The Park Fire, which started on July 24, 2024, has rapidly expanded, affecting Butte, Plumas, Shasta, and Tehama counties. As of the latest updates, it has burned approximately 357,341 acres and is now 12% contained.
Yesterday we had our first break from extreme burning conditions. The inversion set in overnight Friday and with lower temperatures, higher humidity and decreased winds, crews and air resources had an opportunity to hit the fire with everything they had. The focus was on protecting critical infrastructure and residential areas but air support played a significant role in slowing the fire’s spread to the North, West and South. Ground crews worked to construct lines and firing operations were utilized below a neighborhood off Ponderosa Way. That’s all to say, with milder conditions, crews were able to work closer to the fire and air resources were busy all day working Highway 99, 36 and 32 corridors with everything they had.
Park Fire progression map. This map provides a narration of how the fire has spread thus far. Each color roughly represents 24 hours burn time. The white perimeter at the ignition point in Bidwell Park shows the first few hours of fire spread.
MAPS
Looking southeast from Highway 36 near Red Bluff. Containment is improving along the west flank along Highway 99E, especially from Chico to Mill Creek. The fire’s edge from Mill Creek to Highway 36 still has some uncontrolled sections, and fire was actively backing down toward the Valley in some of the more difficult-to-access areas. Crews made good progress yesterday with favorable conditions and hope to see increased containment here in the coming days.Looking South over Manton and Highway 36: Up until midday today, crews had made a lot of progress establishing a line around the 5,000 acre slop over, where the fire crossed Highway 36 on Friday, and the fire north of 36 had cooled off significantly yesterday giving crews an opportunity to go direct. This line was expected to be complete by the end of the day today, but this afternoon, fire activity has increased on the west side of Inskip Hill, so there might be a somewhat different story by the end of today. As of 6pm, most of the west edge of the fire stayed fairly cool.Looking West over the intersection of Highway 32 and 36, toward the Valley: Crews are working to establish a containment line along 36 and down Ponderosa Way toward a shaded fuel break on Shelton Ridge. A plan is being developed to utilize decreased fire activity to connect the dots from Shelton Ridge through the Mill Creek drainage and over to Highway 32. Executing this part of the plan is expected to take “a few days”. This terrain is not conducive to west-east travel, and we expect this part of the fire to remain active for a while. Fire growth here could be rapid, and could threaten Mineral and Mill Creek. Portions of this part of the fire were cooler than others on the satellite imagery, yesterday. Heavy down fuels in this area will require extended mopup.
July 28th Ponderosa Way/Mill & Deer Creek Update – Zeke Lunder
The most active, and most challenging parts to control, on the Park fire, are along the timbered north and east flanks. While the grass-dominated foothills burned quickly, the timber is extremely dry, largely inaccessible, and loaded with heavy fuels. Ponderosa Way is the only road that fully traverses this portion of the Lassen Foothills. Stretching most of the length of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, it was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression and was intended to act as a fuelbreak between the brush lands and timberlands. In Eastern Tehama County, Ponderosa Way runs from the Helipad, above Cohasset, to Highway 36, above Paynes Creek.
View to NE over Ponderosa Way (yellow) showing the fire’s progression onto timberlands owned by Sierra Pacific Industries.Much shaded fuelbreak thinning has occurred along Ponderosa Way in the past several decades. These efforts have aimed to make the corridor more viable for use in stopping large fires from burning out of the remote front-country into the high-value private timberlands above. However, the Park Fire moved across most of Ponderosa Way before any tactical firing or major firefighting efforts could take place along the corridor.This satellite image was taken around noon on 7/27/2024. The red line shows about 30 hours of fire spread, under milder conditions until 6pm on 7/28/2024. Ponderosa Way in yellow. Middle Ridge runs up the center of this image.Heavy down fuels on Middle Ridge – located between the Middle and South Forks of Antelope Creek.Some areas on the northern edge of the fire on Middle Ridge along Ponderosa Way have heavy fuel loading from previous beetle mortality. This area also had high mortality during a prescribed fire event in the late 1990s or early 2000s. These heavy fuel loads mean that it will take a long time to mop up any firelines which are successful in stopping the immediate spread of the fire.Dense ladder fuels on Middle Ridge. Previous logging created openings which have grown-in with many small trees. In the absence of regular, natural fire return intervals, this has contributed to overcrowded conditions in the forests.Overcrowded forests are susceptible to insect damage, especially during droughts. Here, trees killed by beetles have fallen and created heavy surface fuels on Middle Ridge.While Ponderosa Way is the only major access that transects the northern end of the Lassen Foothills, in many places it is choked with brush and poorly aligned to act as a fireline. This is the stretch between Middle Ridge and the South Fork Antelope Creek. The fire has already crossed the road here.Though the area where the fire has crossed Mill Creek was showing less heat on Friday, when this image was captured, it is very remote and will be a very difficult place to put in firelines. Red line is 30 hours of fire growth.The current strategy on the NE corner of the fire is to hold it on the west side of Highway 32 from Lomo north to the K-Line road. In this image, the red line extending out to Highway 32 on the top is an active firing operation that began on Friday the 27th, under mild burning conditions. The firing is continuing tonight, following Highway 32 toward the east (right edge of map). There was a large spot fire across Highway 32 just north of Lomo this afternoon.This image shows growth in the past 30 hours since noon on 7/27. There was a large blowup in the head of Little Smokey Creek this afternoon. The spot fire was at the coordinates on the right. The firing operation tonight will extend from the current fired area, left of top-center, down toward Lomo, along Highway 32. One concern is getting enough depth on tonight’s firing before the area ignited by today’s blowup becomes active tomorrow afternoon.Much of the area north of today’s blowup (around Big Smokey Creek label) likely has spot fires from this evening’s run out of the drainage to the south (right edge) and today’s run also likely sucked in active fire from the West. This area will likely push tonight’s firing tomorrow, or tonight’s firing may suck it in and cause it to spot over Highway 32 tonight.Many of the areas around Butte Meadows have similar fuel loading issues to those in Antelope Creek. Here, ladder fuels (small trees) make surface fires that may become established thru spotting more likely to torch into the canopy, leading to more spotting.Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) has conducted extensive ridgetop fuelbreak thinning on their timberlands adjacent to Butte Meadows, and if the fire get that far, this will increase the safety of firefighters working to protect the community.SPI has also thinned extensive areas along the Highway 32 corridor.
