CA Wildfire Scorches 15K Acres in Day

Sept. 06 -- A fast-moving blaze north of Redding that shuttered a major highway indefinitely and forced the evacuation of several small mountain communities has charred more than 15,000 acres in less than 24 hours, authorities said Thursday.

The Delta fire has chewed through 15,294 acres of timber and dense brush in an area with no recent fire history in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The wildfire was initially reported as three fires Wednesday afternoon north of Lakehead — a community of about 500 people near the Vollmers exit on Interstate 5 — but merged into one fire and spread rapidly. At one point, the blaze burned up to one mile per hour.

Firefighters faced challenges managing the flames overnight as extremely dry brush in the region and low humidity worked against them. Usually, thanks to cooler temperatures and humidity, wildfires slow their progress overnight. With embers flying, firefighters had to deal with spot fires popping up throughout the area. Fire crews on the front lines were met with 300-foot flames.

The fire’s quick growth also was fueled partly by warm weather and winds, and officials are not anticipating much relief Thursday. Temperatures are expected to reach the mid-90s in areas where the fire is burning, and winds with gusts in the 15 to 20 mph range are expected through the afternoon.

A morning inversion layer will trap smoke, but will lift by midday. This likely will mean the fire will start burning more aggressively. At the Ferguson fire near Yosemite National Park earlier this year, firefighters saw a slow-burning wildfire transition to a much more aggressive blaze once the inversion layer that sat over the area for two weeks fully lifted.

When an inversion layer lifts, one concern is that a wildfire will form a pyrocumulus, or fire cloud, which then can create a weather pattern within the wildfire. This sometimes causes dry lightning.

Over the next 12 hours, fire officials expect the Delta fire to spread farther north toward Gibson, east toward Greens Mountain and west toward Damnation Peak. By early Friday, the fire could expand east toward the area recently burned by the Hirz fire, a 46,150-acre blaze that’s 75% contained, according to fire officials.

While the Hirz fire is sizable but mostly within forestland, the Delta fire is threatening structures, including vacation cottages and gas stations. The Shasta County sheriff on Wednesday issued mandatory evacuations for residents along I-5 from La Moine to the Shasta-Siskiyou county line.

The interstate remains closed from 10 miles north of Redding at Fawndale Road to about four miles south of the city of Mount Shasta at Mott Road. Officials said the blaze was ignited by a person, though investigators did not provide additional information.

On Wednesday, about 17 tractor-trailer trucks were abandoned on I-5, and at least four of them were on fire, said Lt. Cmdr. Kyle Foster of the California Highway Patrol’s Mount Shasta office.

The fire fully engulfed one truck, but U.S. Forest Service workers were able to help the driver to safety, Foster said. Other truck drivers were helped by firefighters, law enforcement and their fellow drivers, he said. The fire also damaged guardrails, culverts and other portions of the freeway.

When the fire started, law enforcement officers were diverting hundreds of cars and trucks to the La Moine exit to turn around, but the fire started advancing rapidly toward that once-safe location, Foster said. Officers had to send cars and trucks through a 12-foot gap in the center median designed for emergency vehicles. Remarkably, they were able to get all vehicles turned around and away from the fire, he said.

“The positive side of this, Northern California has been very stricken by fires recently, and while it’s catastrophic and heartbreaking, most of the citizens and agencies are well versed in these types of situations,” Foster said. “The community acts very appropriately when we ask them to leave.”

___ (c)2018 the Los Angeles Times Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.