PLACER COUNTY – The Mosquito Fire, which started on September 6, remains at 76,781 acres but containment has jumped to 85% as of Sunday evening. That’s up 25% from earlier in the day.
There has been no growth in the fire’s size for days.
On Sunday, warmer, drier temperatures caused areas of unburned fuel within the fire perimeter to become more active and aircraft was brought in briefly to suppress these areas, the U.S. Forest Service says.
Aircraft are also being used to collect and fly out hoses, pumps, and other equipment that is no longer being utilized. Firefighters also worked to mitigate hazard trees throughout the fire area for the safety of firefighters and community members.
Aerial firefighting resources continued dropping buckets of water to check up the fire’s spread to a 1/3rd acre, say, officials. Sierra National Forest Sierra Helitack 520 Heli-rappel crew rappelled into the fire and have been constructing containment around the perimeter, stopping forward progress. With the fireline now completed, the rappellers will remain on the fire overnight and Tahoe Hotshots will hike in tomorrow morning to engage in the full fire suppression effort to extinguish all remaining heat.
The fire began next to the Oxbow Reservoir in Placer County and quickly spread in dense brush and steep terrain.
Fire officials say 78 structures have been destroyed and 13 structures have been damaged.
The cause of the fire is under investigation; however, PG&E says an electrical fault was recorded near where the fire began, at around the same time it started. The company also noted that they hadn’t seen any damage or abnormal conditions at the pole. There wasn’t any vegetation or tree found on the line.
View road closures in the vicinity of the Mosquito Fire on the Caltrans interactive map: https://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/
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