[UPDATE 9:30 a.m.]Gap Fire North of Happy Camp Exploded Yesterday and Continued Growing Overnight

The Gap Fire that started between Seiad Valley and Horse Creek northeast of Happy Camp near Hwy 96 exploded yesterday and last night consuming almost eight miles of wilderness, an estimated 5000 acres. Hot and dry conditions coupled with what Duane Lyon Fire Information Officer for the Klamath National Forest ll said were winds blowing from “all four quadrants” sent flames licking through the landscape and caused a “dramatic increase” in size. Lyon said there has been preliminary reports that structures were lost. At yet, he said, “We don’t know if they are lost and how many.”

The fire not only jumped Horse Creek yesterday. It spotted over the Klamath River last night. This new spot fire is about 20 acres. “They are working hard to contain that to prevent the spread,” Lyon said.

Gap fire

The information for this map was gathered at 9:45 last night. The fire has expanded since then but it is the latest map we can find. Click on this image for a larger pdf file. It might take a minute to load.

Normally the fire calms down overnight but, Lyon said, this did not happen last night. There are mandatory evacuation orders for Horse Creek and Hamburg. There is an advisory for Scott Bar.

UPDATE 9:06 a.m.: From the very reliable fire site Wildlandfire.com, comes this report, “From Ops this morning: 5000 ac, 5 primary residences lost, 1/2 doz out buildings, spot across the Klamath approximately 40 acres and hopeful it will be caught this morning. Hwy 96 closed from Hwy 263 to the mouth of the Scott River.”

UPDATE 9:30 a.m.: Hwy 96 is closed from State Route 263 to Scott River Road due to the fire.

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G-ma
Guest
G-ma
7 years ago

Please be safe all!!

Don
Guest
Don
7 years ago

Ever since we squashed the logging , sure is alot of fires, funny how that works.

Kayla
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Kayla
7 years ago
Reply to  Don

Squashed logging? Haha don’t know what bubble you live inside of.

Don
Guest
Don
7 years ago
Reply to  Kayla

I will make this simple, count the logging trucks on the road today , and compare to the 80s and 90s.

waldo
Guest
waldo
7 years ago
Reply to  Don

With all due respect. … 1 every 5 minutes and that’s only when I’m awake. …. I feel this has to do with human error not nature. Maybe if man would stop polluting our earth we wouldn’t have drastic environmental changes that affect our natural stable weather patterns. What planet are you on again?

Don
Guest
Don
7 years ago
Reply to  waldo

So was the ice age considered stable ? Ever heard the term cycle, maybe that’s why this planet spins, if your looking for stable weather maybe the moon would be a good option

waldo
Guest
waldo
7 years ago
Reply to  Don

Yes but the Ice Age was caused by Earth’s pure orbit.. .. What we got going on now is certainly caused by mans so-called “intelligence orbit”. Woo hoo. The end. Litter-lly

Don
Guest
Don
7 years ago
Reply to  waldo

The end of us , mother earth will carry on , so people need not worry about her.

MARIA MESING
Guest
7 years ago
Reply to  waldo

AT TIMES BUT THIS WAS CAUSED BY LIGHTENING WE CAN’T ALWAYS BLAME THE STUPIDTEY OF MAN NEGLECT OR IGNORANCE ACCEPTED! I live in Yreka area we had one by man his extension cord from his small trailer cause it not intentally

James
Guest
7 years ago
Reply to  Kayla

he lives inside the bubble of reality what bubble do you live inside of the bubble of overgrowth of forest consume fires

Matthew
Guest
Matthew
7 years ago
Reply to  Don

I wonder if the fires have anything to do with the fact that out forest are so dense with juvenile trees, due to poor replanting habits of the 80’s and 90’s? Go walk around an old growth forest and count the trees per acre, then go walk around an area that was clear cut 30 years ago. See any difference?

MARIA MESING
Guest
7 years ago
Reply to  Matthew

right by the EPA and strict regulations to cut all that dry timber!

John
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John
7 years ago
Reply to  Don

Because the loggers are now tweakers, setting fires to earn money fighting them?!

Hank
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Hank
6 years ago
Reply to  John

You must live in San Francisco

andy
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andy
7 years ago
Reply to  Don

Aint that the truth…

Nathan
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Nathan
7 years ago

, yup. The environmentalists forbid logging for so many years and now we all get to breath the smoke. So crispy spotted owls, dead salmon, burned forests, and massive pollution in the air. Great job enviros in keeping the forests maintained with lawsuits. Not to mention zero county funding 100% thanks to the enviro lawsuits.

Linda White
Guest
Linda White
7 years ago
Reply to  Nathan

Well said Nathan. The environmentalist ticket or two they need to get the log and I’m back up and running trees are too close together it’s like lighting a box of matches it’s ridiculous get in there and start cutting some of those trees they don’t even go in and let them cut them burned trees which is ridiculous. And the whole spotted owl thing that shut so many loggers down and put so many people out of work found out later those Owls will adapt to any area they need to. What Bumbasses.

Stephanie
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Stephanie
7 years ago
Reply to  Linda White

Pretty scary to think of our firefighters out there in this…everytime I’ve been out in the woods driving I’ve made comments about all the excess dry wood and fire hazard laying around…was really afraid of this happening…
I’m from Snoqualmie Washington where Weyerhaeusers main mill was the damn environmentalists shut us down because of that damn owl too…almost closed our whole dang town…we were a logging community…2yrs later guess where we found that spotted owl living?!?!…in town right next to the damn high school on a light pole!!! So yeahhhhhhh we need to be up there cleaning our forest and replanting unless ObamASS has something else in mind for our forests….

waldo
Guest
waldo
7 years ago
Reply to  Nathan

Blah blah blah … just the same.

MARIA MESING
Guest
7 years ago
Reply to  waldo

yeah right Blah Blah Blah— till it hits home and you have none what a moron and so full of Apathy! who will come to save you your home family and animal. Hillary? you might as well wait for doomsday right around the corner

waldo
Guest
waldo
7 years ago
Reply to  MARIA MESING

Please MARIA. My name is not Hillary. Plus try toning it down a bit, you’re sucking up all the clean air. P.S. It takes a Moron to assume to know a Moron. Good day.

Becky Samaniego
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Becky Samaniego
7 years ago

Plz keep your [edit] comments /opinions about previous logging issues to yourself. The issues TODAY is about safety of the firefighters , saving structures, saving lives, and containing the size of the fire.

Liz
Guest
Liz
7 years ago

Thank you.

waldo
Guest
waldo
7 years ago

I totally agree. GOD bless you Becky!

Who
Guest
Who
7 years ago

Was in that area earlier this year special place I hope the Hamburg cemetery survives it is very unique . It was pretty obvious that the forest had overgrown to the point of ridiculousness as well .All the greenhouse gases being released all that poison smoke we have to breathe all could’ve been avoided with a little bit of human commonsense .Stay safe firefighters make sure you have your escape routes in that terrain very dangerous .

Klamathman
Guest
Klamathman
7 years ago
Reply to  Who

The idea of smoke free summers is simply a relic of our failed fire suppression era. Those living in the Klamaths must begin to view smoke differently. We really should collaboratively work together to increase prescribe fire on key ridges in a very serious way. That is what will fix a lot of the problems we face.

Firefighters Rock
Guest
Firefighters Rock
7 years ago

One of the firefighters lost their home in this fire. PLease help if you can.

https://www.gofundme.com/denicefirefund

Michael
Guest
Michael
7 years ago

Wildlandfire.com is reliable, but the one and only official site for Wildland Fire info is Inciweb. Here is the link for California Fires, click on the Fire and get it’s info.

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/state/5/#

Billie thomas
Guest
Billie thomas
7 years ago

It’s not logging that’s needed. The NAs burned the brush from under the trees for ten thousand years. That’s fire suppression.

Who
Guest
Who
7 years ago
Reply to  Billie thomas

Biomass plants clean burning energy and yes selective forest harvesting would help a lot instead of all this waste. Prescribed burning only works in certain areas and often contributes to the problems because the forest is so unhealthy now with overgrowth .

CnD
Guest
CnD
7 years ago

Is 96 open through there?

Dan
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Dan
7 years ago

Anyone have current news regarding Hamburg?

Tara Hauki
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Tara Hauki
7 years ago

At least four people have lost their homes that we know of so far……..

cathy
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cathy
7 years ago
Reply to  Tara Hauki

any idea whose or which homes. My vacattion cabin sits on hill directly across river from HC community church. Wonder if its still standing.

BJ
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BJ
7 years ago

OFFICIAL REPORTS ARE ALWAYS 24 HOURS BEHIND – ALWAYS HAVE BEEN

Michael
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Michael
7 years ago
Reply to  BJ

Yes, they are always based on yesterdays reports, so not 100% current. But, once an Incident management Team takes over a large fie, they have a Public Information Officer assigned to give out the current info and keep Inciweb current as much as they can..

JAO
Guest
JAO
7 years ago

what is a gap fire?

Michael
Guest
Michael
7 years ago
Reply to  JAO

Wildland Fires are named after a geographic feature in the area where it started. There must be a “someplace Gap” name somewhere near where it started, if it was “Horse gap”, for example, the Fire could be called Horse, or Gap…

Rain Trueax
Guest
7 years ago

Scary fire. I grew up in a home where we were threatened by a bad one that burned thousands of acres in Washington. The worst fire I remember though was called the Tillamook Burn and we drove through the remains left behind to go to the Coast. I feel so bad for those who lost their homes as I well remember seeing the red glow on the horizon both as a child and near us.

Mechelle
Guest
Mechelle
7 years ago

Maybe those of you claiming that the fires are do to a lack of logging were not living here back in the 1980’s but I was, and I remember one of the worst fire seasons Oregon has ever faced back in the late 80’s I remember that the local mill closed it’s doors and sent the workers out to work on the fire lines, clearing brush and hauling supplies. By August the entire Rogue Valley was socked in with smoke there were fires burning in every direction and September was still looming with the threat of more dry weather and thunderstorms. Little ‘ol Oregon had wildland firefighters from all over showing up in towns like Grants Pass, Galice and Merlin. I was just a kid, still in school, but I drove deliveries of food up to the base camp from the restaurant where I worked. What these people face, how hard they work, is nothing short of amazing! They deserve our respect and our support while they work to save our forests and our homes.

daniel simon
Guest
daniel simon
7 years ago

I moved to Siskiyou County in 2000. Seems fires get worse every year. I will ask the local “old timers” their view of the relationship between logging and fires. I can tell u that everyone in Siskiyou County smokes (like cigaretts) in August, then quits in September. They “smoke” if they want to or not. Hospital loads of elderly needing care greatly increases while “involuntary smoking” occurs.

Elke
Guest
Elke
7 years ago

My home was lost in this gap fire and 6 outbuildings of ours. Two years ago, we had a huge fire engine in our driveway for days, as first the Beaver Fire got close to us, then the Happy Camp Complex Fire. My questions are, why was no one protecting our home? I have a witness who saw 2 Forest Service Water trucks sitting in our driveway, who did not put a drop of water down, before the fire even got there. Hours before the fire came down the valley, foresters came to my neighbors and said not to worry, the fire would lay down. I called a neighbor who is retired forest service hours before the fire got to our home, who told me that the fire was too big and they were going to let it burn. The water trucks sitting in our driveway went to their house and saved it. Where was the protection for our homes? Why was Cal Fire not called in? Lots of unanswered questions. I also heard of a back burn that went wrong that morning. How can I find out details of that day? Are there records to be looked at?