Last weekend, California law enforcement arrested a man suspected of setting a small blaze around July 20 in Lassen County, a remote forested area nearby the Dixie Fire. Consequently, the Dixie Fire is believed by authorities to be California’s largest single wildfire in state history. However, the Dixie Fire is not a wildfire “complex,” meaning two or more fires active in the same area. Gavin Newsom and his Public Utilities Commission created a new division to monitor wildfire safety plans from California utilities.īy acreage, the Dixie Fire is California’s second-largest wildfire in recorded history next to last year’s August Complex fire which scorched more than a million acres. History repeated itself this year following the revelation that PG&E equipment and negligence ignited the Camp Fire in November 2018, TWN previously reported, still one of the deadliest corporate crimes in state history. No action has been taken by the Senate on the bill since it was referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. ![]() If enacted, the United States Forest Service and the Department of the Interior would be required to allocate $300 million to increase the number of acres treated with controlled burns. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., introduced legislation that would utilize controlled burns in an effort to mitigate the effects of severe wildfires nationwide. “We are not really waiting, we are working to actively begin the process of getting that damage assessment done and then we’ll work with our partners at the federal emergency management agency to see about getting some additional aid, if possible, to support the state and the state programs coming together in support of these communities.” ![]() “A lot is happening while the fire is still being fought,” Ghilarducci said. Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said equipment operated by PG&E is strongly suspected to have initiated the extensive burning. Since the fire’s inception, more than 18,000 residents have been evacuated from surrounding areas and the blaze continues to threaten a dozen small communities in the northern Sierra Nevada region.Īlthough the cause of the Dixie Fire is still under investigation, the Pacific Gas & Electric utility company has indicated in a report filed with state regulators the fire may have begun after a tree fell on one of its power lines near the Cresta Dam in the Feather River Canyon. The Dixie Fire first started burning on July 14 and is only about 30% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “Everything from Placer County in the River fire down south all the way up to Siskiyou County and Trinity - the Monument and McFarland in the north.” “At this point, we are in the process of doing a damage assessment to take into the totality of all of the losses in the multiple counties that have been impacted by these series of fires,” Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said during a press conference on Wednesday. Around three-quarters of the town’s structures were destroyed in the blaze, including the public library and the fire department. ![]() 4, most of Greenville’s historic downtown and more than 100 homes had been turned to rubble by the Dixie Fire. ![]() Several of its structures dated back to the Gold Rush era: the Bransford and Mclntyre Warehouse, the McBeth and Compton Warehouse, the McBeth and Compton Store and the Perine Bank.īut as of Aug. Greenville has had a peaceful existence on the northwest side of Indian Valley since it was rebuilt by gold miners who inhabited it after a catastrophic fire destroyed most of the buildings on the northside of Main Street in 1881. Nearby Greenville - a census-designated area in Plumas County - sits empty, surrounded by burnt foliage and shrouded in sun-blotting haze. Smoke and ash from various wildfires are causing poor air quality conditions around the state. Northern California’s extensive Dixie Fire has enveloped over 510,000 acres across four counties as crews work tirelessly to contain the nation’s largest active wildfire.
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