[Update 10:20 p.m.: Info about road opening] Fire near Sawmill Road East of Garberville
A fire broke out east of Garberville, by Sawmill road near Alderpoint road. As of 12:40 it was reported to be seven acres and growing. Additional resources have been called for.
Update 1:12 – Alderpoint road closed, mandatory evacuations of upper and lower Sawmill road.
UPDATE 1:30 pm: Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services sent out this information.
Saw Incident 1:05 PM
Wildfire approximately one mile East of Highway 101 off Alderpoint Road. The Sheriff’s Office has ordered mandatory evacuations ordered for the immediate area.
Saw Incident (larger area) 1:08 PM
Wildfire one mile East of Highway 101 on Alderpoint Road. Please avoid the area. Evacuations may become necessary. Please be prepared to evacuate if you live in the area.
Saw Incident (upper sawmill) 1:10 PM
The Sheriff’s Office has ordered Mandatory Evacuations for Lower Sawmill Road and Upper Sawmill Road due to a wildfire one mile East of Garberville off Alderpoint Road. Please evacuate.
UPDATE 2 pm: Alderpoint Road is closed from Wallan Road to Sheep Camp Road. Upper Sawmill Evacuation Route out Dyerville Loop Road. Lower Sawmill can use Alderpoint. The fire is over 30 acres.
UPDATE 5:47 p.m.: According to a public information officer: This fire is 40 % contained and currently at 75 acres.
UPDATE 5:50 p.m.: Fire photo taken earlier this afternoon.
UPDATE 5:53 p.m.: Photo from Ernie Branscomb with Garberville in the foreground.
UPDATE 5:56 p.m.: The evacuation center is the Healey Center Senior Center on Briceland Thorn Road in Redway.
UPDATE 8 p.m.: According to scanner traffic, fire crews have to deal with some tree issues and then they hope to open Alderpoint Road.
UPDATE 10:20 p.m.: The Saw Fire: Photos and a Summary of What We Know [Alderpoint Road Possibly Open by Midnight]
UPDATE 8:36 a.m. Friday: The Saw Fire: This Morning’s Information
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
11:55 a.m.
Report of Fire
Alderpoint Rd and Sawmill Rd
HM Office
UPDATES
14
11:56 a.m.
[2] XFER TO CAL FIRE
11:56 a.m.
[1] RP JUST STARTED A FIRE W/ HER HORSE TRLR
12:07 p.m.
[13] CDF 1097
12:14 p.m.
[17] [Notification] [CHP]-PER CF/REQ HARD CLOSURE ON ALDERPOINT RD/BOTTOM OF ALDERPOINT TO WADE
12:16 p.m.
[19] 1039 105-S1 ROLL THE OTHER UNITS TO ASSIST – AND ADVISE IF THEY NEED ADDL UNITS
12:16 p.m.
[20] 18 ENRT TO SET UP CLOSURE
12:22 p.m.
[22] 1039 FORTUNA CF TO ADV
12:39 p.m.
[28] S1 REQ TO KNOW THE 2 POINTS OF CLOSURE
12:39 p.m.
[29] SHOULD BE WADE RD AND WALLEN RD IF NOT REQ THEY MOVE THEM
12:41 p.m.
[30] CLOSURE AT AP/REDWOOD AND AP AND UPPER SAWMILL
12:42 p.m.
[32] 1039 CF THEY WILL CALL US BACK
12:42 p.m.
[31] ALSO CHK W/ FIRE AND MAKE SURE ITS OK TO MOVE TO WALLEN
12:48 p.m.
[34] WALLEN AND WINDY GAP ARE THE 2 CLOSURE 1020S
12:52 p.m.
[38] [Appended, 12:53:19] [1] RP REQ TO BE TRANSFERRED TO FIRE
(from Loco)
Thanks!
Fire in blocksburg now too. Hwy 36 side of blocksburg. 4:45
The new warning system says evacuations in the immediate area are ordered. I wonder what that means.
Means this sh$t is real! 100+ degree tenps n a little wind in august. Good for fire, not humans
Are you home?
Praying for the best!!!!
Thanks to all the firefighters, and to everyone who has spent the time,money and energy to put ponds on your land. The choppers are going to pull from ponds up there. Theyre talking about evacuations right now.
Be safe out there!!! Thank you again to everyone working on the fire, we are sooooooo lucky to have you!
That place is a magnet for fires for some reason. And it is 15 miles from Alderpoint. Not really close at all. 5 miles from Garberville.
It’s actually almost 3 miles up Alderpoint Road.
Actually 4.7 miles from Garberville to Sawmill according to Google maps, to spit hairs.
is the Alderpoint Road closed?
Yes dont try it please!
cop said 85% contained is when ap rd will iopen. dont know what % it is contained as of 5: 40 pm
yes see update
Fir tree going up in the Saw Fire.
Wow! Those were intense flames.
Hey Kim I’m a big fan of the Blackbelt. I’ve never posted anything before. Pretty intense picture, figured you might like it. We could feel the heat from probably 500 yards away.
One way roads mean evacuation is my guess here.
>”[1] RP JUST STARTED A FIRE W/ HER HORSE TRLR”
Eh? Dragging safety chains on the pavement or… ??
At least she stopped to report it!
That’s why we pay for fire protection, fires happen.
I also pay the CalFire fee each year and am happy to pay it. I just don’t like that it discriminates against rural areas only. Carlotta and Hydesville are not that much different than Fortuna. If the hills around Fortuna caught on fire, you know CalFire would be there also; but Fortuna residents are not charged the fee. The fee should be for all of Calif residents, not just rural areas.
You will be happy to know that your Calfire fee does not go to Calfire. Calfire got their state funding cut to match the fee, so in *reality* the fee goes to the general fund, not to Calfire.
But it gets even better. To *justify* the fee, they have to do “property inspections” which means that a substantial percentage of their staff now, do not fight fire at all. And instead of engines, they have to buy more pickup trucks- which are pretty close to useless. Even more useless than before. They *used* to at least have basic equipment and a firefighter in the patrol vehicles. 😛
Or flat tire, driving on the rim
Sounds to me like this thing is blowing up; 50 acres now and with power lines down. I think they are still calling it at a moderate rate of spread, also. Not good.
Where did you here 50 acres?
I heard it on the scanner, prob shake did as well. The links on kyms site.
Scanner. The first unit that arrived initially called its potential for only 10 acres.
It’s a little concerning when our emergency alert system is almost two miles off.
Well just look, you see the giant smoke plume and fire? Yes that’s the place to stay away from.
So nice to hear on scanner land owners showing where they made fire road and to water tanks they have specifically for fires that are fitted with a connector for firehoses.
Way to be prepared!! It helps us all.
Theyre requesting more backup, lets pray for the best outcome!
That spot does catch fire often, not in the last two years but many time before that, also has anyone else noticed the sign in the meadow right by there written in Russian with a cellphone number? Lol it was right by where this one looks like it started, probably got burned up now.
map please? anyone?
As seen from Meadows a few minutes ago.
So one of our over possessive whiners who complains about the Bell Springs bypassers and THEIR private road now may be the cause of this crappy fire. What irony and karma! The cattle trailer driver is in for a huge bill to cover all the fire fighting costs. What goes around affects all of the owners now.
What? That’s the dumbest comment on here in awhile. What a Maroon.
Hold off on the judgments. I’ve seen sparks fly from a horse’s shoe and smoke from a compost pile. In this stretch of heat and low humidity it doesn’t take much to ignite a wild fire. I’m not excusing a dragging trailer chain – if true, that was ignorant – but we have enough on our plates without loading up on neighbor-dissing.
Thank you anon!!!
Sh*t happens.
The roads are so screwed up a tire on the trailer could have hit a deep ditch and the trailer could have scraped on the road causing sparks.
Matched the satellite topography with the 1:50 pm photo. The fire is crossing the dual power lines just west of Upper Sawmill., getting very close to the first house on the west side of Upper Sawmill.
how do you do that? Could you explain? Thanks
match the power lines and the tree-vegetation pattern, knowing this is between lower and upper sawmill on the north side of AP Rd.
spotter plane
80 to 85 acres and 40% containment! Just came over the scanner!
Thay sed on kmud its 80acrs 40 % containment be safe fire fighters
I just heard 2nd hand the fire has jumped the road. Can anybody confirm (or deny)?
Damn, winds pickin up in town, from redway just saw one plane heading out as another flew in, can hear chopper comin now
Airtanker at work!
Nice photo
Pinkish retardant visible in Ernie’s photo @ 2.30 from the Eel River Cafe sign.
Aerial photo
I drove to Eureka and passed many water tankers on their way down.
Power and internet OFF in the meadows sub division
Power went off in Redway about 10 minutes ago
Hey Kim thanks for all your hard work and keeping the community updated
Do you know if this is why power is out in Garberville
Power out all the way to piercy
Aerial
Can’t post it but CalFire HUU has nice picture from air of the 85 acres. It is south, that is downhill from windy gap, and seems to be burning primarily at the south western part of the fire. I’m hoping that they reopen the Alderpoint road in time for my KMUD interview at 5:30. Looks like they’ve got it controlled. Hope so. It grew really rapidly. Seems like there are lots of fires around right now, which is not good. Potential for thunder storms tomorrow which could start more.
Just got a service alert fromPGE. Says power is out for approximately 3500 ppl with an estimated restoration of 7 A. M. tomorrow
Big orange chopper flyin low headin to drop water
Power back on redway 3:55pm
Power back on in Garberville.
Photo from CalFire’s Twitter feed….
Thank you for the aerial photo !!
Looks like the fire is contained at the roads… good.
I hope if the RP had any animals in her trailer that they got out safely, hope everyone is staying safe, thank you to all the firefighters out there!
NEW FIRE REPORTED 4:35PM near BLOCKSBURG
I know its super hectic. But I was wondering if anyone knew when the road was due to open..?
At this point, the road is still showing as closed and there is no estimated time of reopening.
Ok thank you
Kym, all of the comments on this piece are showing in bold. Something to do with a misplaced tag, perhaps?
No big deal, of course; you’ve a lot going on right now.
Thanks so much for being on top of it all.
I don’t know why. I have a question in to my tech person.
Just keep up the good work, it will all be fine
Bobbi Wisby fixed it!
Yay, Bobby!
Talked t0 someone who was helping outup there said the part of in the open clearing meadows was comtained but the other part moving away from alderpoint road in the thicker trees was still going strong about 6 pm ka
Bushnell ranch on dyerville Rd. This is what I see
Thank you Healy Senior Center. Your the best!
Is AP opened yet?
Any update on if alderpoint road is open or going to be opened up tonight?
Apparently there is no vacancy in town for families who can’t get home because of ROTR?
Not yet open and there is another closure on ALderpoint Road at Homestead Road. The Healy Center on Briceland Road in Redway is the evacuation center for the fires.
There are no vancancies in town most summer months regardless if it’s ROTR or not, this is our tourist season.
My bf was waiting in line on ap and said someone leaving from the front of the line said 9 hours..? Not sure how accurate that is…also Not sure how to find out if dyerville loop can be used to get back onto ap for those who live past the fire
Just took dyerville from Myers flat down to Alderpoint road. It’s clear but more traffic than usual. Go slow!!! It’s narrow and supper dusty which makes it hard to see. Greatful this fire is under control. Thank tou fore fighters, thank tou KYm for the updates.
What’s good Wyndy Gap grrrl? I’m heading to Pratt (just passed Windy) how log did it take from Meyers?
Is AP open?