Dixie Fire spreads east, grows by 110,000 acres

9:41 a.m. PDT Aug. 7, 2021

Environmental conditions on Friday and Friday night resulted in the Dixie Fire, 13 miles northeast of Paradise, California, being much more subdued than we had seen in the previous two days. Smoke from this fire and others in Northern California was trapped by an inversion and provided partial shade. It did not rise, disperse, or be transported into other states. Smoke was thick enough to keep temperatures cooler and humidities higher than earlier this week. It persisted into Friday night causing better humidity recovery, rising to 35 to 65 percent.

To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Dixie Fire, including the most recent, click HERE.

The forecast for Saturday calls for similar weather conditions. The fire will still be partially shaded by smoke remaining in the area and the winds are expected to be light.

The northernmost portion of the Dixie Fire has entered Lassen National Park and is expected to continue burning north through the park. The northeastern section has burned into the 2007 Moonlight Fire and Friday night was very close to the 2020 Sheep Fire and may have burned into it by Saturday morning.

The number of documented destroyed structures has increased to 184, plus another 84 described as minor structures. The Incident Management Teams are still reporting no injuries or fatalities to firefighters or civilians, however some people that were in burned over communities are unaccounted for.

Mapping Friday night determined the fire had burned approximately 446,000 acres, an increase of about 16,000 acres in 24 hours, much less than the growth of 110,000 acres Thursday.

Two Type 1 Incident Management Teams, CAL FIRE Team 1 and California Team 4, are assigned to the fire which has been divided into two zones, East and West.

Resources assigned to the fire Friday evening included 384 fire engines, 124 water tenders, 27 helicopters, 87 hand crews, and 107 dozers for a total of 5,118 personnel. The estimated cost of suppressing the fire so far is $171,000,000.

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7:37 a.m. PDT August 6, 2021

Thursday afternoon the Dixie Fire moved in a different direction as a weather trough brought a stiff wind out of the west. This changed the direction of spread by about 90 degrees, pushing it east. The combination of very dry vegetation, relative humidity in the low teens, and significant winds resulted in the fire adding another 110,000 acres on Thursday to bring the size up to about 430,000 acres. It looks like it could reach half a million in the next few days.

The south half of the fire has been relatively quiet for several days, so our map only shows the north portion.

A mapping flight Thursday at 11:45 p.m. found that the large finger of fire that blew north past Chester is now about 10 by 13 miles — 130 square miles. On Thursday that huge finger spread about 5 miles to the east as a 13-mile long flank became a 13-mile wide head fire. The area north of Highway 36 is very sparsely populated so there was likely very little structure damage.

The same cannot be said for the south shore of Lake Almanor where firefighters won some battles and lost some Thursday. A vigorous effort to protect structures occurred southeast of Lake Almanor West. Preliminary reports are their work was mostly successful.

After the fire worked its way around a large finger of Lake Almanor it spread very well northeast of Chester in an area that has been logged heavily, with dozens clear cuts showing up on the July, 2017 imagery.

Photographer Stuart Palley said in a tweet that there was “massive structure loss” in Canyondam, at the south tip of Lake Almanor.

The fire was also very active on the northeast side around Greenville and Crescent Mills. Smoke made it difficult or impossible at times to use air tankers and helicopters.

Just north of Greenville the blaze has grown for nine miles to the northeast from Highway 89, passing the southern tip of Mountain Meadows Reservoir and spreading into Lassen County. Thursday night it was 13 miles southwest of Susanville, but there are a number of old burns near the city that could slow the fire if it makes it that far.

At 11:45 p.m. Thursday the community of Westwood had fire seven miles away to the northwest, and five miles away to the southeast.

The wind slowed considerably Thursday night, and the forecast for the Westwood area is for very little wind all the way through Saturday afternoon, when there will be several hours of strong winds out of the west-southwest along with relative humidities in the teens.

CAL FIRE reports there have been no injuries or fatalities to civilians or firefighters. They are still conducting surveys, but as of Thursday evening 91 structures and 43 minor structures have been confirmed as destroyed. More than 13,000 are threatened. A structure status map is under development and CAL FIRE has detailed evacuation information.

Resources assigned as of Thursday included 418 fire engines, 121 water tenders, 24 helicopters, 88 hand crews, and 110 dozers for a total of 5,222 personnel.