The Timber Fire is 25,000 acres and 59 percent contained after six weeks. The Plaskett is nearly 30,000 and all but out. Neither got a fraction of the attention Yosemite did.
Perimeter as mapped on Sep 24. 25,452 acres. Outdoor Unc, drawn from NIFC perimeter data and USGS geographic names (public domain). Schematic — not for navigation.
The Timber Fire started on August 9 and has reached 25,443 acres at 59 percent containment, with 704 personnel still assigned as of mapping done this morning. The Plaskett Fire started August 26, reached 29,993 acres and is 97 percent contained. Both are on the Los Padres National Forest.
Between them that is roughly 55,000 acres, against the Dome Fire's 3,795. The Dome Fire has had national coverage since the day it started, because it is inside Yosemite and visible from a road that tourists drive. The Los Padres fires are in country that people from Los Angeles and the Central Coast actually use, and they have been burning for six and seven weeks with a fraction of the attention.
That imbalance is worth naming because it has a practical cost. If you are planning anything on the Los Padres this autumn — Big Sur backcountry, the Ventana, the coastal ranges — the closures and the burn damage from these two are far more likely to affect you than anything in Yosemite.
Fire in this country leaves problems behind for years rather than weeks. Burned slopes above trails shed rock, root-burned trees fall without warning in the first winter storms, and drainages that carried a trickle can move debris after the first serious rain. A containment figure is not a reopening, and a reopening is not a return to how it was.
Check the forest's own alert page before committing to a route. Both fires are logged on the interagency incident system with daily updates, which is more current than anything a news site will carry once a fire stops being novel.
The Fish and Wildlife Service rule that opened 1,450 hunting and fishing opportunities across 32 refuges and rescinded non-lead requirements at nine of them is still open for comment until October 1. We reported the rule and should have said so at the time. Also open: a Bureau of Land Management notice to amend the Vernal resource management plan for oil and gas leasing, to October 5; a proposed change to the Pacific halibut catch sharing plan, October 5; and a proposal to delist the Gila chub, which closes Thursday. Comment through the docket on the Federal Register listing rather than by email.
3,795 acres on mapping done this morning. Handlines are holding on the west. The order that shut Chilnualna Falls expires at 11:59, unless it is extended.
Perimeter as mapped on Sep 23. 3,795 acres. Outdoor Unc, drawn from NIFC perimeter data and USGS geographic names (public domain). Schematic — not for navigation.
The closure order the Yosemite superintendent issued last week runs until 11:59pm on Wednesday, September 23 — tonight — unless otherwise extended by a subsequent order. That conditional wording has been there from the start, and with the fire still growing it should be read as a minimum rather than a reopening date. Check the park's closures page before you plan around it.
Interagency mapping done this morning puts the fire at 3,795 acres with containment holding at 15 percent and 840 personnel assigned, up from 784 yesterday. Cal Fire's Tuesday evening figure was 3,683 acres. The fire has grown every day since it started on September 15 and has not lost containment while doing it.
The behaviour has changed for the better. The incident team describes the fire spreading north toward the 2017 Empire Fire footprint at a low to moderate rate, creeping and smouldering rather than making runs. Handlines on the western side are holding, and crews have made progress in the Turner Ridge and Empire Meadows area, which is where the spot fires were.
The weather is about to work against that. The cloud that brought cooler conditions and a chance of thunderstorms earlier in the week is moving out, with higher temperatures and drying conditions forecast. Fires in cured fuel respond to that quickly.
The closed area remains Chilnualna Falls, the routes from the top of the falls toward Buena Vista and Crescent lakes, the Ostrander Lake Trail and everything south of it, and the ground east of the Wawona Road between Wawona and Chinquapin. Both lakes are still reachable from the east, every road is open, and there have been no evacuation orders at any point.
One planning note that applies well beyond this fire: a confirmed room, campsite or entrance reservation does not confirm that the hike you booked it for is possible. Check the route, the overnight arrangements and the smoke forecast together.
A procession of first responders accompanied the two pilots killed on Sunday from Mariposa Airport to Modesto on Monday. Firefighters, law enforcement officers and other first responders from across the country stood along the route. Greg King, 56, and Ryan Cutter were doing bucket work on the Dome Fire when their Type 1 helicopter went down southeast of Ostrander Lake. The FAA and NTSB are investigating and have released no cause. The incident team has ordered critical incident stress management support for crews still working the fire.