2 weeks ago
2
FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - After reaching astir 10,000 acres successful the span of 3 days, firefighters are mounting up campy astatine Avocado Lake to hole for the ongoing firefight.
Esteban Flores with the Sierra National Forest says implicit the adjacent mates of days, a "little village" volition take implicit Avocado Lake arsenic an operating basal for occurrence crews battling the Garnet Fire.
"We'll person restrooms here, bathrooms, a eating hallway for the firefighters, and besides staging areas wherever they tin slumber and furniture down," helium said.
The Garnet Fire was conscionable 1 of 9 fires that ignited implicit the weekend, having reached implicit 3,000 acres by Sunday night and astir 9,159 acres with 0% containment by Tuesday morning. Due to its size, areas K29 and K28 are nether an evacuation warning, portion the pursuing areas are nether an evacuation order:
- K27
- K30
- K31
- K32
- K40
Flores says they person an interior strategy that allows agencies to study if they person occurrence crews available, but with aggregate fires burning passim the state, firefighters are dispersed thin.
"It conscionable depends connected who's available, really. Right now, the westbound portion of the United States has a batch of fires," Flores explained. "And truthful a batch of our resources are scattered throughout."
Tuesday's update reports the occurrence expanded northeast, citing upwind and steep terrain arsenic large obstacles successful containment efforts.
"These winds person been making it a batch much challenging; it's been making it challenging for our craft too, due to the fact that they can't alert erstwhile the winds are excessively strong, and past the retardant drops are not arsenic effectual erstwhile the upwind conscionable blows it away," Flores said.
Along with the main firefight, Flores says they are moving to incorporate the different adjacent 8 fires that ignited since the weekend, arsenic they airs the menace of merging together. Out of the 9 full fires, 5 person been contained.
"We person 2 teams. We person a Type 1 incidental absorption squad that's fundamentally gonna beryllium dealing with [the Garnet Fire], and we person another, Type 3 incident, which is simply a small spot little complex, and they're going to beryllium successful complaint of the different lightning fires," helium said.
The US Forest Service suspects that the Garnet Fire was ignited by lightning strikes pursuing storms that swept implicit the country implicit the weekend, but nary authoritative origin has been determined.
To spot if your country is nether an evacuation advisory, click here.
Juanita Adame contributed to this report.
