Dixie Fire overtakes Lassen national park

Before the Dixie Fire ignited forestland in California’s northeast in July, Lassen Volcanic National Park had been on pace to hit its highest number of annual visitors.

About 500,000 people visit the park each year, and most of them come right about now to hike the park’s unique volcanic features, experience the cultural remnants of the area’s native tribes and explore its dense wilderness, which comprises 85% of the park.

By late July, the Dixie Fire was advancing north through Plumas County, nearing the southern border of Lassen Volcanic, which occupies 106,000 acres of mountains, meadows and woodlands at the intersection of Plumas, Lassen, Tehama and Shasta counties.

Park staffers prepared for the worst: clearing defensible space and setting up sprinklers around structures, raking debris and identifying areas where a fire containment line could be dug.

“We’d been working on fire preparedness for pretty much the whole season, anticipating that this drought would have serious repercussions,” park ranger Kevin Sweeney said.

As the blaze crept toward the park, its smoke turned away most casual day visitors and prompted evacuations in surrounding communities.

That’s when park managers decided to begin shutting things down.

On July 24, park Superintendent Jim Richardson

shut down the popular backcountry trails on the east side of the park. The idea was to clear remote areas where a rescue or evacuation would be most difficult. They swept campgrounds, trying not to stir up panic.

“It was earlier than, I think, other parks would have made that call,” Sweeney said.

But the Dixie Fire was behaving abnormally, advancing 6 miles some days and running 2 to 3 miles at night as well, and Richardson felt compelled to evacuate the area lest any visitors get caught off guard.

“I can’t emphasize how extreme this fire is behaving,” Sweeney said.

To ensure backcountry hikers and campers — who may be out of cell phone range — were accounted for, the park checked everyone’s wilderness permits and sent foot patrols up popular trails to alert people about the fire danger and shutdown order. Park staffers also sent out cancellation emails to people who had made any kind of reservation in Lassen, warning them not to come.

Then, on Aug. 5, the fire crossed into the park’s southern boundary and Richardson opted to close the entire park. It was the first full closure since 2012, when another wildfire bore down on the park from the north.

After ushering out the remaining visitors, the park closed its kiosks and visitor center. Later, after an order from the Tehama County sheriff, most staffers who live on the property were evacuated. That allowed it to come in line with the unified command of Cal Fire and the National Park Service in coordinating fire prevention.

“Once we have visitors secure, we can help with containment efforts and lend resources to firefighters more willingly instead of worrying about people in the park,” Sweeney said. “The evacuation process went incredibly smoothly. We can’t thank the visitors enough.”

Since then, firefighters have been battling the Dixie Fire inside the park, even as lightning strikes have sparked fires in the dry materials on the ground nearby.

And the park is sustaining damage.

As of Aug. 20, the Dixie Fire had torn through more than onethird of Lassen Volcanic, charring swaths of the landscape and decimating the Mount Harkness fire tower. Some reports surfacing online are offering early eulogies for Lassen, characterizing the region as a charred moonscape. Sweeney says it’s too early to tell what the overall impact might be.

“People on social media are saying the area has been destroyed, and it will never be the same,” Sweeney said. “There has been some high-severity pockets, yes. But that’s not the case.”

No deaths or emergency rescues in the park have stemmed from the fire, in large part because Lassen was diligent about closing early.

Cal Fire