[env-trinity] Redding.com: Weaverville fire dies down through the day

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.redding.com/news/fires/weaverville-fire-dies-down-through-the-day_65987072

Weaverville fire dies down through the day
Damon Arthur
5:58 PM, Aug 25, 2014
12:39 AM, Aug 26, 2014
WEAVERVILLE, California - A day after ripping through 580 acres in just three hours, the Oregon Fire near Weaverville slowed considerably Monday, enabling crews to build more fire line around the blaze.
“Crews are making really good progress on the fire,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Eric Hill said. “The fire laid down substantially.”
The fire broke out shortly after 4:30 p.m. Sunday just west of Weaverville near Oregon Mountain, and pushed by strong winds it made a run through steep terrain to the east toward the north side of Weaverville. But as the winds died down, so did the fire, which did not grow overnight or through the burn period Monday afternoon.
Hill said there have been several fires in the Oregon Mountain area over the 15 years, with the most recent again burning through an area still recovering from fire.
“It pretty much burned through old burn scars,” Hill said.
Cal Fire spokeswoman Cheryl Buliavac said a trailer came unhitched from a vehicle towing a boat on a trailer. The trailer threw off sparks as it was dragged across the pavement, starting the fire on Highway 299 near the Oregon Summit.
Firefighters were able to get a line around the fire Sunday night as the winds died, creating favorable conditions for crews, Buliavac.
On Monday morning, the fire was estimated at 650 acres and 25 percent contained, but by Monday evening officials recalculated its size at 580 acres and 45 percent contained. One building, described as a large barn off Weaver Bally Road, was destroyed by the fire, Cal Fire officials said.
Hill said one firefighter was treated for a heat-related injury. As of 6 p.m. today, all evacuation orders had been lifted and the Red Cross Shelter at Weaverville First Baptist Church closed.
Alex Cousins, manager of the Trinity County Resource Management District, said the fire burned through much of the 13,000-acre Weaverville Community Forest, which surrounds the town. The community forest serves as a demonstration area in which a collaboration of Weaverville residents, Forest Service and other agencies thin the forest regularly.
The fire may have been slowed as it went through the forest due to thinning and prescribed burns, he said.
This past spring crews burned about 70 acres north of Weaverville to thin out the forest to improve forest health and reduce fire intensity. Cousins said he wasn’t sure if the fire burned through or near the prescribed fire.
He was sure the fire was slowed by some thinning done in 2010 near homes in the neighborhood around Trinity High School. A fire that burned through the area in 2001 torched 1,600 acres over a period of several days, compared to Sunday’s 580 acres in one day, which may be due to the thinning done in the area, Cousins said.
Officials also assigned nine air tankers to the fire, which according to one Weaverville resident made up a “constant stream” of aircraft dropping retardant and water on the fire shortly after it started.
Hill said with the strong winds pushing the fire toward Weaverville, fire officials sent in a large number of aircraft early on because they didn’t want to take any chances of having the fire burn through town.
Cathy Anderson of Weaverville said she and others were sitting outside Tops Market off Highway 299 on Sunday night watching the fire move toward town.
“The fire was moving fast,” said Anderson, who has seen many fires burn the hills around Weaverville. “What was different about this one was we could watch how fast it was growing.”
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