When the Sims Creek Fire off Highway 96 near Seiad Valley started burning Tuesday of last week, June 23, area fire officials wasted no time calling in hot shot crews from throughout northern California.
With fresh memories of last summer’s series of fires that burned for three months on the Klamath and Six Rivers national forests, officials wanted to extinguish the first significant northern California fire of the 2009 season in a hurry.
The Sims Creek Fire in western Siskiyou County was completely contained over the weekend, according to KNF deputy forest supervisor Kelly Russell, and most personnel were released.
Russell said it was expected to be 100 percent controlled by later in the day Monday, June 29.
While early estimates had the fire as large as 225 acres, a subsequent perimeter measurement showed it was limited to 170 acres, Russell said.
An investigation into the cause of the fire was ongoing as of Monday.
Nearly 200 fire personnel battled the wildfire in steep forested terrain and completed a fire break around it Thursday morning.
Resources assigned to the fire as of Thursday afternoon included: 8 firefighter crews, 15 engines and 3 water tenders, according to a KNF press release. Six helicopters were dropping water on hot spots that threatened the containment line.
“We wanted to make sure it didn’t get large,” Russell said of the response.
Because of concerns about how close the fire was to the highway, one-way guided traffic with a pilot car was used.
Power was interrupted to about 15 homes in the area late in the week due to active fire near power lines, but the Forest Service said no structures in the area were damaged and no serious injuries had been reported.
Russell said Forest officials feel that the fire “was contained in a timely manner.”
Last year’s series of wildfires, including the Panther Fire near Happy Camp, burned in the neighborhood of 200,000 acres of wilderness and clouded north state skies with smoke.
Western Siskiyou County, Calif. —
