Windy Fire reaches above 90,000 acres, 42 percent containment

As of Friday night the Windy Fire had reached 90,149 acres and was 42 percent contained. The fire burning in the Tule River Indian Reservation and the Sequoia National Forest, including the Giant Sequoia National Monument, increased by 1,736 acres over a 24-hour period between Thursday and Friday.

As of Friday mornnig there were 2,500 personnel, 71 hand crews, 136 engines, 17 helicopters, 23 bulldozers and 12 water tenders assigned to the fire. There are 2,000 residences and 100 commercial buildings threatened by the fire.

There have also been 14 residences, 12 outbuildings and two commercial buildings destroyed by the fire. There have been four injuries.

Forest Service staff have completed assessments of the White River and Spear Creek Summer home tracts in the Sequoia National Forest.

“Early morning observations from the camera at Tobias Peak showed the fire burning actively,” said officials about what was happening Friday. “While it is October 1st, conditions in the forest are more like what you would observe in August, very dry with warm temperatures and low humidity.”

Officials added those conditions were expected to increase fire activity on Friday, especially in the chamise and chaparral brush in the Kern River Canyon.

“The top priority continues to be the southwest side where crews continue to make good progress securing containment lines and providing structure defense around Sugarloaf and Sugarloaf Mountain Park north towards Pine Flat and California Hot Springs,” officials stated. Crews are constructing and improving indirect containment lines from M 50 (at the switchbacks) northwest to Lone Pine Mountain and looking for opportunities to construct direct hand line at the fire’s edge.”

On the northwest side, crews continue dto construct direct and indirect containment lines from Wheatons south to Lone Pine Mountain on the Tule River Indian Reservation. If condi

tions permitted, crews would continue a tactical firing operation to help improve containment lines.

On the north side, firefighters continued tactical patrols, extinguishing any burning vegetation, trees and stumps along the Coy Flat Road (FS Road 21S94) northeast to Coy Flat. On the northeast side near Ponderosa, crews continued holding and improving containment lines east to the Lloyd Meadow Road (FS Road 22S28) and south to Johnsondale. Crews would continue tactical patrols as well.

On the east and southeast side, crews continued structure defense in the Vincent Meadow area along Sugarloaf Road (23S16). In the Kern River Canyon, the fire continued to hold on the upper west slope between Tobias Creek and Flynn Canyon.

Helicopters and the Bombardier CL-515 (Super Scooper) would continue dropping water and retardant on the upper ridge to slow the fire’s movement east towards the Kern River. Crews would continue structure defense in Fairview.

On the south side, the fire was burning in the 2016 Cedar Fire burn scar and crews were building direct hand line at the fire’s edge west towards Sugarloaf. Pockets of dead and down trees were burning outside of the containment line and firefighters were working to put line around those spot fires.

Dry and warm conditions were expected throughout the weekend. Winds were expected to be light except in the Kern Canyon in which gusty winds were possible Friday afternoon.

Information on evacuation orders and warnings can change suddenly. Refer to https://tularecounty.ca.gov/emergencies/ for the Windy Fire Evacuation Warning Area Map. For more information, call 2-1-1.

Tulare County residents can sign up to receive county emergency notifications by registering at Alerttc.com. A daily smoke outlook is available at https://wildlandfiresmoke.net/outl.../southernsierra-sequoia A fire and smoke map is available at https://fire.airnow.gov/