Western Railroad Discussion > Dixie Fire and the Inside Gateway

I take it that repairs are still ongoing on BNSF's Inside Gateway and through trains haven't been routed that way yet?

Several fires in Northern California made huge runs to the northeast yesterday. The Dixie Fire went across Hwy 44 and burned to within 3 miles of the Inside Gateway at Halls Flat. The Antelope Fire that burned Tennant, CA made a impressive move to the northeast, but ran smack into the Lava Beds National Monument and could't go further as there are miles of lava bed to cross there. It will only be a threat to BNSF if it moves southeast. It continues to be a threat to UP's Black Butte Sub if the west side of the fire were to move northwest. The Cougar Peak fire near Lakeview, OR also really blew up.

For some good news. The southeast flank of the Dixie Fire burned into the old Beckwourth Fire complex and mostly flamed out. Another fire that started just north of Burney, CA a few days ago next to the former McCloud River RR grade appears to be out now. A large fire west of Yakima, WA is getting hit with a large dose of rain right now.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/21 09:33 by funnelfan.

That was a quick push by the fire across Hwy 44 west of Poison Lake.  Firefighters were trying to hold the line at the highway.  They say that Old Station has been spared, but it sure looks like the fire is burning heavily in that area.  The fire may burn into the Hat Creek fire burn from a few years ago and hopefully run out of fuel.  Erratic winds and lightning strikes from the low pressure system are moving through the area, compicating the situation.

Right, flare ups on all the northern fires as the weather conditions changed, everything flared in the general north-east direction, although some growth was simply folowing river valleys like the Klamath in western Siskiyou County for example. Dunsmuir had half an inch of rain last night, slow soak from about midnight. Waiting to see today's summaries.

The fire that hit Tennant apparently had mixed amounts of damage, photos of the General Store have been published. I drove the old Long Bell mainline earlier this year and noted incredible density of tall trees, literally 10 feet between trees with piles of dead branches on the ground. The MODIS generated maps show fire in those area, have to wait and see what happened as all the National Forests are posted as closed until next week or so. That fire had spread from the McCloud and Medicine Lake all the way over to the hills seen from hiway 97, crews were sent to Stateline road last night for Structure Protection as they did not know what to expect with the storm.

+ Just read about Whitney Creek overflowing again and closing hiway 97. Whitney Creek drains the remaining glaciers on the north side of Mt Shasta but also the drainage of the recent Lava Fire. They had removed about ten feet of silt a few months ago but it's a narrow channel and fills up pretty quick, causing the overflow across the hiway.

Additional reading in these two local sites:

https://krcrtv.com/
https://www.heraldandnews.com/

++ BNSF still detouring through Dunsmuir, possibly 6 trains a day.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/21 11:06 by TCnR.

Good morning everyone. The Dixie fire jumped containment lines yesterday afternoon at old station. It is now burning on the hat creek rim. The community of hat creek has been evacuated to the USDA work station. Yesterday afternoon, there was significant lightning activity on the Hat Creek Rim and in the Day area. Around 3 in the morning, we got over a 10th of an inch of rain, which will help slow progression. It is expected that evacuations will go to Cassel in the next few days.

Last night, due to increased lightening strikes in the hat creek rim area and the fire jumping containment lines, little valley and little valley road were evacuated. Evacuation orders/warnings now go to the southern edge of Big Valley (NuBeiber and Bieber area). Overall, there has been short runs in the Old Station Hat Creek area, and the fire is moving at a slow to moderate rate.

The hat creek rim is roughly 2 miles from Halls Flat, which is still untouched as far as the RR is concerned. The hat creek rim is rocky and steep. Dozers are unable to construct containment lines on many portions of the rim.

Please excuse typos and punctuation as this was sent on the fly.

This is not an offical statement.

Posted from Android

billmeeker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That was a quick push by the fire across Hwy 44
> west of Poison Lake.  Firefighters were trying to
> hold the line at the highway.  They say that Old
> Station has been spared, but it sure looks like
> the fire is burning heavily in that area.  The
> fire may burn into the Hat Creek fire burn from a
> few years ago and hopefully run out of fuel. 
> Erratic winds and lightning strikes from the low
> pressure system are moving through the area,
> compicating the situation.

The Eiler fire which burned hat creek 2 years ago has consumed much of the fuels on the ground on the west side of hat creek, it is the east side that is burning now. There are still containment lines left over from the Eiler fire that are being re-utilized now.

This is not an official statement.

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/21 11:50 by FishinJeeper.

In suburban Crescent Mills CA we had about .25" of rain in the wee hours of Friday morning, with minimal lightning according to the USFS lightning map. Unfortunately, the northeast end of the Dixie Fire did not enjoy that rain.. The BNSF maintenance operation in Crescent Mills CA is still going strong. There is a self-propelled crane there now. Despite reports of Inside Gateway tunnel problems, I have seen no maintenance activities at either of the two tunnels alleged to have issues (#2 and the one headed up to Almanor #5(?)). Only bridge work. 

TJY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/21 12:00 by icancmp193.

As long as forest floors are littered with needles and branches and dead trees, this will be a normal way of life. The fires will only get worse

WAF Wrote: Do you really think it's that simple? Better to get some real understanding.
-------------------------------------------------------
> As long as forest floors are littered with needles
> and branches and dead trees, this will be a normal
> way of life. The fires will only get worse

Posted from Android

Better get out those rakes and shop vacs.

It's a good example of how mis-understood the issues are.
 

I lived in the foothills, we didn't have fire problems. Why because the land around me was private and you didn't sare say "No" to
CDF on brush clearing. Federal land, totally different issue, on one is doing much of anything in terms of clearance.You can't log it
but it's OK if it burns. 

Out 

The northern tip of the fire got substantial rain. There was minimal fire activity. Things are looking GREAT!

Posted from Android

Thanks for the fire reports  folks.

Chicodepot Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WAF Wrote: Do you really think it's that simple?
> Better to get some real understanding.
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > As long as forest floors are littered with
> needles
> > and branches and dead trees, this will be a
> normal
> > way of life. The fires will only get worse
>
> Posted from Android

It is that simple. Poor forest management and the total resistance to controlled burning has lead to this. A overgrown unhealthy forest is a tinderbox waiting to blow up. All it needs is ignition source.

CS

Here's a demonstration of how simple it is:

https://energysafety.ca.gov/what-we-do/wildfire-mitigation-and-safety/wildfire-mitigation-plans/2021-wmp/

or a 2019 report on how to solve the problem:

https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/5584/45-day-report-final.pdf

But we're getting away from RR content on a RR discussion site. It's a big problem that simply hasn't been solved yet.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/21 09:39 by TCnR.