Aug. 15—The Boise Fire perched on the ridge above Orleans engulfed 10,205 acres by Thursday, but cooler temperatures and higher humidity is helping firefighters establish defense lines for the surrounding community.
A relatively cold, wet system deepening into Saturday is slated to help the 800-odd firefighters establish fire lines to prevent the fire from surging into the sparely populated residential areas in eastern Humboldt County, especially the neighborhoods in and around Orleans. Several areas around the fire, including a big chunk of Orleans, are under evacuation orders.
“We have some really good opportunities in the next couple days to get work done. So we’ll focus on that and then coming into next week, it’s supposed to get warmer and drier again, so we have a window here and we’ll do the best we can during this time,” Adrienne Freeman, a spokesperson with the U.S. Forest Service said.
The fire is currently 0% contained despite the several defense lines — a break in fuels created by firefighters — because the Forest Service’s conservative standards, Freeman said. Until the lines are tested and the fires reach them, they don’t count toward total containment. The service does not have an estimate for when the fires are expected to reach the lines, but it will likely accompany a shift in weather: stronger winds, dryer air and hotter temperatures.
The fire’s eastern flank headed toward Salmon River presents a significant challenge for firefighters. It’s burning throughout a highly rugged, inaccessible region, requiring crews to hike in. The Forest Service is currently discussing how to address this containment-resistant wing of the blaze.
“The biggest thing for us is terrain, and then heavy, heavy vegetation loading, or heavy fuel loading,” Freeman said. “The vegetation is very dry, and that’s the result of those record-setting heat waves that we had early in July.”
Within the past year, California saw an especially wet winter followed by a record-breaking hot summer: July 2024 was the hottest month the state has ever recorded, with 129 degrees Fahrenheit measured at Death Valley. The precipitation from the winter months gave ample nourishment for trees, brush and other fire fuels to grow while the summer heat dried them out to perfect kindling ready for a spark.
The Forest Service has not yet identified what ignited the Boise Fire.
The fire, the largest burning in Humboldt County, is the fourth largest active wildfire in California, though it’s dwarfed by the top three led by the Park fire near Chico, which swallowed 429,263 acres as of Thursday.
Pyrocumulonimbus clouds billowing upward from the Boise Fire were visible from several parts of the county on Wednesday.
“It’s super, super visible and so we just want people to be aware that could happen again. You could see it again as conditions dry out,” Freeman said.
Evacuation maps and up-to-date information on the fire can be found at linktr.ee/2024boisefiresrf.
Jackson Guilfoil can be reached at 707-441-0506.
Originally Published: August 15, 2024 at 2:19 p.m.
___
(c)2024 Times-Standard, Eureka, Calif.
Visit Times-Standard, Eureka, Calif. at https://www.times-standard.com/
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
