Dixie Fire now over 200,000 acres.
Towns near Lake Almanor and Bucks Lake remain protected from reach of raging blaze
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 highway 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 today to sunshine and higher temperatures, ranging from the mid-90s to just past 100 degrees.
Late Tuesday afternoon, Cal ISO, which manages the state’s power grid, issued a
Flex Alert for Wednesday, asking customers to conserve energy between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. to help manage the load.
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.
“The atmosphere will be moist — not as moist as it was the last couple days — but more moist than California usually is this time of year,” Baruffaldi said.
Evacuation orders remained in place for more than 16,000 people in Butte, Plumas and Tehama counties.
With the smoke blanket clearing off and sunshine expected to peek through, crews planned to focus the next few days on handling emerging spot fires and maintaining lines near populated areas. Securing the Jonesville and Butte Meadows area to the west — where the meandering flames were threatening pockets of homes and cabins — was also a top priority, Carhart said.
In total, more than 10,000 structures were threatened, according to Cal Fire’s latest estimate. Thirty-one had been destroyed and another seven damaged.