As of late Wednesday evening, fire authorities reported that the Six Rivers National Forest received more than 150 lightning strikes across the forest since Tuesday evening, resulting in 13 current fires within the Smith River Complex in Del Norte County, 3 of which have been fully contained.
Just south of the Oregon border, the Diamond, Holiday, Kelly and Prescott Fires with other hot spots have been grouped together into the Smith River Complex, currently consuming over 1500 acres since Tuesday.
By Wednesday afternoon, fire had spread near Patrick Creek forcing CalTrans to declare hard closure on U.S. 199 at the Agriculture Station near the Oregon border from Pioneer Road to Oregon Mountain Road with no estimated time of reopening.
Air attack is being used to perform reconnaissance throughout the forest and additional resources have been ordered to support the incident. Firefighters are facing challenges due to extreme weather conditions and rugged terrain and California Interagency Incident Management Team 15 will be in-briefing Thursday, August 17th, and will assume command immediately after.
Due to fire activity as well as proximity, Patrick Creek, Grassy Flat, Panther Flat and Big Flat campgrounds are all closed and evacuation orders have been put place by the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office.
Late Wednesday evening, Pacific Power announced that due to wildfire behavior and risk, Pacific Power has proactively turned off power in some areas at the request of emergency personnel, and in the event Pacific Power should need to de-energize transmission lines running through the Smith River Fire Complex in the future, approximately 20,000 customers in Crescent City and the surrounding area could experience extended power outages.
As of early Wednesday evening, August 16th, Patrick Creek, Little Jones Creek, Copper Creek Drainage, Coon Creek is at Level 3 “Go Now”. The Washington Flat, High Divide, Rowdy Creek, and Pioneer/Panther Flat areas are at Level 2 “Be Set”, and the areas of French Hill, Big Flat/Rock Creek, Low Divide, and Gasquet are at Level 1 “Be Ready”.
