Above: Lion Fire in Sequoia National Forest. Photo uploaded to Inciweb October 5, 2017.
(Originally published at 11:22 a.m. PDT October 5, 2017)
After burning for 11 days since it started on September 24, the Lion Fire roared through the Sequoia National Forest Tuesday and Wednesday, doubling in size to 7,850 acres.
The fire is 10 miles northeast of Camp Nelson and 30 miles northeast of Porterville, California in the Golden Trout Wilderness.
Firefighters are working to protect the structures at the privately owned R.M. Pyles Boys Camp.
The Lion Fire is not being fully suppressed. Most of the current spread has been in an area that burned in the 2011 Lion Fire.
“This fire is spreading mostly through ground fuels in this remote part of the Wilderness,” stated District Ranger Eric LaPrice. “Efforts to contain the fire will be made along routes where firefighters can work safely while avoiding stands of dead trees and inaccessible terrain.”
Smoke is expected to settle into the valleys in the late evening and early morning hours due to inversion patterns that normally hold the smoke in low-lying areas.
A weather station about 8 miles southwest of the fire recorded single digit humidities Wednesday night into mid-day on Thursday. During that period west to northwest winds were blowing at 4 to 11 mph with gusts of 11 to 16 mph.
Oddly, the National Interagency Fire Center’s Situation Report said Thursday, while showing a 4,050-acre increase in size, “Last report unless significant activity occurs.” We might be confused about how NIFC defines “significant activity”. But they often distribute less information about fires that are not being suppressed.
Your killing the people of the kern river valley, we have had this smoke all summer, I myself have asthma, green horn is over half dead of trees, it needs to be cleaned up. we can’t take this smoke. I do appreciate all those fire fighter’s thay are hero’s. Thay saved me ln the past fire’s.
How has the Lion fire affected Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon?
jda5pickles@kpunet.net