With the massive Valley and Butte fires demanding huge amounts of resources and garnering national attention, it’s easy to overlook the smaller fires in our area.
NSPR’s Matt Shilts visited the scene of the Lumpkin Fire, and though it’s about 1/80th the size of those mega fires, that doesn’t mean it’s been easy to fight.
Koby Johns is public information officer with Cal Fire and is assisting on the Lumpkin Fire. He’s also a Fresno County fire captain. He said that a big part of the reason for the Lumpkin Fire’s quick spread and difficult containment is the extremely dry, severe terrain of eastern Butte County.
“When the terrain gets steep like this is behind me and it’s very dense with vegetation, the fire can move very rapidly,” he says. “Super steep and rugged terrain — it’s very taxing, very physically demanding on our firefighters to go in and essentially remove some of these fuels.”
The fire is burning near the edge of Lake Oroville. Johns said that crews were concerned about embers carrying across the part of the lake spanned by the Enterprise Bridge — where Lumpkin Road crosses the lake. With water levels as low as they are, it wouldn’t take much. Yesterday’s rains helped quell that fear. This morning full containment was achieved. Still, with a hot, dry weekend looming, crews will continue to patrol and extinguish hot spots that persist within the fire perimeter.
For continuing Northern California fire updates, visit our fire season page.