Cold temperatures and wet snowy weather arrived late last week causing a turn of events on the Yellow Lake Fire. Evacuation orders were lifted by Saturday but forest closures remain in effect for now and crews will continue rehabilitation projects and assessing hot spots. Heavy equipment has been held back to alleviate additional damage to the wet ground. The California Interagency Incident Management Team 2 took over managing the Yellow Lake Fire two weeks ago and are now preparing to head home. In parting, they shared the following statistics: The Yellow Lake Fire was the highest priority in the country and yet, thankfully, no lives or buildings were lost. Resources were scarce, fire danger was extreme, and firefighters were at risk of being exhausted. Despite this, 24 miles of dozer line was pushed, 13 miles of hand line was constructed, 23 miles of hose and 100 pumps were used, 683,440 gallons of retardant was dropped, 2.2 million gallons of water was dropped from the air, 12 evacuation zones were initiated with 123 evacuations performed, and 442 structures were threatened. Even before the recent weather event, fire progression greatly decreased from 5,200 acres a day to 150 acres a day. At their busiest last week, there were 889 personnel on the fire who were fed a total of 4.5 million calories per day. Now that number of firefighters is more than cut in half. A big thank you is in order for the California Interagency Incident Management Team 2 as they head back home.
