Bishop Creek Fire Update
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Here’s the official info on “Forks Fire” from the Inyo National Forest website.
Bishop, CA (July 18, 2009)…As of 8:00 PM on Saturday July 18th a total of 21 wildland fires have been sparked within the Inyo National Forest in the Eastern Sierra region of Inyo and Mono Counties. Most fires have remained small but one incident 12 miles west of Bishop has grown to 300 acres and has forced the evacuation of several popular campgrounds in the Bishop Creek drainage.
The Forks Fire was started by a lightning strike at about 2:30 PM near Intake II, a small lake alongside State Route 168, 12 miles west of Bishop. As of 8:00 PM the fire had burned about 300 acres with no containment at this time. A total of 9 air tankers has been ordered to help suppress the Forks Fire, in addition to numerous other local, county, state and federal fire fighting resources.
The evacuation of nearly 100 campers went smoothly, according to Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze, in part due to an early voluntary evacuation request shortly after the fire began. At about 5:30 PM a mandatory evacuation order was issued for four Forest Service campgrounds in the vicinity of the fire. Those campgrounds are the Forks, Big Trees, Intake and the Bishop Park Campground.
Also at about 5:30 PM the fire crossed the state highway closing the road to traffic. Law enforcement units escorted evacuees out of the area as the fire started to move north. Voluntary evacuation orders are still in place at numerous other Forest Service campgrounds in the area around Lake Sabrina, South Lake and North Lake. Local law enforcement officers remain in the communities of Aspendell, South Lake and Starlite to monitor the fire, however none of the residents of these communities are being considered for evacuation at this time.
As fire conditions permit, evacuees may be able to return to their campsites to retrieve their camping equipment. Evacuees may check at the highway road closure on State Route 168 for information on road opening possibilities.
Additional information may be obtained from the Inyo National Forest at 873-2503 beginning at 8:00 AM Sunday July 19th.
Cory is now posting about the fire on his blog: Sierra Impressions Photography Blog
He has also pointed the Bishop Webcam in the direction of the fire.
Here is a picture taken by my sister in law Panda last evening:
I’ll keep you guys updated as I learn more.
For the most recent updates on the Forks Fire
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Hey, At about 9:15 last night it came over the ridge across from the road going into Starlight. From the way they talked on the scanner most of the people from there had already left and the sheriff were running patrols through there to keep an eye on everything. They sey up an evacuation center at the fairgrounds for all of the people. Like I said on my Facebook page the planes and helicopters have been beating a constant path over my house since about 6:00am. When I clicked on to Cories site you could see a helicopter and then it updated and you could still see it and then it was gone. I will take my camara with me today just in case anything pops up.
SeeYa,
Brian
Thanks for the update and good luck.
The following was posted on the Rock Creek board by Jared Smith (Parchers Resort)
It’s been a CRAZY time up here since yesterday. The whole canyon is still under mandatory evacuation(which started about 6pm last night)….the fire started on the buttermilks side of the ridge just over from the South Lake turnoff by Forks Campground. It burned up and over and at least one point last night was on both sides of hwy 168 near Big Trees campground. Luckily it’s primarily burning down the canyon but there are a few spots between the South Lake turnoff and Intake II that are burning. We had a fire last year but it was nothing compared to this one……
Anyhow – that’s the update from inside the canyon…
peace,
smitty
Great tracking work, brothers Bourelle! Hope they get that fire out soon – the State can’t afford to fight it for too long.
My family at Cardinal Village in Aspendale has had mandatory evacuation. Sister says lots of aircraft fighting this and one huge plane brought in from Canada.
It’s raining in bishop right now w/ some thunder. Hopefully it’s raining up canyon. I’ve seen one helicopter flying around from bishop airport, but sure haven’t seen any aircraft from town. they must be coming from the west side?
From last night
Here’s a link to calfire’s sitehttp://calfire.blogspot.com/ for more info…
Here’s CalFire’s Blog link w/ info….
http://calfire.blogspot.com/
Hey, It just came on the scanner at 1:05pm that a mandatory evacuation of the South Fork of Bishop Creek has been put into affect. Everyone must leave there are to be no exceptions. The aircraft that were constanly going back and forth over my house this morning seemed to have vanished. The Thunderheads are starting to build again. Hopefully they are carrying rain and not lightning. A new fire was just reported at Goodall Creek. They are also pulling all law enforcement personel from the north side to do the evacuation on the south side. It could be a long night. I will keep you folks up tp date as hear things.
SeeYa!!
Hopefully everyone cooperates, firefighters and law enforcement sure earn their pay.
Hey,
Latest update. Maybe some good news, the fire has moved around and past Starlight and they are going to let people go to their houses if they want to. It has also dropped from 102 on my computer to 97 in the last 10 minutes. The smell of rain is in the air and the swamp cooler is doing it’s job again. This has been SierraVisions roving reporter and now back to Commander Steve in our Wisconsin Headquarters.
SeeYa!!
From the Visalia area there are huge thunderheads over the high range. Can’t see how far up they are–air quality is too bad to see much. The t-heads look like they are topping out, collapsing and more forming. I hope there is moisture in those clouds and not just a lot of dry lightning.
This is terrible. We stay at the Willows camp every summer… we just left last week in fact. Is Parcher’s and the Lodge okay??? This is horrible I hope everyone is going to be okay.
The fire is burning mainly in the middle and lower part of the canyon. Bishop Creek Lodge, Parchers and areas in the upper canyon are fine.
Anybody know if they are making progress on knocking it down?
Yes they are Brian. Last report is 50% containment. Head to the home page: http://www.sierravisions.com for the latest updates as I post them.
Really appreciate the fast response. Will look for further updates. Thanks Steven