Evacuation orders have been in effect since Wednesday morning for the Volcanoville and Tunnel Hill area of ​​El Dorado County, and were expanded Thursday afternoon to include the Quintette, Bald Mountain, Gray Eagle Hill and Battle Hill areas. An evacuation warning was issued just after 2:30 p.m. for all of Georgetown, a town of about 3,000 about 15 miles north of Placerville. Crews were working shortly after 1:30 p.m. to disable power lines along Volcanoville Road after the fire broke out on the El Dorado side of the river, according to radio dispatchers. The fire has burned “multiple” structures in Volcanoville, according to the audio shortly before 2:30 p.m. Firefighters were responding to fires on the south side of Volcanoville Road, according to radio traffic. Authorities are urging those in Vocanoville who have not yet done so to evacuate. About 250 people live in Volcanoville and another 100 in Quintette. “If you need additional time, consider leaving before an evacuation order is issued,” the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post shortly after 1 p.m. A temporary evacuation site reopened Thursday afternoon at Cool Community Church, 863 Cave Valley Road, Cool, after being closed Wednesday afternoon, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office said. Evacuees may gather at the center with pets, except birds, due to the risk of spreading bird flu. All of Foresthill, a town of 1,500, and neighboring communities, including Michigan Bluff, were placed under mandatory evacuation orders by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office as of noon Wednesday. Placer County declared a local state of emergency for the Mosquito Fire at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Aircraft mapped the mosquito fire at 1:30 p.m. to 8,625 acres, or more than 13 square miles, from 6,870 acres in a 7 a.m. update. by Cal Fire and the Forest Service. Contains 0%. The fire “continues to slice west toward Foresthill as well as burning actively to the northeast” in addition to spreading south along the river, Cal Fire Nevada-Yuba-Placer Division Chief Nolan Hale said in an afternoon briefing. video update. The wildfire grew by thousands of acres Wednesday, threatening homes and spewing smoke across large swaths of Northern California. The Mosquito Fire threatens just over 1,000 structures, including critical infrastructure, Cal Fire’s Nevada-Yuba-Placer unit said. Infrastructure at risk included Sugar Pine Dam, the Placer County Water Agency pumping station and dam, major power lines, the Ralston Hydroelectric Plant and cell phone towers. The blaze, one of several large fires burning amid a September heat wave that has ravaged drought-stricken California, is burning in extremely dry brush and timber, fire officials said. #MosquitoFire, Vegetation Fire, Placer County, Oxbow Reservoir, 3 miles east of Foresthill. 6870 acres brush and timber, 0% contained. Constant threat to structures and power lines. Many communities are threatened. Unified Command CAL FIRE, Placer Sheriff and USFS. pic.twitter.com/CKNTbJSgmK — CAL FIRE Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit (@CALFIRENEU) September 8, 2022
The fire had “extreme” behavior throughout the day Wednesday and quadrupled in size during the day, fire officials said in incident reports, after it ignited Tuesday night on steep terrain near Oxbow Reservoir in the Tahoe National Forest, spreading fast northwest to Foresthill. Foresthill, a town of about 1,500 people, was ordered by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office to evacuate at noon Wednesday, along with immediately surrounding communities in Placer County. Parts of Volcanoville in El Dorado County were also placed under a mandatory evacuation order. An evacuation center remains open at Bell Road Baptist Church, 77 Bell Road, Auburn. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in a filing with state regulators Thursday morning said “electrical activity occurred near the time of the fire report” on one of the transmission poles near Oxbow Reservoir. “The (Forest Service) has placed caution tape around the base of a PG&E (60Kv) transmission pole,” PG&E officials wrote in a filing with the California Public Utilities Commission. “To date, PG&E has not observed any damage or abnormal conditions to the pole or our facilities near OxBow Reservoir, no downpipe in the area or vegetation-related issues.” The utility company, which has been found criminally responsible for starting the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise and whose equipment was identified as the cause of last year’s nearly million-acre Dixie Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills, wrote that it filed Thursday’s filing “out of an abundance of caution” as the electrical incident “involves an event that may meet property damage reporting requirements.” The cause of the mosquito fire remains under investigation by Cal Fire and the Forest Service. Crews are “aware of structural damage in the Michigan Bluff area” near Forest Hill, according to Cal Fire’s Thursday morning incident report, but the extent of the damage was not immediately clear. No damage inspections have been conducted due to unsafe conditions, Cal Fire said. About 1,700 people are working on the fire, Cal Fire said. The Mosquito fire most of Wednesday produced a conflagration cloud – a towering plume of smoke similar in appearance to a volcanic eruption. The plume could be seen from the Sacramento area, other neighboring Northern California counties and parts of western Nevada. By Thursday morning, hazy skies settled over Sacramento as winds blew smoke across the region, but more smoke from pyres appeared in the early afternoon as the fire began to race into El Dorado County. Air pollution was recorded at “hazardous” levels above AQI 200 as of 9 am. in parts of Placer, El Dorado and Sacramento counties, including Folsom, El Dorado Hills, Granite Bay, Orangevale, El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park, according to an online air quality map from the Environmental Protection Agency. Pollution reached “very unhealthy” levels near Auburn, Newcastle and Penryn and “unhealthy” levels near Roseville, Carmichael, Citrus Heights and Rancho Cordova. Air quality remained at the “moderate” level within Sacramento’s city limits, according to the map. Thick smoke was also expected to blow east toward Lake Tahoe, according to the National Weather Service.

Mosquito fire map

This live-updating map shows the location of the Mosquito Fire near Foresthill, with heat-sensing satellite data for hotspots. Click the legend button for more information. iFrames are not supported on this page. Sources: US Department of the Interior, IRWIN, NIFC, NASA, NOAA, and Esri The Forest Service announced Wednesday afternoon that a large portion of the Tahoe National Forest, including French Meadows Reservoir and the popular Western States Trail, will be closed to the public until at least the end of 2022. The closed trail is the site of the annual Western States 100-mile endurance race, which starts in the Olympic Valley and ends in Auburn. The match was held in June this year.

Barnes Fire in Modoc County

A wildfire that started Wednesday in Modoc County, the Barnes Fire has grown to 1,621 acres. The Modoc County Sheriff’s Office issued evacuation warnings for the communities of Willow Ranch and Fort Bidwell, which remained in place as of Thursday morning. The fire grew little overnight, but fire activity is expected to increase due to worsening fire weather conditions, Modoc National Forest officials said in a Thursday morning briefing.

Coyote Fire in Siskiyou County

A new brush fire ignited Wednesday in Siskiyou County, Cal Fire said, with progress halted at just 300 acres. The Coyote Fire was burning along Coyote Ridge, about 10 miles southwest of the town of Dorris, Cal Fire’s Siskiyou unit said Thursday morning. All evacuation warnings have been lifted for the fire, which was reported at 297 acres with 20% containment.

Mill and Mountain fires in Siskiyou County

The Mill Fire, which killed two people and leveled dozens of homes in its initial burst last week near Weed, was contained to 3,935 acres as of Wednesday afternoon at 75 percent containment. Crews completed a damage assessment and found that 92 buildings were destroyed and another 17 were damaged. Two women, aged 73 and 66, died, authorities said, and three other civilians were injured. Mandatory evacuation orders remained in effect for parts of the Lake Shastina community, where homes were damaged and destroyed. Evacuation orders within the city of Weed have been lifted or downgraded to warnings. Roseburg Forest Products, which operates a mill in Weed, acknowledged Wednesday that it is investigating whether a malfunctioning sprinkler system allowed ash muffler from an on-site power plant to ignite the Mill fire. Cal Fire’s Siskiyou unit at a 7 a.m. briefing. on Thursday he said the Mountain Fire remains at 11,690 acres and is now 45 percent contained. Little fire activity was seen overnight, but gusts up to 25 mph are expected to continue Thursday. Two structures were destroyed and about a dozen residents remained under evacuation orders.

Fairview Fire in Riverside County

The deadly Fairview wildfire in Southern California grew rapidly Wednesday, with Cal Fire reporting that the acreage had ballooned from 9,846 acres as of 7 p.m. on 18,657 acres by 7 a.m. Thursday. The fire started Monday and is burning near Hemet, where mandatory evacuations remain in effect. It threatened about 2,500 structures as of Thursday morning. Cal Fire said the fire remained active Wednesday on its east, south and north flanks. Two…