[UPDATE 4:09 p.m.] Fire Burning in Forest Behind HSU
A Cal Fire helicopter is fighting the Hill Fire behind Humboldt State University[Photo by Krista Mashburn]
A fire broke out this afternoon in the woods behind Humboldt State University. As of 12:56 p.m., firefighters are still making their way on foot to the incident. However, a helicopter is dropping water from above.
UPDATE 1:08 p.m.: Over 2000 feet of fire hose has to be hiked into the fire. UPDATE 1:10 p.m.: Hose lays are also put down and connected to the water tenders. UPDATE 1:27 p.m.: Video by Bobby Kroeker.Below is an interview with Sean Campbell of Arcata Fire:
UPDATE 1:30 p.m.:
UPDATE 1:40 p.m.: Video by Bobby Kroeker. “This will take quite a few hours to get this one out.”
UPDATE 1:42 p.m.: Video by Bobby Kroeker:
Helicopter dumps water at the scene.
UPDATE 1:55 p.m.: Firefighters say it could take a couple of hours to make sure the embers are out.
UPDATE 1:57 p.m.: Photo by Mark McKenna
UPDATE 2:04 p.m.: The fire is being brought under control. UPDATE 2:07 p.m.: This screen grab from Flightradar.com shows the flightpath of Copter 102. Note where it is circling. The north point is the fire. The south point is where it is dipping for water. Our reporters on the scene say they can taste the salt water.
UPDATE 4:09 p.m.: Arcata Fire’s Sean Campbell filmed Cal Fire taking off the HSU’s baseball field to go fight this fire.
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
Curious as to the water source that the copter is using.
Watching it on flight radar, it appears to be picking up water at the marsh off of South I st.
I live directly underneath its apparent flight path (roughly parallel to upper Shirley Blvd a short stroll from Park) — I mean, DIRECTLY underneath. They just passed overhead for their 7th or 8th pass, headed toward to forest toting a bucket of water, some of which trailed behind. I’d guess they’re hauling it from the Bay.
I’ve seen them dip from a pond just north of Jacoby School.
Dunno if that’s what they are doing now.
They’re still flying runs; the turnaround is only a few minutes long (unless they’re flying relays) so the source has got to be nearby (Klopp Lake at the Marsh?).
I take it this is not occurring in the Community Forest?
It is.
Terrific photos! Thanks.
That Sean is Totes Hot!
Julie “stump” Butterfly lives on in the hollow! See any leprecan with a cache of gold scurring thru the trees? Mother nature with anaerobic combustion always wins.
Great job guys-2000′ of piss line is a nightmare to lay and pick back up.
The Arcata “Hill Incident” was terminated about 3:37 pm and all Arcata Fire units became available (except “wildfire” Engine 8239 who was available with a delay… picking up the remaining hose line etc). All mutual aid engines covering Arcata and McK from outside agencies were released to return to their home quarters.
Great pictures, all who contributed!
Thank you.
recently there was a story in the news that HSU was a “Hot” University to be attending .
Lots and lots and lots of photos…for a single stump on fire?
It was a morale boosting exercise for our two freelance reporters. They got to hang out together and shoot some photos and videos. They had a good time and you can choose to ignore what they did if it got too tedious.
It wasn’t that the photos were tedious, it was that I couldn’t tell if there was a big fire because there was so little accompanying text. On one hand water dropping from helicopters seems like a big deal/big fire but no mention of the fire’s size; great that is was moral boosting but before you jump to conclusions that I am so active minded and/or disinterested that a series of pictures would bore me consider the piece could have had some explanation as to the fires’ size and it would have been a better piece of reporting. Perhaps that was explained in the video and it would have been good to have one quick mention, one sentence about the fire’s size in print.
The fire’s size (which was more than one stump–it was about 100×100 feet) was explained in the video. It would have been wonderful to be able to write more but I was also following other stories–some of which I published and some I had to jettison because of either too little info or because they didn’t turn out to be stories.
In the space of less than two hours, I published and updated three stories on fires. Sometimes, I just can’t generate all the information that the Times Standard with its crew of reporters can. I can only manage to get out the basics. Frankly, I was a bit overwhelmed. And possibly should not have spent the time to publish some of the photos and videos that Mark and Bobby were feeding me BUT they get paid little enough, I like to support them in having as much fun at their job as possible.
Any information on the cause of the fire?