The explosive Mosquito Fire burning in the foothills east of Sacramento did not let up Thursday night, torching homes and forcing the evacuation of thousands of El Dorado County residents. The fire, which ignited Tuesday night near Oxbow Reservoir in Placer County, has grown to at least 23,000 acres, Cal Fire’s Nevada-Yuba-Placer unit said in an update just before 10 a.m. Friday. Cal Fire said aircraft had difficulty accurately mapping the perimeter of the fire because of the thick smoke. The fire continued to explode in size, from 13,700 acres reported Thursday afternoon to 6,900 acres that morning. The Mosquito Fire is 0% contained, according to Cal Fire and the US Forest Service. Georgetown, Volcanoville, Bottle Hill and Quintette were ordered to evacuate, joining the Placer County town of Foresthill, as the blaze jumped the Middle Fork of the American River that afternoon. Mandatory evacuations were also ordered for Todd Valley, just west of Foresthill in Placer County. Thursday’s fire burned 5,000 acres south of El Dorado County. Cal Fire Amador-El Dorado Unit Chief Mike Blankenheim said the fire made “a tough uphill climb” in Volcanoville before the wind pushed the flames to the east. Blankenheim said structures were lost in Vocanoville, though the full extent of the damage is unclear as crews focus on bringing the mammoth blaze under control. About 1,700 people were assigned to the fire as of Thursday afternoon, according to Cal Fire. The forest service said more than 260 bulldozers are working on the fire. Sheriff’s officials shortly before 4 p.m. ordered the mandatory evacuation of Georgetown, a historic gold mining town of nearly 3,000 people about 15 miles north of Placerville. Areas like Garden Valley, Greenwood and parts of Cool remained under evacuation warnings Friday morning, meaning residents should be ready to leave immediately. Placer and El Dorado sheriff’s officials ordered no new evacuations overnight.
Mosquito fire map
This live-updating map shows the location of the Mosquito Fire near Foresthill, with heat-sensing satellite data for hotspots. Click the legend button for more information. iFrames are not supported on this page. Sources: US Department of the Interior, IRWIN, NIFC, NASA, NOAA, and Esri Charred properties are seen on Michigan Bluff Road Thursday as the Mosquito Fire burns through Placer County. Xavier Mascareñas [email protected] Evacuation centers have been set up at Cameron Park Services District, 2502 Country Club Drive, Cameron Park. and at Bell Road Baptist Church, 77 Bell Road, Auburn. The center of Cameron Park is an overnight shelter. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday afternoon declared a state of emergency for El Dorado and Placer counties due to the mosquito fire. The governor also declared a state of emergency due to the Fairview Fire in Riverside County. Newsom announced Friday morning that the state has secured a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help with fire suppression costs.
Residents are fleeing because of the raging fire
About 250 people live in Volcanoville and another 100 in Quintette, both just south of the Middle Fork of the American River in El Dorado County. Fred Marziano of Petaluma found out Friday that his Volcanoville home was spared after reaching out to a Bee reporter on Twitter and asking for information. An RV, a vintage Mercedes-Benz, two steel shipping boxes and a tiny house all survived when the Mosquito Fire roared over the canyon Thursday afternoon and were moved by a team of firefighters who dug a bulldozer between the homes and the ridge . The fire came within 20 feet of the house, but was stopped by the bulldozer line. “Oh my God, this is amazing,” said Marziano, who has owned the property with his brother for 15 years and who says he worked as a firefighter for four years and a police officer for 30 years. Forest Service Firefighter Jason Miller said crews worked to save homes in the area for five hours Thursday afternoon and were working hard to save the Mercedes and a small outdoor shower at the house next door. “We ended up putting a bulldozer line under the houses, and as the fire continued to burn, we had put resources into every house, saving what we could,” Miller said. “It was definitely a team effort.” “We tried to save as much as we could.” Firefighters expected more flares on the way, further west in Volcanoville, even if there were no strong winds. Conditions are unpredictable, Miller said, keeping crews on their toes. “The inversion has started right now,” Miller said, pointing to the Thursday afternoon sky. “Give it a couple of hours and the winds pick up – where the smoke picks up – and volatility will happen.” Less than two hours later, that’s exactly what happened: the winds picked up again, pushing the fire over 20,000 acres by midnight. To evacuate Volcanoville, residents had to drive down a one-lane paved road and at one point had to cross a narrow one-lane bridge to reach Wentworth Springs Road. As the fire roared through the day’s high temperatures, there was a steady stream of vehicles, RVs and trucks pulling horse trailers on Highway 193 to Highway 49. A singed American flag flutters in the breeze along Volcanoville Road in El Dorado County, where several homes were destroyed by the Mosquito Fire, which has burned more than 25,000 acres in three days. Sam Stanton [email protected] “We’re like, ‘if our house goes up, we can live in our trailer,’” Josh Manzer, of Volcanoville, said as he and his girlfriend evacuated Thursday. “We were just able to get our trailer. But we left our home.” Volcanoville and Georgetown appeared largely unscathed as of Thursday night. The structure loss earlier in the day came from fires, including on Volcanoville Road, according to radio dispatches. Fire officials as of Thursday afternoon said the fire was threatening 3,666 structures in the two counties. Cal Fire says this includes critical infrastructure in Placer County, such as Sugar Pine Dam, the Placer County Water Agency’s pumping station and dam, major power lines, the Ralston hydroelectric plant and cell towers. In addition to the structure damage in Volcanoville, some structural loss has also been seen in the Michigan Bluff area of Placer County, authorities said in an incident report Thursday.
Fire mosquito smoke cloud visible for many miles
The mosquito fire on Wednesday and Thursday sent up huge clouds of smoke, sometimes resembling a mushroom cloud. Californians shared photos of the smoke on social media. Some have reported seeing it as far away as the bay area. Smoke continues to plague air quality, with a federal air monitor’s online map as of 6 a.m. showing the worst pollution near Auburn, Placerville and the entire Lake Tahoe region, especially South Lake Tahoe. Keep Air reports that the Sacramento area will reach unhealthy levels Friday through at least Monday, issuing an air advisory Friday morning. The Mosquito Fire is seen burning in Placer County Thursday from Foresthill Road in Foresthill. Xavier Mascareñas [email protected] The AQI in Auburn reached dangerous levels of 420 due to particulate matter from the fire. As of Friday morning, particulate levels were “good” in downtown Sacramento and the Arden Arcade, according to the Spare the Air warning. Roseville had reached moderate levels of PM2.5 and Folsom had unhealthy levels. “Air quality can change rapidly at different times of the day due to wind shifts and vertical mixing,” Spare the Air wrote on its website. “If you see or smell smoke in your area, you should stay indoors and avoid outdoor activities.” Heavy smoke near the surface covered the outskirts of evacuated Georgetown Friday morning, extending west at least from the El Dorado Hills. The National Weather Service noted in social media posts Thursday that large cumulus clouds “can produce lightning and cause severe turbulence” — in extreme cases, such as the 2018 Carr Fire near Reading, creating a fire tornado. Officials have yet to observe lightning or “fire” in the mosquito fire.
PG&E says the equipment was removed by firefighters
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in a filing with state regulators Thursday morning said “electrical activity occurred near the time of the fire report” on one of the transmission poles near Oxbow Reservoir. “The (Forest Service) has placed caution tape around the base of a PG&E (60Kv) transmission pole,” PG&E officials wrote in a filing with the California Public Utilities Commission. “To date, PG&E has not observed any damage or abnormal conditions to the pole or our facilities near OxBow Reservoir, no downpipe in the area or vegetation-related issues.” The utility that has been found criminally responsible for starting the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise and whose equipment was identified as the cause of last year’s nearly million-acre Dixie Fire in the Sierra Nevada…
