Hells Half Update for 7-15-2008
Incident: Hells Half Complex Wildfire
Released: 7/15/2008
The heavy smoke inversion that has blanketed areas surrounding the Hell's Half Fire Complex in Humboldt and Trinity counties began to slowly lift on Monday, improving visibility. With the change in weather, fire managers expect fire activity to increase, but say that the last couple of socked in days have had mixed effects on the nearly 10,000 acre fire. "The higher humidity of the last few days caused the fire to be less active, but the heavy smoke that came with that inversion prevented us from utilizing aerial resources to fight the fire or even look at what the fire has done," said Mike Quesinberry, Incident Commander. "Yesterday, we were finally able to get in the air and, according to the meteorologist; we expect that we will be able to do more of that in the coming days."
The most active areas of the fire were in the northwestern corner of the fire near Mingo Creek and south near the western side of the 2006 Panther Fire and the South Fork of the Trinity River.
South: Crews will focus on protection and assessment of structures along the southern edge of the fire. Construction of a dozer line along the southern edge east to the Trinity River will continue with burnouts occurring as weather permits.
North: In the northwestern area of the fire, dozers will put in line from Route 6 east to the river. Fire crews will also be opening up roads in the area using a masticator, a large piece of equipment that removes overhanging limbs from trees. The limbs are then chipped to minimize available fuel for an oncoming wildfire. Burn out activities may occur if the weather permits in the north/northeastern section of the fire.
West: On the western side of the fire, mop up activities continue with firefighters reporting minimal activity.
East: Burnouts will occur if weather conditions.
Approximately 200 firefighters will be relocated to a staging area near Hyampom today, reducing travel times to and from work locations. Aircraft will operate as conditions allow.
A low pressure trough offshore will approach the coast today. Inland penetration of marine air is resulting in high humidities this morning but will decrease rapidly during the day. Northwest to north winds will increase during the afternoon with speeds stronger than yesterday. Stronger winds and cooler air aloft will result in improved mixing of the atmosphere and less trapped smoke than yesterday.
There will be a community meeting at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 16 at the Hyampon
Fire Hall to learn about fires in the Lime and Hell's Half Fire Complexes.
Area or Road Closures - Evacuations
The following area is closed until further notice: Beginning at the intersection of Forest Road No. 5N01 and Forest Route No. 6, then continuing south along Forest Route No. 6 to the Six Rivers National Forest boundary, then continuing northeasterly along the forest boundary to the northwest ¼ of Section 28, Township 5 North, Range 6 East (Humboldt Base and Meridian), and then continuing west to the starting point. The Underwood Mountain Road remains closed to the public but is open to local traffic. All evacuations remain in place but are being re-evaluated daily
