- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Sulphur fire containment edges up; wind shift leads to air quality alert due to regional fires
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As firefighters continued to work on the North Coast’s fires on Tuesday, a wind shift resulted in more smoke and some ash from around the region coming into Lake County’s air basin.
Lake County’s Sulphur fire continued to edge closer to full containment on Tuesday, with the 2,207-acre fire up to 92-percent containment by the evening.
The Sulphur fire is being managed jointly with the 35,800 Redwood fire in Mendocino County as part of the Mendocino Lake Complex. The Redwood fire is up to 70 percent containment, bringing the overall complex containment to 71-percent, according to Cal Fire.
In Sonoma and Napa counties the Central LNU Complex reached 102,785 acres on Tuesday, Cal Fire said.
It includes the Tubbs fire, 36,432 acres, 87-percent containment; the Pocket fire, 12,430 acres and 58-percent containment; the Sonoma Nuns fire, 33,369 acres and the Napa Nuns fire, 19,525 acres and 78-percent containment for both incidents; and the Oakmont fire, 1,029 acres and 27-percent containment, according to Cal Fire’s report.
Cal Fire said firefighters held the Southern LNU Complex, burning in Napa and Solano counties, to 51,064 acres on Tuesday, with containment up to 80 percent.
Thanks to progress on the fires the air quality in Lake County had improved over the last several days.
However, Air Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart said variable winds brought heavy smoke and some ash fall into areas of Lake County on Tuesday, which led to Lake County Air Quality Management issuing an alert for air quality in the “unhealthy” range in some parts of the county.
Gearhart said the smoke came primarily from the Pocket fire.
Radio traffic on the Pocket fire has indicated that backfiring operations have been used over the last few days to bring the fire under control.
Gearhart said air quality impacts were observed in Cobb, Kelseyville, Clear Lake Riviera, Lower Lake, the city of Clearlake and the Northshore.
He said a strong inversion has set up over the lake and is holding the smoke in the basin.
Conditions worsened to the point that at around 4:15 p.m. volunteers on the Mount Konocti fire lookout tower went out of service for the day, noting large amounts of drift smoke coming from the southwest that caused them not to be able to see the highway below.
As the smoke continued to build in the air basin, local firefighters were dispatched to numerous smoke check reports, according to radio reports. In all of those cases, firefighters were unable to locate new fires and canceled their response.
Gearhart said impacts from the smoke were expected to continue overnight.
All areas of the county may experience “unhealthy” air quality at times as winds change, though Gearhart said overall conditions are improving.
The smoke is expected to intermittently impact all of Lake County through the week, Gearhart said.
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