Cooler weather helps slow down west zone

Fire officials said that the fight against the 960,213acre Dixie Fire got some help from cooler weather.

Fire officials said Sunday morning that the fight against the 960,213-acre Dixie Fire got some help in the west zone from some cooler weather overnight into Sunday morning.

The fire is now 65% contained, but officials still have no expected date for full containment.

Officials said the overnight weather and humidity helped moderate the fire, as the winds calmed down and temperatures dropped into the 30s.

Officials also say that the fire activity humidity‘s reached 60 to 70% which minimized fire activity.

Officials say that the weather pattern is expected to continue throughout the week as humidity levels begin dropping, however, those cooler temperatures will be accompanied by wind gusts of no more than 20 miles per hour in the afternoon.

In the fire’s west zone, officials say the recent rainfall has dried fast and forest fuels are becoming more flammable.

Concern in that areas is that logs and stumps held heat and could spread unburned areas within the fire, which makes and patrol mop-up important.

Officials said the firefighters were very active in the Grizzly Peak area building fire line, directly against the fire’s edge and mopping up to reinforce the line.

In the Dixie Mountain area, crews continue to work on a line from the peak into Dixie Valley.

Crews maintained direct and indirect lines east of Milford to prevent the fire from impacting that community once more.

Firefighters also improved the fire line along the Sugar Fire footprint, north to Highway 395 and mopped up within the 30,000 acre Janesville spot fire.

Officials said that today, firefighters will work to improve Road 177 and Beckwourth-Genesee Road as secondary control lines and strengthen their work on the direct attack in the rugged Devil’s Punchbowl.