The Sheep Fire just northeast of Wrightwood, California has prompted evacuations of some areas northwest of the community. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office and NIXLE have the details. An evacuation center is at Serrano High School, 9292 Sheep Creek Road, Phelan, CA 92371.
The fire is burning on both sides of Highway 2 and Sunday evening was spreading toward Desert Front Road. Most of the heat detected by a satellite overnight was on the northwest side of the fire.
Smoke over the Sheep Fire at 8:24 a.m. June 13, 2022.
Monday morning the Southern California Geographic Coordination Center said it had been mapped at 939 acres, an increase of 139 acres overnight. It was reported Saturday June 11 at 6:30 p.m.
Sheep Fire, 1:18 p.m. June 12, 2022.
The incident is being managed by the Angeles National Forest, San Bernardino County Fire, and CAL FIRE in unified command.
Sunday afternoon a cell phone outage was reported in the Wrightwood area, and law enforcement was prepared to go door to door if additional evacuations were required.
California Incident Management Team 14 with Incident Commander Watkins will in-brief Monday at 5 p.m.
The largest fires in the Complex are the Sheep, Claremont, and Bear
August 21, 2020 | 7:26 p.m. PDT
Map showing the three largest fires in the North Complex in northeast California, August 20, 2020 — Bear, Claremont, and Sheep.
Many of the wildfires that started on the Plumas National Forest from lightning on August 17 have been contained, but three are large and active on the North Complex. It is being managed by California Incident Management Team 1 working closely and coordinating resources with CAL FIRE.
(To see all of the articles on Wildfire Today about the lightning-caused wildfires in California, including the most recent, click HERE.)
The largest fire in the complex is the Sheep Fire, a result of at least three fires merging into what is now a 10,241-acre blaze three miles southwest of Susanville, California. Three residences have been destroyed and 250 are threatened.
From the Incident Management Team the morning of August 21:
The Sheep Fire moderated overnight allowing crews to make considerable progress constructing dozer line in the areas of Golden Lane, Amesbury, Jura Road, and Old Archery and Scotts Logging Roads. This followed yesterday’s spread of the fire northwest into the front-country and into the flats moving into subdivisions on the southeast side of Susanville. Crews were able to defend the structures in those neighborhoods … and hold the line without losing any additional structures. Crews on the south and west sides of the fire took advantage of the favorable weather to halt the fire spread in those areas.
The Claremont Fire one mile south of East Quincy has burned 5,678 acres.
From the Incident Management Team August 21:
The Claremont Fire continued to spread toward the west side of Quincy-La Porte Road yesterday with a few spots on the other side of road, but crews were able to get to those spots and hold the fire to the west side. Active structure protection took place last night in East Quincy where 30 engines and other heavy equipment were battling blazes. Fire fighting objectives for crews today are centered around steering the fire away from town and the Highway 70 corridor.
The Bear Fire has burned 250 acres in steep, inaccessible terrain 10 miles southwest of Quincy near the Pacific Crest Trail.
A smoke column over the Sheep Fire in Eastern Idaho, July, 2019. BLM photo.
(From the Bureau of Land Management)
Mitigation efforts reduce impacts of 112,000 acre Sheep Fire
The lightning caused Sheep Fire started on the evening of July 22 on the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) site in eastern Idaho. The area has a history of large, wind-driven wildfires that burn quickly through the grass and sagebrush desert. The Sheep Fire was no exception. It quickly became INL’s largest fire in history consuming over 112,000 acres.
Firefighters worked hard—and successfully—to save facilities from the wind-driven fire, but infrastructure losses were incurred. Transmission lines providing electricity to multiple counties across eastern Idaho are prevalent in the area, and their wooden power poles were particularly at risk. Approximately 61 rights of way for transmission lines cross BLM lands near INL. The INL itself has 4,000 power poles situated in brush and grass fuels.
During the active fire seasons of 2010 and 2011, which burned over 160,000 acres of both BLM and INL lands, power poles often burned, resulting in power outages, public safety issues and unplanned replacement costs. After the 2011 fire season, BLM fire mitigation specialists from the Idaho Falls District met with local power company officials, county officials and the INL. They discussed solutions to the considerable loss of power poles incurred from wildfires. The BLM proposed using a latex-based fire retardant paint on power poles to help protect them from burning.
Fire retardant paint applied to power poles. BLM photo.
The INL decided to implement this proposal—having lost almost 60 power poles just in 2011. Although the treatment cost $100 per pole, the INL staff was willing to make that investment due to the high replacement cost of $1,200 to $2,500 per pole. Over the next two years, INL painted 3,000 of its power poles 5 feet up from the ground with the fire retardant paint. INL prioritized power poles receiving the paint based on service area, damage risk and vegetation density.Every pole painted in the latex-based fire retardant paint survived the Sheep Fire. Even poles that had not been repainted since their initial coat in 2012 and 2013 survived.
INL’s mitigation efforts successfully kept power to its grid during the Sheep Fire. While wildfires will continue to threaten infrastructure, Idaho Falls District BLM will continue finding innovative and cost effective partnerships in eastern Idaho to mitigate wildland fire impacts.
The Sheep Fire is about 24 miles northwest of Idaho Falls
Firefighters burning out along a road on the Sheep Fire. Photo by BLM Air Attack Dan Zajanc.
(UPDATED at 6:37 p.m. MDT July 24, 2019)
Firefighters are making progress on the Sheep Fire 24 miles northwest of Idaho Falls, Idaho. The fire is on land administered by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), an agency within the Department of Energy. (scroll down to see a map)
At a briefing Wednesday the fire chief said containment has increased to the point where they expect to release 5 of the 17 engine crews later in the day. He said no “buildings” have burned but some “power structures” were damaged. A backfiring operation was executed on the south side of the fire Wednesday night. About 105 personnel are assigned to the fire.
Wednesday the size of the fire was estimated at 110,000 acres, an increase of 20,000 acres from Tuesday.
Firefighters were challenged Wednesday by strong winds. A weather station in Idaho Falls recorded sustained winds at 20 to 25 mph with gusts above 35 along with a high of 90 degrees and relative humidity in the teens. The forecast for Thursday at the fire area is about the same, except with much diminished winds — 12 mph with gusts to 21 in the afternoon.
Officials at the INL said Wednesday that there has been no release of radiation due to the fire.
Most of the workers at the INL were evacuated from the lab facilities, but there appears to be a good chance they will be allowed to return to work on Thursday.
Photos and videos of the fire, including videos of air tanker drops filmed from overhead by Air Attack, can be found here.
The photo below is interesting.
Smoke column over the Sheep Fire in Idaho. Photo by BLM Incident Commander Kris Bruington.
In the video below of a briefing about the fire, the Fire Chief describes the status of the blaze beginning at 7:30.
UPDATE: Work continues to be curtailed for non-essential employees at some facilities at the INL Site Wednesday as firefighters continue to contain the #SheepFire. It is anticipated that operations across the Site will return to normal on Thursday. More: https://t.co/crK3BkrPyB
— Idaho National Lab (@INL) July 24, 2019
(Originally published at 6:17 p.m. MDT July 23, 2019)
A smoke column over the Sheep Fire in Eastern Idaho Tuesday morning. BLM photo.
The Sheep Fire on property managed by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has burned approximately 90,000 acres in the first 24 hours. The facility about 24 miles northwest of Idaho Falls conducts nuclear research. (see the map below)
All non-essential employees were evacuated from several facilities at the lab: Central Facilities Area, Advanced Test Reactor Complex, Naval Reactors Facility, Radioactive Waste Management Complex, and Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center.
INL Site facilities are preparing for the anticipated loss of commercial power and are switching to on-site backups per existing emergency procedures.
Map showing the location of the Lava and Sheep Fires in Idaho. Data from 2:26 p.m. MDT July 23, 2019. Much of the fire is burning in light fuels that consumes quickly and may cool before the next heat-detecting satellite overflight. Therefore the fires may be larger than they appear on the map.
Radiation monitoring is ongoing, and based on current information there is no risk to the public, according to information released by the INL.
The Sheep Fire started at about 6:30 p.m. Monday from a lightning strike, and later that night other fires were started by lightning in the area. It is being managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is burning between Highways 20 and 33.
The Sheep Fire northwest of Idaho Falls, ID. Photo provided by the Idaho National Laboratory.
The weather forecast for the fire area until dark on Tuesday predicts 16 mph winds gusting to 24 out of the southwest, 25 percent relative humidity, and temperatures around 90. Wednesday should bring winds out of the southwest at 24 mph gusting to 35, 88 degrees, and relative humidity of 18 percent.
Another fire in Idaho, the Lava Fire, has burned 800 acres north of Shoshone. (see the map above)
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Bill and Al. Typos or errors, report them HERE.
The Sheep Fire, burning near the BNSF railroad tracks just south of Essex, Montana, has caused the intermittent closure of the tracks to Amtrak and BNSF trains. Since it is in the best interests of the railroad and the firefighters to suppress the fire as quickly as possible, BNSF is cooperating in various ways, including transporting fire personnel in a caboose car and using a crane and flat cars to remove slash from a shaded fuel break being constructed by feller-bunchers.
The Sheep Fire, part of the Thompson-Divide Complex, has burned about 2,100 acres on the Flathead National Forest.
Below is a video showing the feller-bunchers in action, and after that is a slide show of photos taken by Jonathan Moor of the Information organization on the fire. Mr. Moor also shot the video.
