, others were sharpening their tools for the following morning, and some were just winding up their hoses at the end of their 12 hour shift.
Hadley said CAL FIRE had burned off some fuels along the roadway, as evidenced by some torched brush. By purposefully igniting areas inside the fire’s perimeter, firelines are strengthened. The sharp volcanic rock covering the ground was difficult to navigate by foot or in an engine, Hadley said, therefore making burnoffs a necessary tactic.
As we merged back onto Highway 299, we met up with a long caravan of firetrucks carrying firefighters back to camp after a long, hot day. Hadley explained that breakfast and dinner was served at basecamp, and each person was given a bag lunch before heading out for their assignments.
The McArthur Fairgrounds had been transformed into a veritable city of tents, where the more than 1,300 firefighters will call home during the days or possibly weeks they spend fighting the fires.
Climbing from the truck, said thank-you and goodbye to Hadley, who I had gotten to know quite well after two hours of driving through the fire area.
As I got back into my own car and drove home, I paid greater attention of the beauty of the forest as well as the luxury of the increasingly cleaner air.
After experiencing the amazing coordination of the thousands of personnel it takes to fight wildland fires like the Hat Creek and Shasta Unit Lightning Complex fires, I gained a greater appreciation for firefighters and all they do to protect our nation’s forests. I also felt more secure knowing all that’s done to protect citizen’s property when a fire breaks out.
As of Tuesday, the Hat Creek Complex was 90% contained. The 34 smaller fires were completely extinguished, and command of the complex had been taken over by the Lassen National Forest, and the command center at the fairgrounds had been relocated to the Hat Creek area. All fires in the SHU complex were contained except for the Cassel Fire, which was at 90% containment, and the Goose Fire, which was 80% contained.
Hat Creek, Calif. —
