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| North Pelican Fire Perimeter Map, August 22, 2017 |
Red Flag warnings
are in effect from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. today for abundant lightning on dry fuels in
portions of Southern Oregon and Northern California. These storms are predicted
to stay to the South and East of the fire area but will likely bring erratic
winds and create potentially unsafe conditions on the fire line.
The North Pelican Fire is estimated at 1,200 acres, which includes the 20-acre
fire that was found to the west yesterday. The newly discovered fire was
originally detected during the same August 10 lightning storm that started
North Pelican but was not found until yesterday afternoon. Over 120
firefighters and supporting overhead are currently assigned to the fire.
As a safety precaution, the Fremont-Winema National Forest is in the
process of finalizing an Area Closure that will close portions of the forest around
the incident to all vehicle and pedestrian entry. This will include the Cold
Springs Trailhead and the 3709 and 3710 Trails. The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT)
itself is unaffected by this closure, but access to and from the PCT will be
limited in the area. The 3651 Road will be closed at the Road 3659 junction
about 1.75 miles south of Cold Springs Trailhead. Pelican Butte Road remains
closed.
The general perimeter of the Area Closure will include all Forest Lands
west of Westside Road, east of Pelican Butte Road, north of the 3554 Road, and
south of 3519 Road. The closure is
currently being finalized and should be in place later today. We will be sharing the closure via our social
media sites and e-mail once it is finalized.
Yesterday, Forest Service staff checked the Cold Springs Trailhead and attempted to contact any hikers who were inside the closure area. Officials will be posting trailheads that
provide access to the Cold Springs Trail area such as the Cherry Creek and
Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest Trailheads to let folks know that they will not
be able to hike into the Cold Springs Trail area.
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| Forest Ranger, Ben Goodwin, cutting hazard trees. |
Today, firefighters will continue mop up efforts around spot fires and
landing piles along the eastern flank. Mop up efforts will further secure the
containment lines and reduce the potential for the fire to spread. Crews will also work to improve dozer lines
and Forest Service Road near the fire perimeter by clearing brush and limbing
trees of all latter fuels. Hazard or snag trees are proving to be another
primary safety consideration on this fire.
If traveling on Westside Road or through the Rocky Point area, please be
vigilant and drive with caution as emergency traffic vehicles are in the area. When
smoke is visible, motorists are encouraged to drive with their headlights on.
Please use extreme caution when driving near firefighters and equipment.
An online option for viewing the fire area is https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/publicmaps/keno/map.html. Winds from the north continued to push smoke into
the Basin today. Air quality advisories are available at www.klamathair.org.
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