2 days ago
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FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - Wednesday marks 18 days since the Garnet Fire began ravaging the Sierra National Forest.
It grew 1,870 acres overnight.
“Our existent interest with the occurrence and our highest precedence is successful the northbound and northeast eastbound portion successful this area,” Rachael Thurston with the U.S. Forest Service said.
Thurston says, arsenic the occurrence moves north, it inches toward residential areas similar Shaver Lake.
The Forest Service finished mounting up its second campy astatine China Peak on Wednesday, which volition springiness crews easier regular entree to the fire.
“We are moving precise hard to support it wrong the superior containment,” Thurston said.
The occurrence is besides moving southeast toward the agrarian forest, creating an wholly antithetic challenge.
“The much rugged the terrain, the harder it is for america to get crews and instrumentality successful there. So it's mostly manus crews that tin spell successful there,” Thurston said.
As crews enactment to support the forest, PG&E is guarding the powerfulness lines.
They sent a connection connected Wednesday.
“We are protecting our assets with the enactment of our Safety Infrastructure Protection Team (SIPT). These crews presently person 11 trucks connected tract successful the country of the Garnet Fire, pretreating PG&E assets by applying occurrence retardant. This squad works year-round to supply speedy enactment during emergencies, and each unit subordinate is EMT-certified. All members person besides antecedently worked for occurrence and different archetypal responder agencies.” - PG&E
“We've been moving precise intimately with PG&E from the precise beginning… That powerfulness generation, it feeds, you know, the San Joaquin Valley, which feeds the world. So we recognize the value of that,” Thurston said.
She says teams are moving 12-24-hour shifts connected 14-day schedules. It’s worthy it for those they serve, though.
“These convey you cards and the signs that we spot retired successful the neighborhoods, they're a large boost for the firefighters erstwhile they spot them,” Thurston said.
Many civilians person stopped by their station astatine Avocado Lake to bring nutrient and adjacent connection their ain homes to the occurrence crews.
Thurston says they person those necessities covered, though.
“It's not truly imaginable for america to instrumentality donations of nutrient and things similar that,” she said.
She says it’s amended to conscionable constitute the firefighters a card.
“Especially the enactment crews, they truly get a footwear retired of that,” Thurston said.
