[env-trinity] Sunday's Article and Photos from Times Standard

Thu Sep 7 10:38:00 PDT 2006

Env-trinity subscribers,

I have deleted the pictures from the article below because I don't want to clog your inbox with a 1 mb file, but you might want to look at them online.  

One picture is of a helicopter sucking water from the pool upstream of Hell Hole, with Hell Hole in the foreground.  It's pretty classic, but not good for the rafters.

Tom Stokely

http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_4282010

                    Shaun Walker / Times-Standard  
                        A helicopter hovers just above Hell Hole as it sucks water up a hose near Big Flat on Saturday afternoon. It and other others were dropping water on a fire blazing above Highway 299.[Watch Video]

                    Shaun Walker / Times-Standard  
                        A U.S. Forest Service truck drives past billowing smoke near Hell Hole.[Watch Video]

            BIG FLAT A wind-blown wildfire that started small along Highway 299 on Saturday morning quickly spread to over 1,000 acres, causing Big Flat to be evacuated and the road to be closed. 
            Firefighters, helicopters and tanker planes, already nearby because of the Bar Complex fires, attacked the Pigeon Fire soon after it started about 4 miles upstream of Big Flat shortly before 10 a.m. By noon, it had grown to about 30 acres. Winds blew the fire to the north and the west and it covered about 1,000 acres at 6 p.m. The fire had burned back down to the highway in one area, with debris and large rocks rolling down the steep hillside north of the Trinity River. Zero percent containment was reported at an 8 p.m. briefing. 

            The fire was “human caused” but is still under investigation, said Bar Complex fire information officer Tom Efird. Most of it is now located in steep, inaccessible terrain significantly uphill of the roadway. 

            Law enforcement told people in Big Flat to evacuate at around 3 p.m. and highway traffic had already been stopped for several hours. About 130 were evacuated from Big Flat and another 100 voluntarily evacuated from Big Bar a few miles downstream. 

            A Red Cross shelter was being set up in Salyer at the Wayside Church, said fire information officer Bruce Palmer. 

            The blaze started near the middle of the Pigeon Point river section, a popular white water rafting and kayaking run. A guided trip with 27 rafters on five boats was stranded just below the fire because large helicopters were swooping down to the large pool above nearby Hell Hole and other downstream rapids, sucking water up through hoses. The rafting trip had started further upstream just before the fire did. 

            Rafters watched flames on the hillside flare over 50 feet high and smoke billow and swirl wildly while they were stuck, said Travis Robinson of Trinity River Rafting, one of the guides stranded along the river for over three hours. 

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            “A helicopter dropped a firefighting crew down right in front of us,” Robinson said. 

            A different raft trip floated downstream earlier before it could be stopped, and its passengers got the excitement of running the rapids and watching low-hovering helicopters as they made their way to Big Flat, Robinson said. 

            Law enforcement and firefighters escorted vehicles and trailers from Big Flat, including some from Bigfoot Rafting, to the fire area to help get the larger group of rafters and their boats out. 

            About 300 firefighters with 12 fire engines, 11 hand crews, three helicopters, two heavy air tankers, three bulldozers and other equipment  

                    Shaun Walker / Times-Standard  
                        Flames engulf trees on steep terrain about a 1/3 of a mile above the Trinity River after the Pigeon Fire quickly spread up from the highway.[Watch Video]

            were dedicated to the rapidly spreading fire. Most were from the U.S. Forest Service, but the California Department of Forestry and other agencies assisted. 

            “It made a tremendous difference to have the resources nearby already,” said Efird. All of the Bar Complex's airborne firefighting efforts were shifted to the Pigeon Fire for the initial attack. 

            Rafting companies already hurting some from what some say was sensationalized and misleading media reports after a rainy spring, typically get a surge of business on Labor Day weekend. Most are centered in Big Flat, but were moving employees and equipment to milder but runnable sections downstream. 

            The fire also affected power and telephone service in the area. 

            Highway 299 was closed from Highway 96 in Willow Creek, or possibly Big Bar for locals, to Junction City. Caltrans expected the closure to last well into Sunday. Travelers should check www.dot.ca.gov/dist2, or call (800) 427-ROAD for road condition updates. 

            RETURN TO TOP 

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