Local Daily News - Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors declare state of emergency

Yreka's Siskiyou Daily News - News: Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors declare local state of emergency

News

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Supes briefed on fires, declare local emergency

By BRAD SMITH
Daily News Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, July 19, 2007 10:44 AM CDT

SISKIYOU COUNTY – During their Tuesday meeting, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors received fire status briefings from both the U.S. Forest Service and CAL FIRE about the Elk and China-Back Complex wildfires.

“As you may already know, most of Supervisor (Marcia) Armstrong’s district is burning,” USFS Klamath National Forest supervis, or Peg Boland said.
Supervisor Jim Cook used the moment to interject some levity.
“Supervisor Armstrong’s district typically burns up,” he said. “It’s when we have a fire up at Copco that shocks us.”

Boland told the supervisors that most of the fires were started during the July 10 storms.
“However, the China-Back Complex fire was ignited during a storm last Monday (July 9),” she said.

She explained that this fire season has been unusual.

“The fires that we’re fighting and fires elsewhere in the state are moving quickly,” Boland said. “We haven’t seen anything like this before.”
For example, Boland said that the Back fire started at an altitude of more than 7,800 feet during a period of high humidity.

“It’s unusual to see something like that,” Boland observed.
And, while last year’s fires creeped along, she said that the recent fires have been very “energetic.”

USFS firefighters have been very concerned with the Little Grider Fire, which has been the primary threat to Happy Camp.

“We’ve had a series of meetings with the residents and have been briefing them on the fire status,” Boland said.
Armstrong said that she had attended a Sunday morning community meeting, in which evacuation plans had been discussed.
“I’m hoping that it doesn’t come to that,” she said.

Boland said that firefighters are watching the Wingate, Titus and King Creek 2 fires.
“We’re concerned that those fires might link up,” she said.
She reported to the board that there were fires in the Modoc National Forest as well.

Supervisor LaVada Erickson asked if any of the fires were accessible.
“Some of the fires are located in steep terrain,” Boland answered.

If fire crews can’t reach them, then aerial water and fire retardant drop runs have been made.

“That has been done, weather permitting,” Boland said.
Boland received reports of rain from the Happy Camp area before leaving for the supervisors’ meeting.

“The rain should stop the fires from spreading, but it won’t put them out,” she said. “And this is just the start of our fire season. It could be a long one.”

CAL FIRE Capt. Ron Bravo said that his department had already dealt with more than 30 fires this season. “The totality of those fires came out to 400 acres,” he said.
Those fires have been contained, and that has allowed CAL FIRE to form a unified command with the USFS and other firefighting and support agencies.
“We’ve been assisting the USFS with the China-Back Complex fires and elsewhere when possible,” Bravo said.

Bravo added that CAL FIRE has been using the county fairgrounds as an incident base. “We also have been maintaining a presence at the incident command post at Collier’s rest area.”
He said that CAL FIRE personnel have been making routine inspections of residential properties. “We want to make sure that people have proper clearance around their homes.”

According to Bravo, CAL FIRE is looking at biomass programs, green recycling and chipper programs to help people clear vegetation from their houses. He added that during the the county fair this year, CAL FIRE will be presenting information on evacuation procedures.
Later on, county administrator Barry Shioshita – who also acts as the county’s director of emergency services – presented a proposal to declare a local emergency for Happy Camp and the Humbug Creek area.

“Considering the fires that threaten Happy Camp and what could happen to Klamath River if the China fire jumps the river, we need to take some steps,” Shioshita said.

The declaration of a local emergency will enable the county to tap into state funding and other support, the county administrator said.
“It’s a precautionary move,” Shioshita said. He felt that it was the best thing to do, given the Elk and China-Back Complex fires.

Cook agreed.
The board voted unanimously to declare a local emergency.

Rest of article here: Yreka's Siskiyou Daily News