Meadows Fire News Release 9/17/2008 Pm
Incident: Meadows Wildfire
Released: 9/17/2008
Release No. FS-091708-02 September 17, 2008, 6:00 p.m.
Media Information Contact: (530) 964-3749
Meadows Fire 60% Contained
McCloud, Calif. - Approximately 200 people made good progress on the Meadows Fire today. The fire is located about five miles east of the McCloud Reservoir on the McCloud Ranger District below the Grizzly Peak lookout. The fire was reported yesterday shortly before 6:00 p.m. by the USFS Siskiyou Bear Lookout. The cause of the fire is believed to be lightning.
The fire is estimated to be 24 acres in size and is burning beneath the 500-kV California-Oregon Transmission Project transmission line operated by the Transmission Agency of Northern California (TANC). John Forman, spokesperson for TANC, stated "the power line was de-energized through the cooperative efforts of the USFS and the Western Area Power Administration to assist the fire fighting efforts and provide for the safety of firefighters". Forman went on to say "there are no power outages as a result of the line being out of service, and it will be returned to service as soon as the field representatives deem that it is safe to do so, thereby allowing power operations to resume on the line." Fire officials said that power has been rerouted and the lines remain undamaged.
Tonight, crews continue cutting line directly along the fire's perimeter and are laying hose to supply water to assist suppression efforts.
It was discovered today that four solar panels supplying power to a mountain top radio repeater in the Shasta - McCloud Management Unit were stolen within the last two weeks. This repeater is the main communication link between fire suppression resources and the command center. The loss of power to this site will make communication with remote fire crews difficult. If anyone has information on the missing panels, please contact Shasta-Trinity law enforcement at 530-226-2592 or 530-926-9616.
Additional information: http://inciweb.org/incident/1545/ and http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/shastatrinity
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