JUST POSTED: FEMA opens in Oroville as Camp Fire grows Wednesday
Crews battling the deadly Camp Fire reported progress Wednesday even though the blaze had spread on its northeast side.
The fire grew to 135,000 acres as of Wednesday morning — 5,000 acres more than Tuesday — and remained at 35 percent containment. At last count Wednesday morning, the wildfire had claimed the lives of 48 people with still another 228 reported missing.
The fire still threatened about 15,500 homes after destroying some 7,600 residences and 260 commercial buildings, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says.
“Tuesday night specifically we had a lot of spread along the Big Bar area, spreading out toward our containment lines,” Camp Fire operations chief Josh Bischof said in a video update.
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Infrared satellite images used by the National Weather Service had detected “considerable heat” from that northeast heel along the boundary between Butte County and Plumas County.
“We’re continuing to push dozers, open up containment lines and secondary lines,” Bischof said Wednesday of the forest land near the Big Bar lookout. “This area is very big timber, very steep, rugged, inaccessible terrain with limited access.”
Firefighters also are working in the fire’s interior southwest of where the blaze started about 6:30 a.m. Nov. 8 at Pulga and Camp Creek roads near Jarbo Gap.
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“We have a lot of crews working in the communities of Paradise and Concow to make sure all of the hazards have been mitigated, all of the burned structures have been completely extinguished and try to make it as safe as possible to look toward to the repopulation phase,” Bischof said.
As far as other areas on the fire’s perimeter, he said crews were:
— Working on direct hand lines down to the Feather River in the northeast corner and were able to drop retardant around the Bear Ranch communications tower.
— Having “a lot of success” in the Big Bend area and had almost tied in fire lines north and south of that location.
— Working on containment lines and planned a burning operation at Bloomer Hill to reduce the threat to the community of Berry Creek.
— Planning another burning operation on the Cherokee side to complete a fire line into a drainage.
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— Finished with fire lines between Helltown and Nimshew Road and doing mop-up work and patrols.
The estimated fire-fighting suppression cost so far totals $33.2 million, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Firefighters hope to completely contain the blaze on Nov. 30.
FEMA services open in Oroville
The Federal Emergency Management Agency opened a mobile registration center at the Oroville Walmart on Tuesday, FEMA spokesman Brad Pierce said.
Authorities are in the final stages of opening a larger location in Chico, where people displaced by the Camp Fire will be able to apply for local and federal help. The Chico center's location is being finalized and expected to open by the end of this week, Pierce said.
"Once we get the Disaster Recovery Center/Local Assistance Center, it will be true one-stop shopping" for people in need, he said.
FEMA representatives also are offering help to displaced residents who are living at an evacuation center at Chico's Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, according to Pierce.
Only evacuees being sheltered at the church can be helped with "basic, critical needs" by the FEMA representatives who are on site there, Pierce said.
The church has posted a list of items it needs at its website, www.pvbaptist.org/campfire, along with a link for monetary donations.
One of the church's immediate needs was to have its septic tank pumped.
Donations can be dropped off at the church at 13539 Garner Lane from each day from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. until further notice. Donors elsewhere in California and from around the U.S. were sending items via Amazon, according to comments on the church's Camp Fire page.
Slight chance of rain
The National Weather Service was predicting a chance of showers in the fire zone starting Tuesday night going into Wednesday before Thanksgiving, although significant precipitation looks like a longshot.
“How much rain and when is still up in the air,” the weather service said Wednesday afternoon in its long-range prediction for the northeast foothills and Sacramento Valley.
Forecasters expect little overall change in the weather through the rest of this week.
“Smoke will likely continue to be an issue in parts of the valley with no strong wind to scour things out in the near term,” the weather service says.
Mutual aid from other states
Fire crews from at least seven other states are joining in the fire-fighting effort, the California Fire Chiefs Association said Wednesday. Here’s the breakdown of out-of-state fire engines:
- Oregon: 75
- Texas: 55
- Washington: 45
- Utah: 26
- Montana: 20
- New Mexico: 7
- Idaho: 6
A total of 5,615 fire personnel were assigned to the Camp Fire as of Wednesday, including 630 fire engines, 74 water tenders, 23 helicopters, 99 hand crews and 105 bulldozers.
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