|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Evacuations were lifted and outdoor activities resumed Wednesday in parts of Contra Costa County as firefighters worked to quell the Morgan Fire
on Mount Diablo.
About 3,243 acres have burned and the wildfire on the slopes of Mount Diablo is 70 percent contained after the fire was first reported around 1:10 p.m. Sunday near Morgan Territory Road, southeast of Clayton. Full containment is expected Friday.
Two firefighters suffered minor injuries as of Monday and a third minor injury was reported today.
The third firefighter was an inmate from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and was airlifted after he suffered heat exhaustion, CDCR officials said.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a smoke advisory because of the fire on Monday, which remained in effect Wednesday.
An air district spokesman said the advisory would be canceled once the fire was fully contained.
Mandatory evacuations for residents in the area were lifted this afternoon and most roads have reopened, according to Cal Fire.
More than a dozen agencies are involved in the fire response.
No homes have burned, but a Cal Fire official said that a communication shed that contains electrical equipment was destroyed Sunday night.
Several schools and city agencies in the area canceled outdoor activities, but today Danville city officials said all sporting leagues and other scheduled events would resume outside.
With lower temperatures and less smoke from the fire, activities were able to resume.
However, city officials advised residents to stay hydrated and aware of smoky conditions that may affect air quality, especially the young, elderly and those with respiratory issues.
why hasn’t there been any smoke for over a day, yet the fire was only 45% contained yesterday and 70% contained today? Is this a boondoggle or what?
From Julia, a concerned citizen
Julie, you may recall the Oakland Hills fire of 1991 resulted from an ember that had been left burning after the fire department thought it had completely extinguished a fire. The pros were mistaken that time and hundreds of homes were lost as a result. I applaud the firefighters for being SUPER diligent in making sure no hidden burning embers remain – embers that are not producing any smoke.
embers don’t produce smoke? Really? 3200 acres of embers? How sadly misled you are!
Julia, a concerned citizen.
The containment percentage figures for fires always seem to understate the extent to which the fire has been effectively controlled, or at least it seems that way to folks like us who are not involved with the fire-fighting operation. In terms of the apparent lack of smoke over the last day or so, I think the explanation is that the vast majority of the combustible fuel in the burn area has already burned. The area of the fire isn’t expanding much, if any, at this point, and so there is little “fresh fuel” being burned. Even so, there are still (I think) lots of small fires, as well as smoldering areas. It’s not like there’s no smoke being produced. But the amount of smoke IS a lot less. And smoke from smoldering areas is generally much less visible than smoke from fresh, semi-green fuel. For the same reason that charcoal fires don’t produce much smoke, whereas burning green wood makes a lot of smoke. (Basically less moisture or water content remaining in the fuel.)
It takes a long time for a large wildfire to be truly “out” – I think I read that there are still a couple of thousand fire fighters working on the Rim fire near Yosemite, which has been controlled for a while now. I also assume that resources are being shifted a bit to the other fire up near either Mount or Lake Shasta (not sure which).