Startling Rise in Plumas Fire Size: Burn Area Up a Fourth in a Day; Wind Shift Sends Smoke to Valley Again.
By Robert D. Davila, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
Sep. 10–The stubborn Moonlight fire in Plumas County grew almost a quarter in size Sunday, to 52,000 acres, as shifting wind sent smoke from the blaze in the northeast Sierra Nevada back toward the Sacramento area.
The amount of charred acreage in the Plumas National Forest mushroomed from 31,000 on Friday and 42,000 on Saturday, officials said.
Residents in the area said the shifting winds and acrid smoke created an eerie atmosphere in their communities on Sunday.
The expanding fire is pushed by heated air that rises each day and sucks flames into the forest crown, creating winds that in turn fan the blaze, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Mark Beaulieu said.
“Especially with such dry fuels,” Beaulieu added. “We have real low air humidities up here.”
Meanwhile, a change in wind direction Sunday pushed the fire south and southwest, sending ash and thick smoke into Taylorsville and Greenville. Gusts exceeding 30 mph could send smoke that had dissipated over the weekend back toward the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, Beaulieu said.
Northeasterly wind above 5,000 feet could bring “haze or brown muck” from the Plumas County wildfire to the Sacramento region today, said meteorologist Steve Goldstein of the National Weather Service. The wind is expected to shift to a more favorable southerly direction by Tuesday, he added.
“We’re not expecting any hazardous-smoke advisories, but we’ll see it,” Goldstein said. “It will be right overhead.”
The Moonlight blaze remained 16 percent contained Sunday, with almost 2,800 firefighters battling the flames. Wind created by the fire, and changing weather patterns, made it difficult to predict when it could be fully contained, Beaulieu said.
The fire has destroyed one home and a shed and damaged an outbuilding since beginning on Labor Day, according to the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Ten firefighters have suffered injuries, according to the department’s Web site.
Mandatory evacuation orders continued Sunday in the North Arm of Indian Valley, the Antelope Lake Recreation Area and other neighborhoods. In Taylorsville, Genesee Valley and part of Greenville, officials warned, but did not require, residents to leave.
In Taylorsville, smoke from the fire Sunday afternoon was so thick “it’s like a fog,” saidMichael Kurihara, an employee at Young’s Market. Residents planning to evacuate to a campground in town stocked up on nonperishable food items, he said.
The size and speed of the fire has many residents concerned, Kurihara said.
“It’s very nerve-racking and upsetting to see this happening,” he said. “The size of the fire is over 50,000 acres, and it’s moving so fast. Everything is so dry.”
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