Dixie Fire surpasses 200,000 acres
California’s biggest wildfire of the season surpassed 200,000 acres and was threatening thousands of buildings in Butte and Plumas counties Tuesday but officials were confident that key communities near Lake Almanor and Bucks Lake remained protected.
The Dixie Fire covered about 208,206 acres as of Tuesday morning — about 325 square miles — and was about 23% contained, according to Cal Fire. Throughout the day Monday, a thick pall of smoke hovering over the region kept temperatures low, a boon for the more than 5,000 people working to contain the blaze.
Near Quincy and Taylorsville on the fire’s eastern flank, the skies “were so smoky that you could hardly see anything,” said Cal Fire spokesperson Rick Carhart.
“Effectively, what that did was kept fire activity moderated because there was no sunshine, no heat,” Carhart said. “We didn’t have extreme fire activity (Monday), so that was a help.”
With that advantage, crews worked to secure lines on the fire’s northern side, near Highway 89 and the typically busy Lake Almanor shoreline. Most of the homes in that area are situated between the high
way and the lake, which has so far been spared from worrisome spot fires, Carhart said.
Other crews meanwhile patrolled the Bucks Lake area to the southeast, where flames have edged closer to the shoreline. Northeast of the lake, a 12-acre spot fire broke out Monday after smoke cleared in the area and activity picked up again.
Still, Cal Fire analyst Dennis Burns expressed some optimism in a briefing Tuesday morning as he pointed out the Bucks Lake
region.
“It’s looking really good in there — we’re trying to get a lot of depth and mopping up and taking care of heat sources. Hopefully within the next day or so we’ll see more black on the map,” said Burns, referring to containment lines.
Overcast skies continued to provide relief Tuesday, with light rain and cloud cover hovering over much of the fire, said National Weather Service meteorologist Robert Baruffaldi. Those conditions were expected to give way Wednesday
to sunshine and higher temperatures, ranging from the mid-90s to just past 100 degrees.
Winds in the region were forecast at about 10-15 mph with gusts up to 20-25 mph, including winds of up to 30 mph in the Feather River Canyon area. Come Thursday, thunderstorms could return again with the promise of heavy rain — though Baruffaldi said that it’s difficult to predict how much that may help firefighting efforts, particularly in remote areas that haven’t burned in years.