Twelve-Acre Plum Fire Near Alleghany Fully Contained on August 15

SIERRA CITY - A fire that broke out on the afternoon of Aug.11 near Moores Flat, three miles south of the historic Sierra County mining town of Alleghany, was held to 12 acres through aerial and ground firefighting resources and was fully contained on Aug. 15.

The Plum Fire began on private land and was human-caused, spreading to the adjacent Yuba Ranger District of the Tahoe National Forest, TNF Public Information Officer Adam Collins-Torruella told The Mountain Messenger.

“The terrain there is steep and challenging and has not seen fire in 50 years,” said Collins-Torruella. The great concern, he added, were the “ladder fuels”—grasses and small trees and shrubs on the forest bed—sending flames up into the forest canopy. “When the fire gets up in the trees it gets very difficult [to contain].”

Collins-Torruella said a report of visible smoke was called in at 3:20 p.m. At 3:40 p.m. an airplane flyover confirmed the fire.

The air attack on the fire involved airplanes and helicopters dropping retardant and water while crews on the ground constructed containment lines. TNF firefighters were joined by multiple agencies in the effort, with handlines around the fire at 100% and containment at 60% within 24 hours. Full containment was achieved at 3:30 p.m. on. Aug. 15.

Collins-Torruella credited the “invaluable” air support and “interagency hotshot crews” as key in minimizing the spread of the Plum Fire. “We really appreciated our partners resources in keeping it small.”

Assisting TNF were engines and crews from the Eldorado and Plumas National Forests as well as Carson City BLM. TNF provided updates on the fire and the cooperating agencies who assisted at their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TahoeNF

As of Aug. 17, the Plum Fire was on “patrol status” with firefighting personnel continuing to monitor the perimeter “making sure the containment lines are holding,” said Collins-Torruella.

As The Messenger went to press on Wednesday scattered showers were falling in Sierra County. And a “Red Flag Warning for Critical Fire Conditions” was issued by the National Weather Service in Reno for Northeast California and far Northwestern Nevada from Wednesday afternoon until Thursday morning—with “abundant cloud-to-ground lightning on dry fuels” and “wind gusts up to 45 mph.”

Collins-Torruella said the risk was not as high here in the Tahoe National Forest as further north in California.

Among the wildfires currently burning in the far north state, the Six Rivers Lightning Complex Fire has to date burned more than 23,000 acres in Humboldt and Trinity counties. The fire began Aug. 5 in the Six Rivers National Forest near the Humboldt County town of Willow Creek and was 23% contained as of Aug. 17. More than 2,000 firefighting personnel are deployed at the Six Rivers Lightning Complex Fire.

Consult https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2022/8/5/six-rivers-srf-lightning-complex/ for current conditions.