Dixie Fire update, Tuesday, Oct. 12

October 12, 2021 Staff

As of Tuesday, Oct. 12, the Dixie Fire has burned 963,309 acres, is 94 percent contained and 1,327 personnel are fighting the fire. Here’s an update for Tuesday, Oct. 12.

East Zone

East suppression repair continued in many areas yesterday, particularly in Round Valley, Indian Valley, Grizzly Ridge and Antelope Lake. The repairs include grading roads, clearing hazard trees, opening up access roads, chipping woody debris and repairing dozer lines in areas affected by earlier fire-suppression activities.

On the road going up to the Mt. Hough Lookout, crews continued to fell hazard trees. Approximately 41 percent of Phase 1 repair work has been completed in the East Zone. Today, some crews will continue patrolling and extinguishing hotpots, but the majority of personnel and equipment will be engaged with suppression-repair activities in Round Valley, Taylorsville, Grizzly Ridge, Milford and Last Chance Road. Firefighters and two helicopters are available to respond to reports of smoke or new fires.

West Zone

Identification and felling of fire-damaged hazard trees along County Road A21 and Highway 36 will continue as conditions allow. High winds yesterday forced crews to stop felling operations. At least four trees fell near or across County Road A21 on their own. No one was injured. Sawyers and heavy equipment operators removed the downed trees to keep the road open. Crews are making good progress on suppression repair in all areas. Work in the Silver Lake area could be finished in a few more days.

To date, crews have completed repairs on 29.1 percent of 910.9 miles of dozer line; 26.3 percent of 54.5 miles of hand line; 24.3 percent of 27.6 miles of “mixed construction” line; and 18.6 percent of 174.9 miles of roads used as containment line. A number of firefighting resources are designated to respond to service calls or new fire starts.

Weather and fire potential

Monday brought cold temperatures, gusty winds and snow flurries to most of the Dixie Fire area. Gusty northeast winds and cool temperatures will persist Tuesday. As a result of very dry, windy conditions, a widespread Red Flag Warning remains in effect until 7 p.m. Tuesday. Areas of isolated heat continue to smolder and produce smoke that may be visible to the public. However, all hotspots are interior and do not pose a threat to containment lines.

If crews conducting fire-suppression repair encounter residual pockets of heat, they are extinguishing them. Firefighters are responding to all service calls received. To report smoke, call Plumas County Sheriff’s non-emergency dispatch line: 283-6300.

Fire

The cold front passes through today with wind speeds 16-20nmph sustained and up to 30 mph gusts in NE to SW aligned valleys. A warming trend begins today, bringing increasingly warmer and drier conditions as the week progresses. Today will be the lowest relative humidity of the week (under 20 percent in some locations) as the temperatures rise coupled with the strong winds. Tonight a 15-20 percent chance of light snow in the fire area. Fire continues to creep and smolder inside the fire perimeter. Fine fuel moistures are trending upwards while live and heavy fuels remain very dry. Expect little fire activity but

strong NE winds could cause any new fires to spread rapidly to the SW. The Dixie Fire is at 963,309 acres and 94 percent contained.

Smoke

The cold front and strong winds kept overall air quality in the good range in the fire area yesterday. Today, mixing heights will be 6,500 ft and transport winds from the N NE at 30 mph, carrying smoke from the Dixie fire to the SW. Night inversions will begin to set up after 7 pm. Some smoke impacts in sheltered locations may be experienced due to wood stove use at night and smoldering fuels in the fire area. To see the impacts to the south of the forecast area, see the Fresno

Smoke Outlook at: https://wildlandfiresmoke.net/outlooks/FresnoCA.

Closures

A closure order remains in effect for some areas of the Lassen National Forest and Plumas National Forest. For more information, visit InciWeb (inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/closures/7690/) or the interactive forest closure map (arcg.is/1re8my0). In the Lassen Volcanic National Park, 1 mile of the park highway is open from the northwest entrance, and 8 miles are open from the southwest entrance. Elsewhere in the park, the highway remains closed. For more information, visit Lassen Volcanic National Park’s webpage for the Dixie Fire (nps.gov/lavo/learn/nature/dixie-fire.htm).