New eawn fire quickly spreads in rhas•a boun•y as vindy fire spurs more evacua•ions
LOS ANGELES — The Windy fire swirling around California’s giant sequoia trees spurred additional evacuation orders, while a new blaze in Shasta County sent residents fleeing from thick smoke and encroaching flames on Thursday.
Dubbed the Fawn fire, the new blaze emerged in the Mountain Gate area near Redding on Wednesday afternoon and had swelled to 800 acres by the following morning.
The Shasta County County Sheriff ’s Office has ordered mandatory evacuations for all roads off Bear Mountain in both directions between Dry Creek and the Old Oregon Trail, as well as all roads off Old Oregon Trail in both directions between Bear Mountain north to I-5.
Residents are being advised to leave immediately and bring important belongings, medications and pets with them.
A temporary evacuation point has been set up in the Shasta College parking lot, officials said.
The fire, which is burning near Fawndale and Radcliff Roads northeast of Shasta Lake, was 5% contained Thursday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Cal Fire Shasta-trinity spokeswoman Cheryl Buliavak said the cause of the fire was still under investigation, but she confirmed that a woman was arrested Wednesday night on “firerelated charges.” Additional details would be released later, she said.
The fire started in steep, rugged terrain and is burning in heavy timber.
“Between the terrain, the vegetation being extremely dry — overnight we had some windy conditions that caused the fire to spot in multiple areas — there are a lot of factors that are challenging firefighters,” Buliavak said.
Aerial footage showed a massive plume of smoke billowing over the area.
Meanwhile, the Tulare County Sheriff ’s Office ordered the evacuation just before 8 p.m. Wednesday of several areas near the Windy fire, which is burning in Sequoia National Forest and on the Tule River Reservation.
Newly evacuated areas include Camp Nelson, Pierpoint, Coy
Flat, Mountain Aire, Cedar Slope, Alpine Village, Rogers Camp and Sequoia Crest. All earlier evacuation orders remain in effect.
“You’re going to be able to smell smoke,” operations section chief Seth Mitchell said during an evening update. “You’re going to be able to see flame from the community of Camp Nelson.”
The fire had swelled to 43,745 acres and was 6% contained Thursday morning, officials said.
Incident spokesman Steve Rasmussen attributed the fire’s latest run — a substantial 12,000 acres — to a dry airmass that brought low humidity and winds to the area, which helped fan the flames as they fed on critically dry vegetation.
“The fire actually grew on all sides — north, east, south and west,” he said. “It pushed out and tested all of the containment lines.”
For days, the Windy fire has threatened the Trail of 100 Giants inside Long Meadow Grove, where at least one giant sequoia known as the Bench Tree was damaged by fire atop its crown.
Crown fires can be catastrophic even for the fire-adapted trees, with last year’s Castle fire decimating an estimated 10% to 14% of the world’s sequoia population.