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<TD vAlign=top width=140><A
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border=0></A><SPAN class=phototext><BR>Elisha Page / Record
Searchlight <BR><IMG height=8
src="http://www.redding.com/redd/images/spacers/spacer.gif" width=1
border=0><BR>THIS WAY: Louie Avila points firefighter Bob Foxworthy,
who is based in Dobbins in Yuba County, to a trail he can use to
survey a slow-burning fireworking its way toward Avila’s home on
Slattery Gulch Road west of Weaverville on Sunday
afternoon.</SPAN><BR></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><SPAN class=headline1><FONT
color=#800000 size=4>Fire sweeps through Trinity </FONT></SPAN>
<P><FONT size=4><FONT color=#800000><SPAN class=subhead>More than 3,100
acres are burned, homes threatened</SPAN> </FONT></FONT>
<P><SPAN class=smalltext><B>By Rob Rogers, Record
Searchlight</B></SPAN><BR><SPAN class=smalltext><B>July 31,
2006</B></SPAN>
<P><SPAN class=bodytext>WEAVERVILLE — Louie Avila stood outside the small,
brown home he rents in the hills west of town and watched as smoke
billowed a short 100 yards from his front door. <BR><BR>The Junction Fire,
which has charred more than 3,100 acres of forest between Junction City
and Weaverville, had burned all around the area where Avila lives, moving
east toward Weaverville and away from his house. <BR><BR>Avila’s house
sits at the end of a dirt road, uncomfortably nestled between the feet of
two hillsides, both in flames Sunday. <BR><BR>Parked in his driveway was a
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection fire engine and
three firefighters ready to move against the flames should the fire speed
up or get close to the building. <BR><BR>"It’s backing down the ridge,"
said Bob Foxworthy, one of the firefighters stationed at the house.
<BR><BR>The winds picked up around 1 p.m. Sunday, and the fire northwest
of the town grew and began moving back on itself, burning west instead of
east, down the hillside toward Avila’s home. <BR><BR>"If they tell me to
go, I’m not going to argue," he said late Sunday afternoon. <BR><BR>Smoke
curled and billowed, obscuring much of the terrain from view. But the
sounds — almost a sizzle, like sand being poured down a slide — penetrated
the gray clouds as trees ignited and flames licked the underbrush.
<BR><BR>"I’ve been close," Avila said. "Never this close." <BR><BR>Highway
299, which had been closed Saturday night and Sunday morning, was reopened
Sunday afternoon, with California Department of Transportation pilot cars
escorting vehicles between Weaverville and Junction City. A few hours
later, officials also opened Oregon Road to traffic. <BR><BR>As of 9 p.m.
Sunday, CDF officials reported one structure destroyed by the fire and one
serious injury. Officials estimated the fire was about 30 percent
contained. <BR><BR>The fire is burning in much the same area as the 2001
Oregon Fire, but flames have not reached Weaverville, as they did in 2001.
<BR><BR>Residents living west of the city, Avila included, were evacuated
Saturday night. Many returned when the highway was reopened. <BR><BR>Also
evacuated Saturday were 30 patients from Mountain Community Medical
Services in Weaverville, who were sent to medical facilities in
Redding.Mountain Community’s emergency room, however, remained open.
<BR><BR>Avila sent his 12-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter to
relatives in Weaverville when the fire first flared up Saturday. He spent
half the night in a trailer park down the road from his house, where
others in the area had been evacuated. After hours of trying to sleep in
his car, he decided just to return to his home. The decision was
difficult, he said. <BR><BR>"I had no idea how fast a fire could move
until yesterday," he said Sunday. <BR><BR>With the Junction Fire still
hot, the Redding area can look forward to another smoky morning today, a
weather forecaster said. <BR><BR>Smoke billowing from the Junction Fire
likely will be trapped near the ground under a nighttime inversion layer,
said Steve Leach, a meteorologist at the Redding Fire Weather Center.
<BR><BR>Inversion layers form on clear, relatively calm nights as the
earth radiates heat into space. The cooler, heavier air will seep into the
low-lying canyons and valleys, then hug the ground.Temperature increases
with elevation under these conditions — hence the term "inversion layer."
<BR><BR>Afternoon heating mixes the air and blots out the inversion layer,
Leach said.Winds from the south also will blow smoke away from the Redding
area. <BR><BR>The far northern Sacramento Valley will likely be less smoky
than the mountain canyons of Trinity and Siskiyou counties, Leach
said."We’ll have some periodic bad spells in the valley," said Leach. "But
air quality in the canyons will be very bad for days, maybe even weeks."
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