Dixie Fire surpasses 500,000 acres, 30 percent contained
The Dixie Fire surpassed 500,000 acres this week as crews continue to increase containment on the nearly month-long wildfire.
As of Wednesday morning, the Dixie Fire has burned 501,008 acres and is 30 percent contained.
According to Operations Section Chief Jake Cagle’s Wednesday morning update, down in the area south of Merlin toward Bucks Lake, Meadow Valley, Silver Lake and to Butterfly Valley south of Taylorsville remains in its current footprint and some of those resources have been shifting to help where the blaze is more active.
From Hunt Canyon, the fire continued to back down the hill, “crews continue to monitor that.”
Around Tanners Rock up to Lone Rock the fire has continued to progress, “this is another challenged area for us, but we do have reinforcements in there around China Gulch, Superior Ravine … they did some really good work last night with utilization of the Diamond Mountain Road to lock this off the best they can,” said Cagle.
Reinforcements are also making contingency plans in Janesville, building fuel breaks. There are also reinforcements around Antelope Lake working to tie together road systems as another “catcher’s mitt.” The goal is to go direct on the fire, Cagle said, but also prepare with indirect plans.
In the Coyote Peak area, West Zone resources are helping to work build contingency lines near Highway 36 around Fredonyer with the goal to tie it into the Sheep Fire burn scar. There is some fire movement in the Sheep scar, Cagle said, due to unburned fuel, but it’s not extreme.
Crews were challenged in the Dyer Mountain area last night, but all the line is in “we’re going to continue to connect the dots in here.”
Dixie Fire West Zone – Fire remained active overnight due to minimal humidity recovery. Heavy smoke conditions reduced visibility in the fire area. High pressure continues to build over the incident and will be the dominant feature with predicted thunderstorms moving in this week. Forecasted winds will be southwest at 16 mph with a 15% cloud cover today. Crews will continue to construct direct and indirect line to secure the fire perimeter, construct contingency lines in both zones, and provide structure defense in communities at risk. Evacuation Warnings and Evacuation Orders are changing every day, please see below for information affecting your area.
Dixie Fire East Zone – Hotshot crews completed securing the perimeter at Silver Lake and the burn out at Rush Creek. In the Hunt Canyon area, containment lines down to Keddie Point were built and fire continued to hold. Direct line was implemented north of China Gulch and the fire is holding on the Lone Rock landscape.
