Western Railroad Discussion > UP Canyon Sub - Claremont fire

The Claremont fire, which started in the Middle Fork Feather River drainage behind East Quincy in Plumas County (California, planet earth) made it over Thompson Creek Ridge a couple days ago and caused mandatory evacuations in East Quincy and homes along La Porte Road. Today the fire, which was started by a lightning strike and is now over 11,000 acres, moved northeast and crossed State Highway 70 somewhere between Massak and Spring Garden. Highway 70 is now closed between the 89 junction in Blairsden and La Porte Road just east of East Quincy.

UP's Canyon Subdivision main runs along the hillside through Massak to Spring Garden (with Williams Loop between those two points) roughly parallel to the highway so I'm assmuming it is now closed as well. All the Internet and mobile providers in the area are warning us in Quincy that service may be interrupted if the fire in the Massak areas reaches the fiber optic lines that run along the railroad. The lights have been flickering too so the power may be in jeopardy.

There is also a smaller fire in Paxton west of Keddie. Not sure if that is affecting rail ops at this time but I don't believe it is since BNSF called a couple westbounds today out of Keddie. I'm in West Quincy and we are prepared to bug out if the winds shift and the fire comes this way. Heavy smoke and ashes have been raining down for a couple days now. Here's a couple shots from Quincy today. First one in Central Quincy facing east toward Radio Hill and the second one dropping into East Quincy eastbound. The highways is closed a mile or so beyond the edge of town.

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We've had at least 4 trains today on the Gateway Sub, 2 in the last couple hours. Information (and progress) on all these fires has been sketchy, because I think the USFS is very short of personnel.
In the good news dept, the 2 fires in Indian Valley (Copper and Iron) have been 100% contained, but that Claremont Fire just keeps moving along.
We can only hope that storms predicted for the next couple days treat us kindly.

TJY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/20 20:09 by icancmp193.

icancmp193 Wrote:
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> We can only hope that storms predicted for the
> next couple days treat us kindly.

Hopefully there will be more rain than lightning this time but it's not looking very hopeful.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/20 20:15 by trainjunkie.

Thanks for the update Ted.

all-nite-junk-train Wrote:
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> Thanks for the update Ted.

Who is Ted??? Posts by Mike and Tom

Hope everyone stays safe!

Posted from iPhone

Word up this way is that UP finally got their fire train up here to protect their ROW in the Massak/Spring Garden area. Hope they prevail. Highway is still closed. Fire is moving northeast. Red flag warning in effect tonight for lightning and, sadly, very little chance of rain.

We've spent the day preparing a "Go" bag (ha-ha, more like a "Go" car and truck) in case the next round of storms prove problematic.
As of 1815 hours, the weather map looks pretty tame. Hoping it stays that way.

TJY