RedZone has been keeping a close eye on Northern California wildfire activity over the past few weeks. A recent flurry of dry lightning thunderstorms in conjunction with drought and fire prone conditions, have led to numerous large fires across the region. The Rocky Fire, being the largest of the fires at 69,636 acres, is nearing full containment at 88% as of 0700 hours PDT this morning. All evacuations in relation to the fire have been lifted, and CAL FIRE’s Incident Information webpage is projecting full containment around August 13th. In short, it looks like the Rocky Fire is well on its way to bed.
Unfortunately, just as one monster is off to sleep, it seems another has awoken. The Jerusalem Fire, which started August 9th just south of the Rocky Fire area, quickly grew to approximately 12,000 acres in size with no reported containment as of this morning. In fact the Rocky and Jerusalem Fire are so close in proximity, only a single valley separates the two fire perimeters from one another. Mandatory evacuations remain in effect as a result of the Jerusalem Fire, with structures in the area reportedly remaining threatened. Hopefully the close proximity of resources being diverted from Rocky to Jerusalem will aid in containment efforts.
Although lightning has been the main culprit for numerous fires in the region, the cause of both the Rocky and Jerusalem Fires remain under investigation.
