Deadly Carr Fire Still Only 68% Contained

Helicopter

A helicopter working the Carr Fire dips a bucket into water on July 28. [Photo by Mark McKenna]

Over three weeks after the Carr Fire exploded west of Redding, the fire which claimed eight lives is only 68% contained and has conquered 207,162 acres. Firefighters have mostly confined the active edge to the west side of Shasta Lake.

According to the Northern California Geographic Coordination Center, “1,077 residences have been destroyed and 191 residences have been damaged; 500 outbuildings are destroyed.”

For more information on evacuations and road closures, click here.

The Plan: 

Branches I, II, and III, the west, south, and southeast side of the fire, are nearly completely contained. Only a small corner near the border between Shasta and Trinity County is uncertain and even that is mostly behind dozer lines.

Branch IV and V, to the north of Redding and the West of Shasta Lake: The massive backfire completed earlier this week is holding but firefighters will be doing other large backfires that will increase smoke in the area. Firefighters are worried about roll-outs and spot fires jumping over established lines.

The Weather: 

Temperatures will continue to be in the nineties throughout the area of the Carr Fire today and humidity will be low. Afternoon winds could be troublesome.

The Roads:

Caltrans worker slowing traffic on Hwy 299.

Caltrans worker slowing traffic on Hwy 299. [Photo from Caltrans District 2]

Hwy 299 is open from I-5 to Hwy 101. However, there are restricted hours. According to Caltrans,

Limited Openings on 299W: 12pm-1:30pm & 6pm-5am daily. Traffic control is located at Whiskey Creek Road for westbound traffic and at Trinity Dam Blvd. for eastbound traffic. If you arrive prior to 10-15 minutes of the opening time, you will be turned around. Please keep traffic in the area to only through traffic and resident traffic. State Route 36W and SR 3 can still be utilized as alternate routes, with truck/rv/bus length restrictions:

http://www.dot.ca.gov/trafficops/trucks/quickguide.html

If you are planning to take SR 36W between Fortuna, California and the junction of SR 3, south of Hayfork, California, please note that full highway closures restarted today in Humboldt County, west of Dinsmore. 36W will be closed in this area between 8am-12pm & between 1pm-5pm Monday through Thursday. On Fridays, full closures run from 8am-12pm and between 1pm-3pm.

The MAPS:

  • Operations Map –to see details either zoom or click on the map and download a pdf.
    Carr Fire Operations August 14

    Carr Fire Operations August 14

  • KMZ Map–Zoom for detail or for 3D imagery, click on the map and download a file that connects with your Google Earth program.
    Carr Heat Map

    Carr Heat Map

Donations:

  • Northcoast Horticulture Supply is working with Pay It Forward Humboldt to collect donations for the Carr fire.

McKinleyville 1580 Nursery Way

Arcata 639 6th St

Eureka 852 W Wabash Ave

Fortuna 126 Dinsmore Dr

Note: “Pay It Forward Humboldt has asked us to collect gift cards and N95 respiratory masks only at this time. We’ve tried to be specific about what’s needed at this point in time in our social media because folks tend to drop off random and sometimes heavy items that are not useful until folks can set up temporary housing.  Once they have the donation centers set up over the next days/weeks, they will be accepting clothes, household donations and larger items.”

Resources:

Redwood Acres Fairground is accepting evacuees for free camping.

Earlier Chapters:

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Erik
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Erik
5 years ago

Sounds like there were some structures lost up Deadwood road, just hearing rumors. One is about a nice house and bridge that was lost after the Lewiston evacuation was lifted but the owners were not allowed to return home to the parcel. There are some pretty big grows up there too. I’m not on facebook, and won’t ever be. It is frustrating that so much information is only available on social media platforms, calfire’s tweets for example are mostly unhelpful. Kym, I appreciate that you are a legitimate news source in the midst of a bunch of noise, thank you for your hard work.

wildman
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wildman
5 years ago

Looks like there is another spot fire outside containment on the far northern section of the fire, in the Dog Creek drainage not far from the one two days ago, according to ArcGIS. Thats the area they are most concerned about, and why they’ve constructed another massive firebreak miles north of the fire perimenter. The good news is that they have alot of their resources in the area and are no doubt hitting it hard. But its really dangerous country, lot’s of forest with associated bug kills and steep terrain.

I pray Spirit keeps them all safe.