Smoke headed toward Eureka, coastal Humboldt
Smoke from nearby wildfires will likely reach coastal Humboldt County by Monday.
Meteorologist Matthew Kidwell, of the Eureka office of the National Weather Service, told the Times-Standard Saturday that “moderate to strong easterly winds” will push smoke from the August Complex fire and the Red Salmon Complex fire into Eureka and coastal cities throughout the county.
Kidwell said it’s tough to determine how much smoke will cloud the sky early next week. The meteorologist said spats of rain and slowed fire activity close to the county means what smoke does arrive will almost certainly not reach the levels it did several weeks ago — when smoke caused skies above Eureka and the majority of the county to remain a darkened orange hue throughout the day on Sept. 9.
Red Salmon Complex fire
The fire active in Humboldt, Siskiyou and Trinity counties had burned 110,113 acres and was 31% as of midday Saturday.
The U.S. Forest Service reported a “warming and drying trend is expected Sunday through Monday, and Red Flag or near Red Flag conditions may occur. These dryer, warmer conditions will impact fire behavior and crews are adjusting firefighting strategies in anticipation of this event. … Firing operations have also begun in order to mitigate the potential for the fire to spread toward the Hoopa Valley Reservation.”
Media spokesperson for the forest service Kimberly Kaschalk told the Times-Standard Saturday that east/northeasterly winds estimated to arrive Sunday could be problematic for fire crews.
“Anytime there is wind, there’s always a concern that it could shift the fire in ways we do not want,” she said. “It could become an issue, but we won’t know until the wind actually comes.”
The portion of the fire burning in the southeastern region of Hoopa Valley is mostly controlled minus an uncontrolled line several miles long south of Jones Point. The fire had burned 3,053 acres in Hoopa Valley as of midday Saturday.
The fire is burning roughly 6-8 miles northeast of Willow Creek.
A temporary flight restriction is place in the area northeast of Orleans. An evacuation warning remains in effect for Forks of Salmon (Siskiyou County). The Klamath and Six Rivers National Forests closures have been extended through Sept. 30, the forest service reports. There are currently no evacuation warnings or orders in the Humboldt County due to the fire.
For more information on the Red Salmon Complex fire visit https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6891/.
August Complex fire West Zone
The West Zone of the largest fire in state history had burned 104,836 acres and was 60% contained Saturday morning according to Cal Fire.
The West Zone is burning southeast of Humboldt County in Mendocino, Lake and Trinity counties.
It had destroyed 21 homes and 30 minor structures as of Saturday.
According to a Saturday forest service news release weather over the weekend and into the coming week “will transition to hot and dry conditions with strong northeasterly winds which will continue through Sunday. High temperatures should be in the 80s and humidity around 25%. Winds will be 10-15 mph out of the northwest. A Red Flag Warning is in effect Sunday through Monday.”
Cal Fire spokesperson Tawny Cabral told the Times-Standard that fire crews have made significant progress in widening existing fire lines southeast of Humboldt County and laying down fire retardant. The recent work according to Cabral “has put fire crews in a better position to stop any advances” by the fire should incoming wind push the fire northwest.
“We’re watching the weather but what we have accomplished in the past few days has put us in a good position,” she said.
There are currently no evacuation warnings or orders in the county due to the fire.
The August Complex fire as a whole had burned 870,200 acres and was 43% contained as of midday Saturday. For Saturday’s Cal Fire update on the West Zone visit https://bit. ly/3iayR9E. For more information on the August Complex fire visit https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/
incident/6983/.
Blue Lake Rancheria delivers food
The Blue Lake Rancheria
Tribe on Thursday announced it had donated over 10,000 pounds of food to the the Karuk Tribe, which has been heavily impacted by the Slater and Devli fires.
The Rancheria donated 5,467 USDA food boxes to the Karuk Tribe which has seen the two fires active in Siskiyou and Del Norte counties, as well as in Southern Oregon, claimed dozens of homes from its people. The fires together had burned 152,850 acres and were 27% contained as of midday Saturday.
For information on the Slater and Devil fires visit https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/ incident/7173/.