Sequoia Complex: 72% Containment
Extensive damage to power in many areas
Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux continued to downgrade the status of evacuations in areas affected by the Sequoia Complex Fire over the past couple of days.
On Friday, evacuation order and evacuation warnings were removed for the Mountain Home State Forest and Balch Park Campground, although those areas will remain closed to the public. For further information, visit CAL FIRE at:
h t t p s : / / w w w. f i r e . ca. gov/.../ resource.../ resource-protection- improvement/ demonstration-state-forests/mountain-home/ or Tulare County Parks at https:// tularecountyparks. org/ park-cards/balch-park/
On Thursday, the following areas were downgraded from an evacuation order to an evacuation warning: Alpine Village, Sequoia Crest and areas of Redwood Drive.
A Voluntary Evacuation Warning means people living in the area are able to return to their homes, but should still be ready to evacuate should fire conditions change.
Crews continue to work and travel in the area. Some areas will remain without utilities due to extensive fire damage to the infrastructure.
“Please do not travel into these communities as extra traffic can impact the ability for crews to quickly get in and out of the fire area,” fire officials stated.
At this time, only residents are allowed to return and those returning are urged to use caution. All remaining Evacuation Orders and Evacuation Warnings remain in place.
The following areas are under evacuation warning and are open to residents only: Camp Nelson, Pier Point, Ponderosa, Mountain Aire, Coy Flat, Doyle Springs and Rodgers Camp, Sequoia Crest, Alpine Village, Redwood Drive area, Balch Park Road from Battle Mountain Monument to the entrance of Mountain Home State Forest and Bear Creek Road from the Rancheria Fire Control Road to the entrance of Mountain Home State Forest.
As far as utilities Southern California Edison is working to safely restore power as quickly as possible. More than 300 customers remained without power as of Friday. SCE has restored power to most of the Camp Nelson area and installed a generator to provide power to the Ponderosa area.
Sequoia Crest, Alpine Village and Cedar Slope will continue to be without power for several weeks, given the extensive damage to SCE facilities there. SCE estimates it will need to replace more than 500 poles and more than 22 miles of wires across the entire fire area. All of the new poles and wires will be fire resistant.
The Sequoia Complex which began in the Golden Trout Wilderness remained at 72 percent contained as of Friday.
The number of personnel working on the fire has been increased again to 843. The fire has burned 168, 095 acres.
“Increased fire behavior and a chance of spot fires are likely today,” stated fire officials about the conditions on Friday.
Fire officials stated structure defense protection efforts have been completed on all identified historic cabins.
A Forest Closure Order remains in place for most of the Western Divide Ranger District and small portion of the Kern River Ranger District in the Sequoia National Forest. Just south of the closure area, the public can visit the Trail of 100 Giants along the Kern River south of Johnsondale Bridge, and a portion of the Sherman Pass Road between Mtn. Road 99 and Cherry Hill Road (22S12).
The Western Divide Ranger District remains closed along the Forest boundary to the west. Also closed to the north is the Forest area that surrounds Balch Park and Mountain Home State Forest and the Golden Trout Wilderness.
For the Forest Closure Order and map visit https:// www. fs. usda. gov/.../ FSE_ DOCUMENTS/ fseprd825787. pdf
For an update on smoke conditions visit https://fires.airfire.org/ outlooks/ Southernsierra-sequoia