At least one person has been confirmed dead in the Head Fire burning in the Klamath National Forest.
The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office announced today that they found the body of Ken Lee Oliver, 71, deceased in the driveway of his home in Scott Bar.
The department found Oliver in the early morning Wednesday, after responding to communities that were under evacuation from the fire Tuesday evening.
The department says an autopsy will take place to determine the cause of death and an investigation is ongoing.
Evacuations still underway Friday
Evacuation orders and warnings remain in place in place for most of northern Siskiyou County where more than 20 fires, now called the Happy Camp Complex, continue to burn after several days of lightning storms that started Monday.
One of the areas impacted by the fires is Klamath River. The small community was devastated by the McKinney Fire that killed four people and destroyed more than 200 homes in the community last year.
Sue Story, a McKinney Fire survivor, spoke with NSPR before being evacuated from the current fires late Thursday night.
"We've got so smoked in right now that I can't even see the mountain across the way,” she said.
Story had been keeping power on at her home using a generator. She’s the only person in her area who’s had an internet connection during the fires, so she said her neighbors had been going to her house to keep up with loved ones online.
She hopes living in a burn scar protects her home, but she said she doesn't know if it will be enough.
"Things can change in an instant,” she said. “It depends on the weather and the fuel. Because we don't have a lot of fuel other than burned up trees, I'm going to really hope that we're in a safe place."
Burn scar areas from last year’s McKinney Fire still at risk
Nathan Judy, Public Information Officer with the California Interagency Management Team 5, told NSPR today, that even though the Klamath River area has little fuel after last year’s fire, current fires could still impact the area.
“It's not the direct flame that's coming through necessarily,” Judy said. “If you get some winds on that fire what happens is embers blow over into that area, and we get spot fires.”
That could create dangerous situations in that area, Judy said.
“That's why we really talk about making sure people prior to the fire start doing their defensible space work, hardening their homes, in case a wildfire does start.”
He urged residents around the fires to heed current evacuation orders and warnings.
"When folks don't evacuate, it does put a burden on our firefighters,” he said. “It takes away their concentration to putting that fire out.”
The area received scattered rain showers Thursday night, but not enough to put a dent in the fires. The largest fire in the complex is the Head Fire, which this afternoon was last reported to be about 4,000 acres.
The area is incredibly smoky, which keeps the fires down, but Judy said the smoke causes its own problems.
“With that smoke that's blanketing the forested areas, as well as the communities around the forest, it's hard for our aircraft to fly in those areas,” he said. “What happens when the smoke does break away, is those fires will become active again."
Where to follow information about the Happy Camp Complex
- Inciweb (fire activity information)
- Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office Facebook (evacuation information)
- Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office Twitter (evacuation information)
- Cal Fire Siskiyou Unit Twitter (fire activity information)
- Cal Fire Siskiyou Unit Facebook (fire activity information)
- Siskiyou County Office of Emergency Services Facebook (fire activity information)
Where to sign up for emergency alerts in any county
