Cal Fire pre-positioning resources amid wind event
CHICO » The North Complex West Zone fire didn’t grow during the day on Saturday, staying at 84,595 acres and remains 78 percent contained. However firefighters are preparing for the incoming wind event Sunday and into Monday.
Deputy Operations Chief for Cal Fire incident management Team 4 Monty Smith of said firefighters will be pre-positioned in Clifford Mills, Forbestown, Robinson Mills, Cherokee and the Big Bend areas to keep tabs on the fire overnight Saturday.
Cal Fire reported that firefighters remain confident in the areas of Sly Reservoir, Lost Creek Reservoir, into Lost Creek Drainage and Barrret Gulch, as well as the area of Highway 162 up to Berry Creek.
Smith said that crews are actively fighting hotspots in the Forbestown Reservoir area, adding the Ponderosa Reservoir area looks good as the fire held within the lines as well.
There have been 2,342 structures destroyed and 113 damaged, according to a Cal Fire press release. The North Complex fire as a whole also remains at 304,881 acres and is 78 percent contained. No expected full containment date has been established yet. A Red Flag Warning was put into effect Saturday and will last until noon on Monday. A wind
advisory is in effect from 2 a.m. Sunday until 8 p.m. Sunday. Winds overnight Saturday are expected to gust up 30- 35 miles per hour, but with gusts up reaching as high as 45 miles per hour in the Jarbo Gap area.
However tomorrow night Cal Fire expects the winds to be 5 to 10mile an hour faster and more sustained.
On Saturday morning, Incident Management Team 4 Chief Shane Lauderdale said that fire containment and contingency lines are being held inmost areas of the North Complex West Zone fire, however he said crews are now working towards the center of the fire to help reestablish power and cable lines.
“There’s so much work to be done still in re- establishing utilities, eliminating threats such as downed power lines and trees that we’ll continue to work on that for the next few operational periods,” Lauderdale said.
Crews have now completed the fire line construction in southern part of the fire near Forbestown and Challenge and are now working on mop up onfire burning inthe area, Lauderdale said.
The Butte County Sheriff’s Office released Friday the name of what they believe to be the final victim of the North Complex West Zone fire. Linda Longenbach, 71, of Berry Creek was identified, adding to the list of victims previously identified: Paul Winer, 68; Larry Holder, 61; Josiah Williams, 16; Millicent Catarancuic, 77; Khawar Bhatti, 58; Philip
Rubel, 68; Jorge Hernandez- Juarez, 26; Sandra Butler, 75; John Butler 79, Mark Delagardie, 61; Kin Lee, 64; and Susan Zurz, 76, all of Berry Creek; Randy Harrell, 67; and Jacob Albright, 74, both of Feather Falls.
As reported Friday all missing person cases in the fire have been resolved, and as of Saturday, no additional human remains have been found.
Residents displaced by the North Complex Fire are being directed to the assistance center at Feather River Parks and Recreation Gymnastics Academy, 1875 Feather River Blvd., as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency center at 2000 Feather River Blvd. in Oroville.
The hours of both centers are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The centers are closed Sundays.
FEMA registration will close Oct. 21 at the evacuation center.
A completemap of evacuation orders and warnings can be found at www. buttecounty.net/sheriff.
Similar to that of the Camp Fire, the Butte County Sheriff Office has created an online formenabling residents to request law enforcement escorts to areas that remain under evacuation orders.
The link to submit a request is https://forms.gle/ QKrkdVwk78qR344t9.
The fire information call center will be accepting calls for escort requests as well and can be reached at (530)-552-3010. The call center is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week and the Sheriff’s Office is encouraging the public to make requests online due to high call volumes anticipated.