Western Railroad Discussion > "Camp Fire" in the Feather River Canyon

The Camp Fire burning in Northern California has been discussed in other threads. In looking at the current CA Fire website of the fire map of the ongoing Camp Fire burning between Chico and the Feather River Canyon that devastated the town of Paradise, it looks like the area around North Fork Bridge may have burned. Like much of the Canyon this is a rugged and steep area and has limited access.  While this is amongst the least of the problems facing the area,  this would really change the look of the area surrounding the North Fork Bridge.

From what I have read the fire started near Poe Dam in the FRC possibly from a power line. Is there an update on this?

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News has been concentrating on Paradise. Not much word on other areas. My son lives in Durham and even he evacuated (advisory) on Thursday night, but is back home now.
The BNSF Gateway Sub had a train tied down at Keddie yesterday and I have not seen a Gateway wheel turn since I got home from Truckee at noon yesterday.
Highway 70 still closed, and Highway 32.

The Yubanet web site has some of the best fire information out there and an excellent map. Much better than media or even CalFire, whose public map is from yesterday. Just Google "Yubanet Fire" and you can be enlightened as to the spread of the fire and hot spots. They are concerned that tonight's winds might drive it in the direction of Oroville.

TJY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/18 10:21 by icancmp193.

Listening to the RR Radio feed the work train of water cars is still out there this morning spraying water as directed and knocking down hot spots along the RoW. Their work limits are MP 221 to MP 247, roughly the Quarry at Elsey to Merlin.

Haven't checked out the maps websites yet. Most Fire map info is from the MODIS Program of low orbit satellites, which does not have continuous coverage, it has a lag in the data updates. The data itself is basically a reading of 'hot spots' and a coordinate, from which maps are made. The CalFire and USFS maps are simple updated at some time during the work day. At least one of the TO subscribers does deal with this data professionally but is undoubtedly dealing with the big fires in the south as well as the FRC area.

+ here's the YubaNet map website:

https://yubanet.com/Fires/camp/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/18 11:25 by TCnR.

qnyla Wrote:
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> From what I have read the fire started near Poe
> Dam in the FRC possibly from a power line. Is
> there an update on this?

The fire did start near Poe Dam underneath some power lines.  That is all they have released so far.  It could have been the power lines or someone doing something (intentional or otherwise) underneath the lines that caused it.

Here's a JPEG of what is available. The concentration of 'hot spots' would be an advance of the wildfire or the tactic of using a backfire to reduce the potential fuel. Someone advise me of any legalities of posting this image and I can delete it if needed:



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/18 11:11 by TCnR.

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Look for a LOT more slides in the canyon this winter in the areas where the fire burned.
MOW is going to be busy!

Here's the Sacramento Bee story about the PG&E question:

https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/fires/article221448500.html

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has informed state officials one of its power lines in Butte County suffered an outage at about the time that county’s devastating Camp Fire ignited in the hills near the town of Pulga.

Cal Fire officials have not disclosed a cause for the Camp Fire, which by Friday night had consumed more than 90,000 acres, destroyed more than 6,700 buildings and caused a reported nine deaths.

However, PG&E submitted a report Thursday to the California Public Utilities Commission about an outage at a 115-kilovolt line on Pulga Road in Butte County at 6:15 a.m. that day, and noted that the site was near the Camp Fire.

 Cal Fire has listed Pulga Road as the Camp Fire starting point.

Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/fires/article221448500.html#storylink=cpy

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If you go back to the CHP Incident Log for that morning they have a report of a small fire next to the road at about the cited time.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/18 11:16 by TCnR.

I'm going to be amazed if PG&E doesn't file for bankruptacy protection in the near future.
 

PHall Wrote:
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> I'm going to be amazed if PG&E doesn't file for
> bankruptacy protection in the near future.

Didn't Jerry Brown support legislation introduced awhile back that capped the liability for fires started by utility companies in California? IIRC, it was introduced shortly after the fire in Santa Rosa. Don't know if was ever signed into law though.

SB901 - Wildfires signed into law by Gov. Brown in Sept 21.  Not sure what it means for 2018 fires and beyond other than customer rate increases.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB901

sphogger

Camp fire deaths now risen to 23. Horrible.

About all that CAs brown stain did was hurt anyone who lost property because of negligence due to a public company's fault. In other words if a private company was at fault max payout, public, oh well pennies on the dollar.

A Sunday afternoon fire update indicates that fire activity has picked up in the Big Bend area, which is right where the railroad goes through, and very close to the North Fork bridge.
This is all very difficult terrain back in there. I fear it could go on for a while....

TJY