The fire reached 500 acres fairly quickly and has been fought by at least 40 fire trucks, a couple of big bulldozers, air tankers and helicopters and many, many firemen. One person had to be helicopter rescued from the falls area. Campers left their tents and camping gear as they were rushed out of the area (the condition of the North Fork Campground is unknown right now). One camper told me she was separated from her dog and the ranger was kind enough to go in and rescue him. She seemed pretty frightened about the event so I think the fire was quickly started and very fast moving.
Luckily, it was not windy on Monday or Tuesday and though we can not find any current updates on the news and internet on the fire (it is a National Forest Fire so it is not being tracked by Cal Fire), we hope that the fire agencies now have it under control.
Once the fire is completely out, I plan to head back to the campgrounds to take photos of the area. But for now, only fire personnel are allowed back in the area. On Monday and Tuesday - both our freeway exit and the Yuba Gap exit were closed with Highway Patrol guarding access. We were not evacuated since our cabin was not in the direct fire path.
We stayed over Monday night and doused our back yard and back of our building with our trusty hose and water from our well. Our building has very old plywood siding on the back (to be replaced when we get some time) and it took quite a bit of water to saturate the back walls. And the soil is sandy loom, so watering it was only an attempt to slow any progress should the fire reach our property. We kept a close watch on Sailor Ridge (the fire was directly behind it) as we monitored the comings and goings of the fire personnel. Once of our neighbors lives directly behind us and they would have been first in the fire path if it crossed the ridge. They, like we, manage their property pretty well and keep their meadows cut down and trees trimmed. We have cut down over 2 acres of our meadows and cut down many of our weakened cedar trees (that is not to say that we are not going to have to cut down more as the beetle blight and climate change continue to cause havoc in the sierras).
On Tuesday morning while walking our dog, I found 3 Nevada City Prison Guards camped out in front of our school. They told me that minimum security prisoners had been deployed to the fire to help cut and dig a fire break. After offering them coffee (they did not take me up on that) I watched another 5 fire trucks head down the hill.
Fire brigades came from areas I have never heard of and from as far away as the Sacramento Delta Area. I believe they thought this fire would become a big mess since the timber in the area is so dry and the terrain is so steep.
Here is a map of the affected area (as of Tuesday) and a photo of the fire plume as viewed from our back yard (taken Monday). The star on the map shows where our cabin is located. The arrow shows the direction the fire was moving on Tuesday (up toward Lake Valley via Black Mountain). The fire area has been logged in the recent past and the area where the fire is moving was part of the Yuba Gap fire in 2007. We are hoping that since the Yuba Gap fire cleared a lot of timber - that the fire will have little fuel to build and move to other areas. With thunder storms starting this week in the Sierra, lets hope that the rains come early and we are out of the fire season soon. As of Wednesday - the fire has burned 1000 acres and is only 10% contained.
