The FAA reported that the helicopter that went into Lake Shastiana July 7 was a Bell 212, N911KW registered to Rogers Helicopters.
Their very brief preliminary report says, “Aircraft submerged during water operations from Lake Shastina, Weed, CA.”
The report said there were no injuries.
A Bell 212, N911KW registered to Rogers Helicopters, at the Detwiler Fire near Mariposa, California, July 27, 2017. CAL FIRE photo.
Updated at 6:58 p.m. PDT July 7, 2021
Lava Fire, 6:02 p.m. PDT July 7, 2021.
This article first appeared on Fire Aviation.
The Incident Management Team on the Lava Fire in Northern California announced Wednesday afternoon, July 7, that a helicopter working on the fire performed an emergency landing into Lake Shastina in the afternoon due to unknown reasons. The pilot was able to swim/walk away and was being assessed. There were no other passengers on board.
The 25,000-acre Lava Fire is three miles east of Weed, California on the northern slopes of Mt. Shasta. It has been burning since June 24, 2021.
The nearby Tennant Fire has burned over 9,000 acres
Updated at 7:22 a.m. PDT July 1, 2021
The white lines on the map were the perimeters of the Lava & Tennant Fires at about 11:30 p.m. PDT June 30, 2021. The red dots represent heat detected by a satellite at 2 a.m. PDT July 1, 2021.
Lava Fire
The Lava Fire was most active Wednesday on the east side, north of Mt. Shasta, where beginning at 4:30 p.m. it spread to the east for more than a mile. It chewed up another 2,000 acres to bring the size up to 19,680 acres.
Firefighters conducted burning operations Tuesday night on the west side, south of Highway 97. On Wednesday they made progress on the southwest side with the heavy use of hand crews, dozers, helicopters, and air tankers.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Lava Fire, including the most current, click HERE.)
Resources assigned to the fire Wednesday evening included 26 hand crews, 86 fire engines, and 13 helicopters for a total of 1,273 personnel. Air tankers are used as needed and available, but are not assigned to any one fire.
No information has been released about the number of structures destroyed.
Evacuation orders are in effect; details for the Lava and Tennant Fires are at https://arcg.is/1CrfH40.
Tennant Fire
The Tennant Fire, 15 miles northeast of the Lava Fire, was active on both the east and west sides on Wednesday, spreading for about 0.4 of a mile on both sides. It has burned on both sides of Highway 97 and as of 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday had blackened 9,439 acres, an increase of about 1,300 acres over 24 hours.
The Incident Management Team reported that five structures have been destroyed.
Wednesday evening there were 278 personnel assigned to the Tenant Fire, including 7 hand crews, 14 engines, 5 dozers, 13 helicopters, and 50 overhead personnel. Air tankers are used as needed, but are not assigned to any one fire.
Weather
The weather forecast for Thursday calls for sunny skies, almost no chance of rain, 91 degrees, 15 percent relative humidity, and in the mid-afternoon 15 mph winds out of the south gusting to 23 mph. This could, again, lead to active fire behavior after 1 p.m. The outlook for Friday is about the same.
Lava Fire as seen from the Lake Shastina camera at 8:36 p.m. June 30, 2021.
7:10 a.m. PDT June 30, 2021
Map of the Lava & Tennant Fires. The red line around the Lava Fire was the perimeter determined by an aircraft flight at 11:30 p.m. PDT June 29, 2021. The red areas on both fires represent heat detected by a satellite at 3:12 a.m. PDT June 30, 2021.
Lava Fire
The Lava Fire about two miles east of Weed, California was very active late in the afternoon Tuesday, putting up a large convection column of smoke topped by a pyrocumulus cloud. There was some growth to the north into Juniper Flats near Highway A12, but the majority of the movement was to the south and east in timber stands on the west and north slopes of Mt. Shasta. Spotting from torching trees created spot fires up to 0.75 mile out.
It was mapped Tuesday night at 17,591 acres.
The fire is burning through brush and timber which is interrupted by numerous patches of lava rock left over from many volcanic eruptions over the last 593,000 years. The fire is driven by very dry vegetation, spot fires, and occasional gusty winds.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Lava Fire, including the most current, click HERE.)
The U.S. Forest Service fire organization has entered into unified command, with CAL FIRE assuming the north branch containing the most community protection.
Convection column of smoke with pyrocumulus over the Lava Fire. Looking north from Soda Ridge at 7:38 p.m. PDT June 29, 2021. Credit: AlertWildfire and PG&E.
Approximately 3,200 residents have been evacuated in the community of Lake Shastina.
Crews initially attacked the fire when it was small, then left
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that in a town hall meeting Monday night the Forest Fire Management Officer (FMO) of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest said fire crews initially attacked the Lava Fire Friday afternoon when it was 1/4 acre.
Shasta-Trinity National Forest spokesperson Adrienne Freeman said the crews, thinking it was safe, left at 4 p.m. with plans to watch it from afar and return Saturday morning. However an hour later it flared up and spread rapidly.
“I apologize for that getting out”, the FMO said in the town hall meeting. “I’ll take the heat for that … I will own that … They got in with an initial attack and they got beat. It happens sometimes and is not the intended outcome, not what we want. We’re all disappointed that this happened, but it happened.”
Tennant Fire
The Tennant Fire first reported at 4 p.m. June 28 is 16 miles northeast of the Lava Fire on both sides of Highway 97 near Tennant Road. It is mostly on land protected by the Forest Service but is also on private property protected by CAL FIRE. The Forest Service reported Wednesday morning that it was mapped at 8,159 acres. It was very active Tuesday.
California Interagency Incident Management Team 15 will assume command of the Tennant Fire Wednesday.
The weather forecast for Wednesday calls for 98 degrees, relative humidity in the low teens, and in mid-afternoon 14 mph winds out of the south gusting to 21 mph. This could result in fire behavior similar to what was seen Tuesday. A red flag warning is in effect Wednesday for Southern Oregon 17 miles north of the Tennant Fire.
The outlook for Thursday is about the same, but the wind will be from variable directions at 2 to 7 mph.
Convection columns with pyrocumulus on both the Lava and Tennant Fires. Taken from Klamath Falls, OR June 29, 2021 by Douglas Bright.
Lava Fire, Pyrocumulus at 1:42 p.m. June 28, 2021.
These images of the Lava Fire were taken while it was making an extraordinary eight-mile run northeast of Weed, California on June 28, 2021. Except for the satellite photo, they all came from cameras in the AlertWildfire network.
Lava Fire as seen from the Hammond Ranch camera at 4:43 p.m. PDT June 28, 2021.GOES 17 satellite photo showing smoke from the Lava Fire at 5:26 p.m. PDT June 28, 2021. NASA.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Lava Fire, including the most current, click HERE.)
Pyrocumulus on the Lava Fire 1:33 p.m. June 28, 2021.Lava Fire as seen from the Hammond Ranch camera. Looking northeast at 7:31 p.m. PDT June 28, 2021.
The map shows heat on the Lava Fire detected by satellites. The red dots were detected at 2:54 p.m. PDT June 29, 2021. Light vegetation that burned and cooled before the next satellite overflight can’t be detected from 200 miles above the Earth.
The map above shows heat that was detected on the Lava Fire by satellites orbiting more than 200 miles above the Earth. This system is not nearly as accurate as mapping from a helicopter or using infrared on a fixed wing aircraft, but it can give us an idea of where a fire is.
The fire was active on Tuesday, putting up a great deal of smoke, but not nearly to the extent as on Monday. From the available cameras, most of the action appeared to be south of Highway 97.
There is little official information being made available about the fire itself.
Here is a link to a map with the latest evacuations and road closures from the Siskiyou County Office of Emergency Services: https://arcg.is/1CrfH40
Fire history in vicinity of Lava Fire, for which the perimeter on June 28, 2021 is shown. Lava perimeter supplied by Incident Management Team.
The map above shows the history of wildfires during the last 30 years in the vicinity of the current Lava Fire.
It is possible that the 2006 Hotlum Fire influenced the spread of the Lava fire, splitting into two heads. But there is also a field of lava in that area just south of Highway 97 which on satellite photos appears to be lightly vegetated, so it’s difficult to say from afar.
At Wildfire Today we covered the Boles Fire which burned through Weed in 2014.
Updated at 11:32 a.m. PDT June 29, 2021
Tuesday morning the Incident Management Team for the Lava Fire near Weed, California reported that the fire had burned 13,300 acres. Judging from the map, (see below) that number is likely to change.
Lava Fire as seen from the Hammond Ranch camera, looking northeast at 9:19 a.m. PDT June 29, 2021 at the area north of Mt. Shasta.
While the fire was burning a battle broke out between a person who was told he could not enter the fire area and law enforcement officers. The Mount Shasta Vista subdivision that was threatened by the fire is the home of hundreds of marijuana grows.
The officers tried to stop a man from driving into the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision after the fire crossed Highway 97 north of Weed, Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue said. The 1,641-lot subdivision has been converted into a massive network of marijuana grows run primarily by Hmong families.
“They made contact with the driver. And at some point, the driver exhibited a firearm, a handgun, and pointed it at the officers,” LaRue told The Sacramento Bee.
“Based upon preliminary information, it appears that there might have been a couple rounds fired from the suspect’s firearm.”
The officers, which included a sheriff’s deputy and local police officers, returned fire, killing the man, LaRue said. The dead man’s name wasn’t released. Darren Duck, who lives across Highway A-12 from where the officers shot the suspect, said he heard close to 60 rounds fired.
The newspaper said that during the fire the growers were hostile to firefighters. Not feeling safe, the firefighters did not enter the area.
The last time the city of Weed was seriously threatened by a fire was in 2014 when 157 residences and 8 commercial structures burned in the Boles Fire. It was started by an arsonist south of the community and was pushed by a strong southeast wind gusting over 40 mph.
6:56 a.m. PDT June 29, 2021
Map showing the APPROXIMATE location of the Lava Fire at 1:22 a.m. PDT June 29, 2021. This map is an early draft after the 8 mile run the fire made June 28.
The Lava Fire east of Weed, California, pushed by strong winds Monday afternoon ran 8 miles to the north.
It crossed a railroad, Highway 97, then burned five miles further north-northeast across flat ground. At 1:48 a.m. Tuesday it was at Chipmunk Road in Montague, a half mile south of the A12 road.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Lava Fire, including the most current, click HERE.)
No information has been released by the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office, the Incident Management Team, or the Shasta-Trinity National Forest about residences or property that were impacted by the fire after it crossed Highway 97. As this was written at 6 a.m. Tuesday, the Incident Management Team’s InciWeb page had not been updated in 20 hours.
There has been no official estimate released about the size of the fire, but by our figuring it is likely more than 4,000 acres.
Lava Fire, looking southeast from the Lake Shastina camera at 5:57 a.m. PDT June 29, 2021.
At 6 a.m. PDT Tuesday cameras showed active fire on the hill east of Carrick, east of Hilltop Lane.
You may be able to see in this photo an air tanker making a drop on the Lava Fire at 8:16 p.m. June 28, 2021. Captured by the camera at Lake Shastina.
The fire area was under a Red Flag Warning Monday from 1 p.m. until 9 p.m., stating, “Strong, gusty wind with low relative humidity and high fire danger will likely contribute to a significant spread of new and existing fires.”
The strong winds experienced Monday afternoon had been predicted at least 20 hours in advance. Sunday at 4:47 p.m. we wrote about it on Wildfire Today:
On Monday that breeze will be replaced in the afternoon by strong winds out of the south at 17 mph gusting to 28 while the temperature rises to 96 degrees with 15 percent relative humidity…. a recipe for significant fire growth unless firefighters can get a line around the fire before noon.
That forecast from the National Weather Service was exactly right.
GOES 17 satellite photo showing smoke from the Lava Fire at 5:26 p.m. PDT June 28, 2021.
According to the fire’s InciWeb page, the fire started at about 7:45 a.m. June 25 on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. It has been managed since June 28 by a Type 2 Incident Management Team, California Interagency Incident Management Team 14.
We will update this article as more information becomes available.
Monday morning it had burned 1,446 acres 3 miles east of Weed, California
Updated at 9:16 p.m. PDT June 28, 2021
Lava Fire, from the Antelope Yreka1 camera. Looking southeast toward Mt. Shasta at 3:32 p.m. PDT June 28, 2021. Before it crossed Highway 97.
The Lava Fire that was east of Weed, California Monday morning is much larger than it was after being pushed north in the afternoon by winds gusting from 26 to 33 mph. It crossed Highway 97 and kept going. It is difficult to tell how far north it ran until the smoke clears or an infrared mapping aircraft can collect some intelligence overnight.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Lava Fire, including the most current, click HERE.)
The weather forecast predicts the wind speed will decrease sharply after 10 p.m. Monday night to around 5 mph, and overnight will come out of the east-southeast, then east. Tuesday morning the direction will be variable but will become established in the afternoon to come from the east at 13 to 16 mph gusting to 24 mph. This could spread the fire to the west unless by then firefighters can contain the west flank.
CAL FIRE is mobilizing large numbers of firefighting resources to assist in battling the fire, which burned out of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest after it crossed Highway 97.
West flank of the Lava Fire, north of Highway 97, at 5:39 p.m. June 28, 2021. Looking east-southeast from the Lake Shastina camera.
Updated at 4:51 p.m. PDT June 28, 2021
A person on Twitter who follows wildland fires closely, CA Fire Scanner, learned from listening to the Lava Fire’s radio traffic that the fire, spreading rapidly north, has crossed Highway 97 and is well established on the north side.
Approximately five air tankers are working the fire, including Tanker 912, a DC-10.
However this afternoon’s fire run turns out, the weather forecast for Monday night also looks troublesome. After 10 p.m. the wind is expected to shift to come out of the southeast and then east. The speed should decrease from the 29 mph gusts in the afternoon to 5 to 8 mph through the night. This wind direction could push the fire west, threatening communities west of the fire.
Satellite photo, smoke from Lava Fire at 4:21 p.m. PDT June 28, 2021.
Map showing the perimeter of the Lava Fire. Mapped by a USFS Cobra Firewatch helicopter at 1:44 p.m. PDT June 27, 2021.
The Lava Fire three miles east of Weed, California was mapped by a US Forest Service Cobra Firewatch helicopter at 1:44 p.m. PDT Sunday and determined that the fire had burned 410 acres.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Lava Fire, including the most recent, click HERE.)
The high temperature at a weather station northwest of the fire at about the same elevation recorded a high temperature as of 3:53 p.m. of 93 degrees, but still appeared to be rising. The relative humidity in the afternoon was in the teens, the wind speed was 2 to 5 mph, and the direction, as predicted, was all over the place.
Lava Fire, smoke column topped by pyrocumulus cloud, June 27, 2021. InciWeb photo.
Sunday afternoon the Lava Fire was putting up an impressive pyrocumulus-topped convection column. The light wind allowed the column to build directly over the fire.
On Monday that breeze will be replaced in the afternoon by strong winds out of the south at 17 mph gusting to 28 while the temperature rises to 96 degrees with 15 percent relative humidity…. a recipe for significant fire growth unless firefighters can get a line around the fire before noon.
Updated at 8:12 a.m. PDT June 27, 2021
3-D map showing the APPROXIMATE perimeter of the Lava Fire at 3:18 a.m. PDT June 27, 2021. Looking east.
The Lava Fire near Weed, California was active all night Saturday. A satellite overflight at 3:18 a.m. Sunday showed that it had spread approximately 1 mile further to the south in the previous 12 hours making the overall length about two miles. (See the map above)
Saturday evening the Incident Management Team reported it had burned 220 acres. The heat signatures detected by the satellite at 3:18 a.m indicated that it had grown to at least 400 acres.
