Last night’s supermoon pushes through smoke pouring from the Lodge Fire last night. [Photo by Sandra Bonham.]

Smoke from the Lodge Fire fills the air in Southern Humboldt. As of this morning, the blaze which started in northern Mendocino July 30th has spread through 9500 acres between Laytonville and Leggett. It is only 35% contained.

According to Julie Cooley a spokesperson for Cal Fire, “The fire continues to grow to the East and South and may reach dangerous rates of spread dependent upon weather conditions and fuels.”

Bob Barsotti, manager of the Black Oak Ranch near Laytonville that is currently hosting Cal Fire attended a briefing with fire officials this morning. He writes,

…[Cal Fire has] successfully done some back-firing along the line at Camp Seabow, creating a buffer between the fire and the hard bulldozer line.  They now have several unburned islands within the fire that they will try to light by dropping special ping pong balls filled with a chemical that starts on fire upon impact…

They have now put a hand-line around the whole part of the fire that crossed the line on Brushy Mt. 2 days ago. They also have a few new lines going in across the Hunt Ranch, all of which are additional protection against the fire’s approach to Black Oak Ranch…

Today they are trying to add retardant to the hand line on the northeast end by Div N on the map, giving them the ability to backfire there, creating a buffer area to keep it from going up the Rattlesnake Creek drainage. They have also scouted a bulldozer line from Cahto Peak down to Horseshoe Bend, in case the fire crosses over there…

Below are two of today’s maps from the Lodge Fire. The top map shows the north edge of the fire. The bottom map shows the southeast edge. Click on each map to enlarge.