Shirley Fire, near Lake Isabella, California

(Information about the Way Fire that started August 18, 2014 north of Highway 155 near Wofford Heights and Kernville, can be found HERE. The article below is about the Shirley Fire, of June, 2014))

***********

(UPDATE at 8:47 a.m. PT, June 17, 2014)

Below is an update on the Shirley fire near Wofford Heights, California, provided by the Incident Management Team at about 8:30 a.m. PT Tuesday:

Excellent progress made over the previous 24 hours on all areas of the fire perimeter has enabled firefighters to raise containment to 75%. Burning operations used yesterday to widen lines in Division Y, held throughout the night. A wind advisory issued for the Kern Valley and will remain in place until Tuesday afternoon, wind speeds are expected to reach up to 45 MPH. Crews will be cautious of the possibility of blowing embers causing spot fires outside the line as they work to improve containment. Safety remains a concern as steep rocky terrain, tree snags and rolling material from the fire are in all areas of the fire. Last nights community meeting was attended by approximately 120 people and was streamed live to another 1100 viewers and can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf4hf0WRj8g

Today, crews will continue to hold and improve containment lines and mop up interior to the perimeter. Demobilization of resources will begin today as firefighters return home to prepare and train for the additional wildland fires to come.

The official size is 2,646 acres.

****

(UPDATE at 9 p.m. PT, June 16, 2014)

A community meeting for the Shirley Fire was broadcast live on YouTube Monday night. It started at 7 p.m., and got off to a slow start with a long speech from the Kern County Fire Chief.

Incident Commander Jeanne Pincha-Tulley came on and said they have a line around the entire fire but they are not calling it contained yet.

They said the fire has burned 2,646 acres. The Incident Management Team is calling it 75 percent contained. All evacuations for the fire have been lifted.

Incident Commander Pincha-Tulley in attempting to answer a question about where the three homes that burned were located, said she knew the general area where the losses occurred, but not being from the area, she did not know how to describe the general location to the audience. She said she was not being flippant.

Broadcasting the community meeting live on YouTube was a great idea, at least in concept. On our end, there were quite a few interruptions in the video with a lot of stopping and buffering, while we watched the circle of dots go around and around. Viewers could leave live comments on the website, and many others confirmed that they too were affected by the interruptions in the video.

It was odd that there was no organized attempt to provide a general briefing to the community members about the status of the fire. After they opened it up to questions, one of them, about 30 or 40 minutes into the meeting, was how many acres had burned and how much of the fire was contained. And no one was prepared to answer a question from the audience of where the three burned homes were located.

There may be a recording of the video available later on YouTube, and hopefully it won’t have all of the buffering interruptions. If so we will add the link to it here.

UPDATE at 9:20 p.m. PT, June 16, 2014: A recording of the meeting can be seen on YouTube. In the video, the meeting actually starts at about 48:30. After preliminary information from the host and the Kern County Fire Chief, the meat of the meeting begins at 1:02:33 when the local USFS District Ranger makes a brief comment just before the Incident Commander comes on.

****

(UPDATE at 7:42 a.m. PT, June 16, 2014)

The Shirley Fire west of Wofford Heights was very active on Sunday, growing by over 1,000 acres primarily on the north side but it also expanded on the southeast side. This brings the total area burned to 2,600 acres according to the map and information we have received, but the Pincha-Tulley Type 1 Incident Management Team reported at 8 a.m. Monday that the fire had only burned 2,200 acres. They are calling it 10 percent contained. New information from the Team has been rather sparse, but the National Interagency Fire Center reports that two structures have been destroyed. It is unknown if they were residences or outbuildings.

The fire is being fought by 1,176 personnel, with 73 engines, 4 helicopters, and 29 crews at a cost so far of $4.2 million. Air tankers, including one of the DC-10s flying out of Santa Maria, also were busy over the fire on Sunday. Night-flying helicopters from the Kern County Fire Department have also been used after sunset when the other aircraft are grounded.

As the fire spreads to the east it moves from conifers above 5,000 feet to lighter vegetation below 4,000 feet. In the lower elevations the fuels transition to brush and grass, conditions under which the air tankers and helicopters working with the firefighters on the ground can be more effective.

On Sunday the firefighters were faced with winds gusting up to 27 mph. The forecast for Monday is somewhat better, but not great, calling for 5 to 9 mph winds out of the west in the morning, becoming stronger by late afternoon at 15 mph gusting to 21 from the west and northwest.

This photo was sent to us by one of our viewers, Brian Adams, from Wofford Heights overlooking the #ShirleyFire pic.twitter.com/LiO6iqA1Rc

— KBAK/KBFX TV (@bakersfieldnow) June 16, 2014

One of the structures lost in the #ShirleyFire. Locals tell us nobody lived here. pic.twitter.com/OVJUii3ZKY — Clayton Sandell (@Clayton_Sandell) June 16, 2014

The cameraman in the above photo is wearing an interesting combination of clothing — what appears to be a fire resistant Nomex shirt or jacket, and shorts.

****

(UPDATE at 4:37 p.m. PT, June 15, 2014)

The Shirley Fire southwest of Kernville and west of Wofford Heights, California was very active Sunday afternoon, pushed by west and west-northwest winds gusting up to 26 mph. Below is an update from the Kern County Fire Department at 1:30 p.m.:

Night operations with helicopters continued through last night. The VLAT, very large air tanker, is in use this afternoon as well as other air assets. Last night, in cooperation with fire operations, the Kern County Sheriff’s Office initiated evacuations in the following areas: Pala Ranches, Juniper Highlands, Old State Road, all residences between Old State Rd and Evans Rd on Hwy 155. An evacuation advisory was also issued for Alta Sierra 500 residences fall within the evacuation area.

 

Smoke plume from the #ShirleyFire as seen from Wofford Heights, CA. pic.twitter.com/MxwUoRxeuM — Clayton Sandell (@Clayton_Sandell) June 15, 2014

****

(UPDATE at 1:56 p.m. PT, June 15, 2014)

The map of the Shirley Fire southwest of Kernville and west of Wofford Heights, California shows that at 10 p.m. Saturday night it had burned 1,600 acres. The Incident Management Team said it was 1,800 acres and 10 percent contained at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Kern County Fire Department announced at midnight, very early Sunday morning that areas being evacuated include Old State Road to Evans Road and Alta Sierra to Rancheria Road. The Kern County Red Cross and Kern County Human Services has opened a shelter at the Lake Isabella Senior Center – 6405 Lake Isabella Blvd. in Lake Isabella. There will be representatives from Kern County Animal Control present to assist families with small and large pets and animals. Kern County Fire Department helicopters 407 and 408 are making water drops at night to protect structures and support ground crews. On Sunday firefighters will be battling strong 16 mph northwest winds gusting up to 24 according to a forecast, with a temperature of 82 degrees, and a relative humidity in the lower teens. Between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. the wind was from the west at 12 to 14 mph with gusts up to 24.

 

#ShirleyFire right now. pic.twitter.com/cQqAN1iklm — Phil Hernandez (@AGCaptain) June 15, 2014

Below is a 3-D map of the perimeter of the Shirley Fire at 10 p.m. June 14, 2014.

****

(UPDATE at 10:20 p.m. PT, June 14, 2014)

The Incident Management Team distributed the following information at about 8:40 p.m. Saturday:

The Shirley Fire has grown to 810 acres and is at 5% containment. The fire is currently the most active in the Rattlesnake Creek area, about 1 mile southwest of Wofford Heights. Flames are visible from Wofford Heights and several calls have been received from concerned residents. It is important to note that there are currently no evacuations in the area of Wofford Heights. This being the case, preparedness should always be a priority when living in the wild land interface and residents are encouraged to be prepared in the event that evacuation should become necessary. If this happens, residents living in the affected area will be notified via Reverse 911 by the Kern County Office of Emergency Services. Smoke will continue to be an issue in the area and residents who may suffer adverse health effects due to smoke are encouraged check with your health care provider.

Jeanne Pincha-Tulley’s Type 1 Incident Management Team assumed command of the fire at 6 p.m on Saturday.

Wow! #ShirleyFire RT @SoCalHazy: From my Moms house in Wofford Heights @Elaina23ABC pic.twitter.com/gNtrugv5Qx @23ABCNews — Elaina Rusk (@Elaina23ABC) June 15, 2014

****

(UPDATED at 6:37 p.m. PT, June 14, 2014)

**** (UPDATED at 3:30 p.m. PT, June 14, 2014) Advisory or precautionary notices of evacuation have been issued for some areas near the Shirley Fire near Lake Isabella, California. It is not yet an actual order to evacuate.

Precautionary notices of evacuation have been put in for the areas of: Alta Sierra, Isbella Heights, Old State… http://t.co/iS3pswbfPh — Kern County Fire (@kerncountyfire) June 14, 2014

Below is an updated map of the Shirley Fire, showing heat detected by a satellite at 2:39 p.m. PT, June 14, 2014.

 

#ShirleyFire #WoffordHeights warmer but far less windy than yesterday. http://t.co/M7FgGPyhEA #SequoiaNationalForest pic.twitter.com/GV7g6foMjC — Justin Sacher (@justinsacher) June 14, 2014

****

(Originally published at 8:56 a.m. PT, June 14, 2014; updated at 1:14 p.m. June 14, 2014))

A Type 1 Incident Management Team has been ordered for the Shirley Fire which started late Friday afternoon on the Sequoia National Forest about 5 miles northwest of Lake Isabella in California, 2 miles south of the community of Alta Sierra. Jeanne Pincha-Tulley’s team will inbrief at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Last August the same team was on the Shirley Complex which was also on the Sequoia NF.

Kern County Fire Department announced at 1 p.m. that the fire has burned 500 acres. There was an unconfirmed report on Twitter at about 1:30 p.m. that the fire activity had increased substantially and air attack ordered a Very Large Air Tanker (T-910) and six medium air tankers.

The fire can be seen from the Breckenridge #3 web camera. Another web camera is at Wofford Heights.

In the hours after the fire started, the Wofford Heights weather station two miles northeast of the fire recorded winds gusting up to 21 to 25 mph with a low relative humidity that afternoon of 16 percent. The Saturday forecast for an area 1,000 feet lower than the fire calls for a high temperature around 80, relative humidity of 10 percent, and calmer winds out of the south and later the west at 6 to 8 mph.

We will update this article as more information is available.