Trinity County Sheriff Issues Evacuation Orders Tonight in Big Bar Area as Monument Fire Grows; Hwy 299 Closed!
The Trinity County Sheriff’s Department issued Evacuation Orders at 9:35 p.m. Monday for the area around Big Bar and Del Loma along Hwy 299 and Caltrans reports tonight that the Monument Fire closed Hwy 299 in Trinity County from around one mile east of Big Bar to two miles west of Del Loma.
The Sheriff’s Department posted on Facebook:
Impacted areas: Del Loma and Big Bar
The Trinity County Sheriff’s Office is issuing an evacuation order for the areas of Big Bar and Del Loma due to the Monument Fire.Evacuation Center will be at the First Baptist Church in Weaverville, CA for the Big Bar evacuees, and Burnt Ranch School for Del Loma evacuees.
Please note:
- An Evacuation Order means you should leave now and the area is closed to the public.
- An Evacuation Warning means the residents of the area should prepare to leave if ordered to do so.
Caltrans states that there is no estimated time of reopening Hwy 299. They suggest choosing alternate routes. With the Monument Fire closing Hwy 299 at Big Bar and the McFarland Fire closing Hwy 36 east of Hwy 3, here are your options to reach I-5. [For simplicity sake, we assume you started at Loleta]:
- Starting in Loleta head south on Hwy 101, turn east onto Hwy 36, turn north on Hwy 3, and, finally turn east on Hwy 299 to Redding. See more precise directions here. Google estimates this to be a 3 hours and 21 minute drive. Caltrans states, “This route does have restrictions for larger vehicles (semis/big recreational vehicles and buses).” Remember there will also likely be increased traffic due to the closures of the two main routes.
- Starting in Loleta head south on Hwy 101 towards Ukiah, turn east onto Hwy 20 north of Ukiah until you reach Williams. See more precise directions here. Google estimates this is a 3 hour and 50 minute drive. Remember that travel besides the lakes in Lake County can be slowed a great deal with tourist traffic.
- Starting in Loleta head north on Hwy 101, turn northeast on 199, and stay there until I-5. See more precise directions here. Google estimates this is a 3 hour and 36 minute drive. Remember, however, that travel through Last Chance Grade can have delays up to four hours. See below for Caltrans closure times.
UPDATE: Breakout Spots From the Monument Fire Crossed 299 and Trinity River, Threaten Structures
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Forest Service Blew this big time. They could have stopped it early from the air knowing it was going to go east with the afternoon winds two days in a row. Cal Fire needs to step in to protect these precious small communities.They had 67 guys on it for last couple days while it got ready to erupt, what about Big Flat and Junction City. Any help for them. Come on
I pray all will make it out okay. Did anybody tell Bigfoot to evacuate. Cause I’ll miss the big hairy guy if they do not tell him to leave.
Hahaha.
Any evacuees can call redwood area camp, evacuees are welcome here. Plenty of free showers, amazing handicap showers, and tons of outlets for charging phones etc. We are a few miles up the mountain from founder’s grove, avenue of the giants. God bless and prayers to you all.
I had a hot shot crew out here doing dozer repair through my property in spring, they told me USFS is hemorrhaging experience to CalFire and PG&E because of pay. Call Huffman and make some noise.
Thanks TCSO, don’t envy you tomorrow or the fire grunts on the ground. Lord, bless the guys on the iron.
First day of lightning strikes they put air support on it then let it burn once it went dark. We watched it glow on that first night as we were camping at big flat and build from 60 acres to 500 acres. Next day due to the terrain they could only hit it with air support yet again. It’s a bad situation. I feel for everyone in that river valley.
@guest,
Small wonder you’re posting anonymously.
Your demonstrated ignorance is almost as astonishing as the arrogance with which you present it.
As a reality check; There are a limited number of aircraft available and they have to be able to SEE where they’re going. VLTs cross the target at speeds in excess of 150 knots. This isn’t a Tom Cruise movie and people can really die doing this.
There are a limited number of firefighters. You can’t stop these things with a bunch of volunteers beating the brush with wet burlap. Speaking of water……. ?
You should be preparing your property so firefighters have a chance to defend it.
Got that done?
Help a neighbor and quit your bitching.
They pulled the air attack Saturday morning not because of conditions but because there were higher priorities. They could have stomped it with a concerted air attack (the only option because of access)when it was under 100 acres but would have sacraficed something else on a different fire.
Hey Cowboy – Not sure if you are aware, but you are also posting anonymously and with arrogance. Glass houses?
Nuttincowboy, etc.
Please be advised there is more than one guest. We are not one and the same.
Best wishes for all concerned.
Cal fire sucks, They are such a waste of tax money. They sleep in motels, never on fires. They don’t go more than a few hundred feet from Their fire engine. They are a bunch of whimps. Use prisoners for their fire crews because their too scared to do it them selves. They waste so much money and time for motels.
charlie, your comment about Cal Fire is just plain rotten! I hope one day you will need their help and they will just drive by and give you a high middle finger!
May be rotten but the truth hurts sometimes.
No truth to what you said at all!!!
Like any huge bureacracy Calfire has administrative issues with the use of funds, but at least their firefighting tactic is to put the fire out as first priority… well, second. Save lives, save property.
USFS uses fires as a forest management tool.
Thats not true. Calfire uses fireing operations as a tactic as well. Do your research. Ran a lot of drip torch in m my days.
They sure do. Fuel burnouts is a firefighting tactic. I didn’t say otherwise,
Ya and how well is that forest management working out?
Something to think about is that the private fire fighting industry doesn’t get paid if there’s no fires.
I lost my job with the forest service when Raegan privatized the fire fighting and an industry was born.
Like shit. USFS only manages forest when there’s a fire. They suck.
This is not a tag on the boots on the ground. It’s the bureacracy that sucks.
Actually we took over the prison crews.
Guest, I suggest you get a job with the Forest Service and show them how to properly run things. Cal Fire is stretched to the breaking point now. They can’t be every where at once.
Just so you don’t think it’s me, Martin.
Guest, I apologize to you for my comment. I did not realize there was another Guest posting. Sorry!
I live just south of the fire and we saw plans dropping retardant on the fire the first day in the morning but by early afternoon on saturday they stopped.
This was when it was still 100 acres. By Saturday night we could see flames along the eagle rock / monument peak ridge. It’s mostly manzanita but the trees along the ridge could be seen going up in flame. Here’s a picture from Saturday evening.
Guest in first post,
I support these Firefighters 100%.
Have you seen how many fires are burning just in CA National Forestland?
These guys cover the whole Country.
Cut them some slack.
I sure hope it misses you, and everyone else.
I’ve got skin in the game over there.
Not my skin, my family, a bunch of it.
I want it out, too.
I understand your frustrations.
Last year sucked.
Any evacuees can call redwood area camp, evacuees are welcome here. Plenty of free showers, amazing handicap showers, and tons of outlets for charging phones etc. We are a few miles up the mountain from founder’s grove, avenue of the giants. God bless and prayers to you all.
I came through today. The fire was burning down to the river bank. I didn’t see fire on the Hwy side but that could have changed.
Any evacuees can call redwood area camp, evacuees are welcome here. Plenty of free showers, amazing handicap showers, and tons of outlets for charging phones etc. We are a few miles up the mountain from founder’s grove, avenue of the giants. God bless and prayers to you all.
It’s jumped to the North side of River. Cal OES needs to step in for the private communities along the river. F.S. Doesn’t seem to want any help. Fire politics left us with the August
Complex last year, Dixie this year, never
Ending collision of strategies, unfortunately USFS let’s them get huge and doesn’t cooperate with State. Yes, I know this is keyboard coaching, but strike teams should be on the way from Redding, Humboldt, Bay Area.
You do realize the Dixie fire is a Cal Fire incident that burned onto forest service after Cal Fire lost it right? Not every large fire in the world is the result of people blowing it or not trying. All of these fires have been extremely resistant to control no matter who is fighting them.
Dang it do your JOBS. Get out the dozers. What a bunch of fake tree hugging clowns.
what a bunch of fake tough guys talking smack about firefighters of all people, on the internet of all places. how brave. get out there and fight the fire yourself, tough guy.
You do know there are other fires out there, don’t you? NIFC reports almost 23,000 personnel working active fires right now. Today’s report says 249 people working the Monument fire.
I do Tim.
There is lots of them.
I got Family near the Monument Fire.
Safe for now.
I hope it stays that way for everyone.
That is the main thing.
Stay Safe Out There.
Everyone.
Thanks.
I heard once that once firefighters are sent (ie from out of area) to a fire, they have to stay there ’til it’s over or contained enough for them to leave. We have already sent some of our crews away. Anyone know the specifics on this?
MENDOCINO AND HUMBOLDT COUNTY FIREFIGHTERS ARE AIDING IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE DIXIE FIRE, CALIFORNIA’S LARGEST WILDFIRE OF THE YEAR (SO FAR)
https://kymkemp.com/2021/07/24/mendocino-and-humboldt-county-firefighters-are-aiding-in-the-fight-against-the-dixie-fire-californias-largest-wildfire-of-the-year-so-far/
usually it’s a two week rotation. 16 hr days for two weeks then two days off for r&r. If there are a lot of fires though they can extend you an extra two weeks. Some shift can extend 36 hrs.
Any evacuees can call redwood area camp, evacuees are welcome here. Plenty of free showers, amazing handicap showers, and tons of outlets for charging phones etc. We are a few miles up the mountain from founder’s grove, avenue of the giants. God bless and prayers to you all.
Wow!! You people do not even know ho see much the USFS does on these fires, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves for such rude comments, these firefighters put their lives on the line every day for so many people and their homes, makes me sick to hear such trash spoken about them. The planes cannot just fly whenever they want, their are conditions such as visibility that causes them to hault operations temporarily as far as planes go, please know your facts before bad mouthing the USFS. Blows me away how rude and arrogant people really are.
Kris
Have you had a forest service fire in your backyard? If not then shut it. Hard. Really.
They are beyond inept.
Try having a huge wildfire bearing down on your home from a natl forest and the “firefighters”say oh we dont fight fires nor do structure defense but since its national forest land you and your vfd cant fight it.
There are already lawsuits and maybe its time to pull your head out of the sand and read the thousands of incidents where the forest service botched fires.
They are looking for money. They could care less if you, your home or your town burn down
Salvage logging is one of their biggest money makers. They then get to punch in roads in areas they never would have otherwise. Those roads then become used by industry who pay the forest service to mine,log or run cattle in the national forests. More land burnt is more money for them to make.
All new multi year scientific paper on pulling all the snags off a burn found that removing all snags makes for huge brush growth which creates big hot fires. Leavihg some trees gives shade which reduces further growth of brush and thus reduces chances of repeat fires.
Its not the firefighters its the folks in charge. State agencies ought to be allowed to userp forest service in event of a fire!!!
Yourethe one who ought to be ashamed. Ignorance is not bliss here.
Then why do you live there knowing the risks?
IMHO: I’m not gonna comment on firefighters.
But the USFS does about nothing to maintain good forests and keep these fires from spreading.
What’s left of the ‘open’ roads are choked and over grown with brush.
No logging or thinning to create intermittent fire-brakes.
Forests are now dense with tinder-ready undergrowth.
Past fires have hundreds of thousands of acres of charred and decaying trees.
No attempt to harvest fiber which could have provided USFS with ample money.
Remaining fire scars are turning to brush land and will be ready to burn every couple years. No re-planting.
Lookout towers are now (mostly) unoccupied.
Main roads are potholed and going back to gravel/dirt.
Sighs.
Just to make a few counter-points, the USFS was forced to switch management paradigms because of mandated forest plans and the continuous litigation brought for nearly every action they tried to take.
This has been combined with frequent budget cuts during most of the recent Congresses and a greater proportion of their budget going to fire management and away from everything else, including timber management and fuels management.
Even now when they try some large scale thinning projects they are frequently sued into inactivity by a fairly small group of fringe groups.
They do replant following harvesting, it’s required by law. Replanting following fire is a much bigger job and usually part of the BAER process.
truth ^
^^ That is true. Forest management is a ‘political’ problem.
Eight Los Angeles/SF counties ‘control’ California. Have 65% of voters.
Urban voters in control of rural California. Same thing in the USA.
I don’t think anyone is criticizing the people who do the actual work on these fires. They have an incredibly difficult job and deserve respect. But rather people are criticizing the management of these fires. This fire could have been dealt with when it was small. We have witnessed the mismanagement of forest service land and fires for decades.
The people that actually work for the forest service as employees (hot shots and other crews) are underpaid. But there is also a fire industry with private contractors etc.. They don’t get paid if there are no fires. They have expensive equipment that they need to pay for and maintain, insurance on their crews, etc. Our friend who contracted fires looked at thunderstorms as “money makers.”
Last year the Red Salmon complex just about killed us all with smoke.
Everything needs to be restructured. We could have heliports in every district to put fires out immediately.
There is nothing natural about our forests anymore, sadly. Places that burned are burning again. Management is lacking to say the least.
Prayers for the firefighters, the people who have to evacuate and all the poor animals caught between their burnout operations and the actual fire.
Prayers for our lungs.
I have it on very good authority that the Carr fire could have been stopped at 10 acres but the NPS (they manage Whiskeytown) wouldn’t let Calfire cut a dozer line through the manzanita without an EIS.
If true that was likely the local administrator making an overly-strict interpretation of NPS rules and regulations because they were afraid of getting reprimanded by their supervisor. Not too uncommon when you hire folks trained in recreation administration and not in resource management. I’m pretty sure the DOI has categorical exclusions in place that exempt fire fighting from any environmental analysis although intruding on Wilderness Areas requires the big bosses to approve it.
But then a lot of those stories are hyperbole too.
This is true from the boss onsite.
I’m not completely surprised given how some of the NPS folks interpret their jobs. I am surprised CalFire had a dozer there when the fire was only 10 acres. I had heard that the fire blew up really quickly right from the start but I haven’t talked to anyone who was on site at the beginning so I’ll defer to your info.
Yeah dude got his dozer off his trailer started to go work. They made him stop
That was a Good Samaritan with a dozer not a cal fire employee
We could have heliports and crews on every district, we just have to pay for it. And when a low fire season rolls around someone looks at how much that costs and decides to cut them and instead run helicopters on an as-needed basis from private contractors. Then someone looks at how much those contracts costs and decides to reduce the number on contract. And you end up with limited air resources across the board when high fire seasons occur.
An alternative that’s only partially being used today would be to outfit much of the National Guard air fleet with the capacity to switch to wildland fire fighting as a primary mission and call them up in high fire years. We do that a little already (e.g. the MAFS systems for the C-130) but there’s only 8 of those nation-wide. I think there’s potential to make that a real cost-effective way to increase air support on fires.
No mention on how District budget funding allotments are being partially based on black acres.
Tell everyone how the number of black acres in a particular district affects how much money goes to the different National Forest Districts coffers.
(Hint to readers, it’s backwards, and therefore, it explains quite a bit).
My take on it is that the more acres that burn, the more money they get, and the less that they spend fighting those fires means that much more money left over to spend however they choose.
The competition, apparently, among Districts, is to be the Head Honcho, that has the lowest cost to black acres ratio, which gets twisted into the highest black acres to cost ratio.
The District Head Honcho that has the highest black acres to cost ratio gets bragging rights.
And the most black acres loot to spend. (Hint, not to spend on fires).
Letting the fires burn has incentives.
Or, did I misunderstand the black
acre funding structure?
It was actually a rumor I heard, so maybe it’s not even true, it could be it was from someone with an axe to grind.
It was a comment last year from someone unhappy with how things were being managed then.
I think they should give the District Head Honcho the most money that has the least black acres, right on down the line.
And no black tree logging. None.
Period.
It would be nothing but blue sky.
I’m not familiar with how funds get distributed to individual forests and districts, just the overall FS budget. Part of the allocation is likely due to the acreage in the District but part is also going to be due to how popular that forest is (i.e. recreation or timber demand).
What they might have been talking about is funding through the BAER (Burned Area Emergency Response) program which I would expect larger funds for bigger burns. I don’t think most district managers welcome bigger fires just for the extra cash because they end up in the hole in the long run.
Here’s the 2020 FS budget — https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media_wysiwyg/usfs-fy-2020-budget-justification.pdf
Looked at the budget already.
Basically 5.4 billion basic budget,
Plus 2 billion wildfire appropriations.
Total budget 7.4 billion and change.
BAER is probably not the same thing as wildfire appropriations.
Thanks for the acronym.
Smaller funds for bigger burns might be a better idea?
Tim,
Thanks for the professional input.
I looked into the BAER program and that is probably what the commenter was referring to.
That looks like money for rehab.
Not sure, but it seems like it might not be as bad as it sounds.
Stay Safe Out There.
Any evacuees can call redwood area camp, evacuees are welcome here. Plenty of free showers, amazing handicap showers, and tons of outlets for charging phones etc. We are a few miles up the mountain from founder’s grove, avenue of the giants. God bless and prayers to you all.
Tilts burning in real steep ground. Looks like a hard fire to get hand crews to.
too steep, too dangerous
Any evacuees can call redwood area camp, evacuees are welcome here. Plenty of free showers, amazing handicap showers, and tons of outlets for charging phones etc. We are a few miles up the mountain from founder’s grove, avenue of the giants. God bless and prayers to you all.
Overnight IR map
https://mappingsupport.com/p2/gissurfer.php?center=40.746426,-123.333549&zoom=12&basemap=ESRI_scanned_topo_USA&overlay=VIIRS_24_hours,MODIS_24_hours,State_boundary,Wildland_fire_name,Fire_perimeter_NIFC,ESRI_roads_and_labels&fire=CA,Monument&data=https://mappingsupport.com/p2/special_maps/disaster/USA_wildland_fire.txt
Excellent website, thanks.
UR, thanks for the link. Best map and closest to real time as we’ve seen yet.
USFS is slow to the starting line on every fire. It takes a lot of logistics for a big fire, and they get bigger while they order up printers, and mobilize every subcontractor available. Eventually, they put them out with overhead.
We’ve got nothing but respect for the men and women on the ground. Policy is where we differ. From the legacy of logging and fire suppression over the past half century+, to the unmanaged tree plantations, coupled with drought and dare we say climate change, we’re watching USFS transform all of the area they manage, to a fire influenced landscape with wildfire.
It’s natural!
It’s where all of their budget goes!
It’s hell every fire season, which starts earlier, and ends later every year!
If you live in the wildland/urban interface (WUI), grab your rakes!
Exactly, the plantations never got their pre-commercial thin and now 30 years on are way too dense. We need to burn in the off season at massive scale, that means as residents sucking down smoke for most of the year. Don’t like it? Probably best not to live in a western forest at this point. 3 to 11 million acres burned naturally in California, even before the first humans. There is just no way the keep up with the density problem using mechanical means, and hi-grading out the best commercial trees at this point is also problematic (although some commercial harvest is obviously a component of a good management strategy). The state air quality board needs to have it’s ability to regulate smoke from managed fire removed. We need to provide air filters and clean air centers for folks that need them in communities that are near regular burning ops. We need to limit the liability of burn boss’s that are acting within perscription (like many southern states do). We need to train up communities to manage control burns along side the agencies. We need to pay federal wildland firefighters a commensurate wage and put them on full time so they can burn and thin in the off season. And we need to invest in way more aircraft on both the state and federal level, there is no excuse for federal agencies to have fewer aircraft at their disposal than just a decade ago. All this is a far better and more responsive use of taxpayer funds than subsidizing electric car scams, failed high speed trains and forever wars. And for the environmental groups like epic and conservation congress (and the hand full of representatives here in our communities with outsize voices), you have done nothing to protect the forest here, have offered no substantive ideas on realistic forest management, and have been nothing more than a destructive parasitic obstacle. Thank you for your service in the 70s and 80s, but things have changed and human intervention at scale is unfortunately needed at this point. Bad environmental policies, slow bureaucracies and greedy resource liquidation are going to kill these forests. It’s kind of important to relate to that.
Thanks Ullr Rover.
Great footage of a DC10 doing a drop on the Monument Fire. At the end you can see the Big French Creek slide for orientation. This would have been day 1 of the fire (7/31).
https://twitter.com/Ten_Tanker/status/1422576645278343172?s=19
Nice. Love watching the lead plane leave the smoke trail to guide the tanker and the engines spooling to max on climb out. Cool view from a dc-10 cockpit:
https://youtu.be/sKUIgdR03m8
Wow, oh by golly. What a youtube rabbit hole that was. The CL-415 is an impressive plane. And the pilots are just as equally impressive.
Darn, I got too excited, that’s not in fact a dc-10, still impressive of course. Lots of video of dc-10s dropping, haven’t found a actual cockpit video yet.
Spot fire North of 299 around mm16.
This is straight from TCSO.
I live just south of the fire and we saw plans dropping retardant on the fire the first day in the morning but by early afternoon on saturday they stopped.
This was when it was still 100 acres. By Saturday night we could see flames along the eagle rock / monument peak ridge. It’s mostly manzanita but the trees along the ridge could be seen going up in flame.