Quick Facts:
Cause: Lightning
Acreage: 107,371 (Infrared flight from 9/6 1:00 a.m.)
Containment: 3%
Crews: 3
Engines: 21
Dozers: 6
Aircraft: call when needed/air is clear
Total resources: 258 (significant resource order in)
Headlines:
- California Complex Interagency Incident Management Team 10 took command of the fire at 7:00 a.m. this morning, September 6, 2024.
- Find current information (including automatically updating acreage) at https://linktr.ee/RailRidgeFire
Operational update:
Current control objectives on the lightning-started Rail Ridge Fire include keeping the fire southwest of Highway 26, east of the Wolf Mountain Communications Tower, north of County Road 308/Paulina Supplee Highway, and west of Laylock Creek, 49/63C Road. However, incident control objectives are anticipated to evolve as resources arrive and conditions change.
Priorities for today include providing point protection around structures on private property to the north and south of the fire area. Crews will work to build containment directly on the fires’ active edge as they are able, while simultaneously looking for opportunities to create indirect fire line where possible. Along with reinforcing primary lines, they will look for opportunities to build alternate and contingency lines in advance of the expected critical fire weather.
The fire was most active yesterday to the northeast, where it pushed towards the Aldrich Mountain Lookout. Protecting the lookout and its communication infrastructure is a priority for firefighters today. Firing operations on the east and southern side of the fire have held well, and crews will continue to hold those.
On the northwestern side of the fire, crews are looking for opportunities on road systems adjacent to the Black Canyon Wilderness areas to try to cut off spread to the north and west.
A significant resource order has been submitted and additional engines, crews, and heavy equipment will be plugged into the operation today as they arrive.
Weather:
Critical fire weather is predicted into the next few days, with high temperatures and erratic winds expected. Smoke has hampered aerial firefighting efforts, but with clearing yesterday crews were able to start to fly, and aircraft is available for incident use when feasible.
