A spot fire from the Tamarack Fire that crossed Highway 395 in Holbrook Junction in Douglas County, Nevada, Thursday afternoon grew rapidly despite firefighters' efforts, according to the Rocky Mountain Type 1 Incident Management Team, the official source of information on the fire straddling California and Nevada.
In recent days, crews have tried to prevent the blaze that's straddling the California-Nevada state line from crossing the Highway 395 corridor, but on Thursday afternoon, the fire that's burning south of Lake Tahoe exploded.
"Aerial resources estimate the spot about 2,500 acres as of 4:10pm," the incident management team said in Facebook post. "Firefighters and aircraft continue to battle under exceptionally difficult weather & fuel conditions."
The Tamarack Fire ignited in Alpine County near Markleeville, California, by a lightning strike July 4 and exploded in size last week as strong winds fanned flames eating up a parched landscape. Flames crossed into Nevada this week, and the blaze was 50,129 acres and 4% contained Thursday morning, the U.S. Forest Service said.
The Forest Service said in an email statement that the agency initially monitored the fire "very closely via air and fire cameras" as firefighters focused on more active blazes — including 23 other wildfires that were triggered by lightning earlier that week.
"At the time, [the Tamarack Fire] was a single tree burning in the Mokelumne Wilderness on a rocky ridgetop with sparse fuels and natural barriers to contain it," Erica Hupp, a spokesperson for the Forest Service, wrote in an email. "The steep, rugged, and remote terrain presented challenges to safely suppress this wilderness fire. Out of the numerous lightning fire starts on the Forest, seven resulted in larger fires. Fire resources were limited and were assigned to these higher priority fires."
Rep. Tom McClintock sent a letter to the U.S. Forest Service chief Tuesday asking why the agency didn't suppress the Tamarack Fire in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and instead monitored it.
"Why was this decision made?" the Elk Grove Republican wrote in the letter addressed to Vicki Christiansen. “Who made this decision and which USFS officials were consulted and informed? What legal authority authorized the USFS to allow this wildfire to burn in lieu of immediate full suppression?”
Hupp said the Tamarack Fire didn't exhibit active behavior until July 16, when high winds and low humidity levels pushed flames downslope.
"With this rapid change in the fire, firefighting resources were dispatched on Friday, July 16, and arrived on scene at 3 p.m.," she said.
Tracy LeClair, a spokesperson for the incident management team, said two sections of the fire are active: the northern part of the fire near the intersections of Routes 88 and 89 and the eastern side near Highway 395.
Flames are threatening communities in the Highway 395 corridor in Nevada, and the Douglas County Sheriff's Office issued a stream of evacuations in recent days. There are also 700 people evacuated in Alpine County. (See evacuation information in the Forest Service's incident overview of the fire.)
The fire previously threatened the community of Markleeville, and efforts in the area are focused on ensuring all hot spots are out.
"We do have structure protection groups working around the area of Markleeville," said LeClair. "It did burn around in that area. What they're doing now is called cold trailing. They go in with bare hands, feeling around, making sure there are no remaining hot spots to make sure there are no starts in that area. The majority of the active fire is to the north and northeast of Markleeville at this point. Toward Nevada."
Highway 395 is closed from China Spring Road to the Nevada-California state line, and at 395 and State Route 208. Highway 89 is closed at the intersection of highways 4 and 89. State Route 88 is closed in California.
The fire is burning across a landscape that's bone-dry after two consecutive dry winters.
"As always, the concern is the continued warm, dry, windy weather, and that really is and has been the driving factor when it comes to the fire activity — especially when those winds line up with the terrain," LeClair said.
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