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Beckwourth Complex spreads toward Highway 395

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories WildfireTags , ,

The Sugar Fire grew to over 54,000 acres

Updated 5:57 a.m. PDT July 10, 2021

Beckwourth Complex Sugar Fire California
Beckwourth Complex, Sugar Fire 12:59 a.m. July 10, 2021.

The Sugar Fire, the only active wildfire in the Beckwourth Complex of fires, spread rapidly Friday afternoon, exhibiting extreme fire behavior for hours as it ran to the east and northeast. Friday night on the east side it burned east out of the Plumas National Forest onto a narrow strip of the Lassen National Forest and then to the border of private land. Beyond that, the terrain and vegetation transition, where firefighters were confident they could slow or stop the spread using dozers and fire engines.

(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Sugar Fire and the Beckwourth Complex, including the most recent, click HERE.)

New mandatory immediate evacuations were ordered Friday afternoon. Details are on InciWeb and Facebook.

The Sugar Fire has burned approximately 54,400 acres.

The video below of the Sugar Fire was shot from the Chilcoot camera south of the fire, looking north-northwest during the afternoon of July 9, 2021. It compresses three hours of extreme fire behavior into six minutes. During the entire time, pyrocumulus clouds are being created and maintained. Extraordinary. A decade ago pyrocumulus were not common. Now they are almost ubiquitous on large fires.

 Updated 5:29 p.m. PDT July 9, 2021

Beckwourth Complex of fires map
Beckwourth Complex of fires. The red dots represent heat detected by satellites at 1:24 p.m. PDT July 9, 2021. The white line was the perimeter at 9:24 p.m. PDT July 8, 2021.

We have an updated map (above) of the Sugar Fire showing data from a satellite overflight at 1:24 p.m. PDT July 9, 2021.

3:53 p.m. PDT July 9, 2021

Beckwourth Complex fire
Beckwourth Complex of fires. The red dots represent heat detected by satellites at 3:42 a.m. PDT July 9, 2021. The white line was the perimeter at 9:24 p.m. PDT July 8, 2021.

The Sugar Fire, the only remaining active fire in the Beckwourth Complex of fires east of Portola, California, made a big run to the east Thursday and Friday exhibiting very unusual extreme fire behavior Friday afternoon sending up a huge pyrocumulus cloud to 40,000 feet, according to some reports. At 9:24 p.m. Thursday it had burned 23,855 acres.

The Truckee Meadows Fire Department expects that the fire could reach US Highway 395 by about 4 p.m. PDT Friday. The CHP was planning on closing the highway from Highway 70 to Doyle, CA. before it reached the road.

We will update this article as more information becomes available.

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Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.

4 thoughts on “Beckwourth Complex spreads toward Highway 395”

  1. In case you’ve missed this, the time-lapse is from the Alert Wildfire camera Chilcoot.

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  2. I’d like to ask about the tactics as new mom of firefighter. Will they go into interior box in yellow or attack on soutside of perimeter? Thank you

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  4. Beckwourth fire now appears burning on 3 sides. Will hotshot crews be on outer perimeter or inside the box? Thanks

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