BY JAIME YARBROUGH

The Coon Mountain Fire is spreading slowly and burning mostly the underbrush.  The acreage burned so far is 4,349 acres.  The winds that feed it are east-west and cyclical in nature due to the cold air at night and warm air during the daytime.  Cold air sinks and traps the smoke in the valley.

The terrain is very steep, but coming down towards Gordon Creek on the south side.  The firefighters expect to fight this for another month.

The Cal Fire said the fire is doing exactly what they want it to do which is it’s going very slow and burning the underbrush.

About 60 people attended the meeting at the RV park in Hiouchi, a mixture of residents and campers.

A total of 640 personnel are fighting the fires.

60 people are part of the Incident Command System = ICS.  At any given time they have two to four heliocopters and two small planes that are supporting the fire.

None of these fires are near populated areas or threaten populated areas, but there is a great deal of fear since the smell of smoke is so prevalent.

They don’t use fire retardant as a first line of defense because they have to prove there is good reason to use it because it’s not environmentally friendly.  It may affect fish, and may affect wildlife.  They use it as a second line of defense when the fire is very intense. They rarely use it in a wilderness area, it has to be a last resort.  Almost all drops are water.

Our thanks and appreciation go out to all those involved in fighting these fires.

There’s going to be another meeting at the Fire Hall on Washington Blvd., Monday night, August 24th at 7  pm open to the public.

Question: Doesn’t it make sense to log the areas so that there isn’t so much fuel to burn?  Is it time to bring logging back?