InciWeb has a good summary of the status of the Sheep fire:
The Sheep Fire started near Sheep Canyon Road near Lytle Creek at about 2:11 pm on Saturday October 3, 2009. It burned northeast to Swarthout Canyon Road, then northwest up Lone Pine Canyon. 5 structures were destroyed in the Lone Pine and Swarthout Canyon areas along with vehicles, RVs and heavy equipment. The fire burned to near the top of Lone Pine Canyon near Wrightwood about 3/10 of a mile from Wrightwood homes.
Firefighters have been successful in keeping the fire from burning into Wrightwood. Numerous helitankers and fixed wing air tankers have dropped water and retardant on the fire and back fires have been set to protect homes at the eastern edge of Wrightwood. Engines will continue to do structure protection and ground resources will mop-up and construct line.
Mandatory evacuations are still in place for Wrightwood, Swarthout Canyon, Lone Pine Canyon and for the following areas in Lytle Creek: Applewhite Campground, Applewhite Picnic Area, and areas east of Lytle Creek Road up to and including Mountain Lakes RV Park. Evacuation Centers are located at Eisenhower High School in Rialto and at Victorville Fairgrounds.
Perhaps realizing that many incident commanders in recent years have stopped using the term “contain” as it is defined in the National Wildfire Coordinating Group Glossary, the writer who last updated the Sheep fire information on InciWeb felt compelled to explain what containment meant:
The Sheep Fire is 32% contained. When referring to a fire, the difference between a fire being contained or controlled can be unclear. When a fire is contained a fuel break has been completed around the fire manually by hand line, and/or mechanically by dozer line. These breaks may also include the use of natural barriers such as rocky outcroppings. When a fire is controlled, it has been extinguished completely, including hot spots. When a fire has been controlled, the fireline is secure enough so that flare-ups within the fire perimeter will not break through the line. Therefore, just because a line is contained does not mean that the fire is controlled.
They are mostly right, however the following statement is not correct:
When a fire is controlled, it has been extinguished completely, including hot spots.
And the next sentence, which is correct, contradicts that statement:
When a fire has been controlled, the fireline is secure enough so that flare-ups within the fire perimeter will not break through the line.
Controlled does not mean the fire is completely out, it simply means the incident commander is staking his or her reputation on a prediction that the fire will not burn any additional acres outside the existing control line.
Wildfire Today covered this issue on April 29 when we wrote about the use and mis-use of the term “containment”:
We should go back to the orignal clearly defined procedure, based on a mathematical percentage of completed, black, line. If the perimeter is 10,000 feet, and 8,000 feet of the perimeter has completed black line, the containment percentage is 80. Period.
Wildfire Today thanks the incident commanders of the Sheep fire, Woychak, Wessel, and Stalknak, for using the term “contain” as it has been defined for decades.
