UPDATE, 5:48 p.m.:

Announcement from the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office:

There is currently a wildfire burning in the Democrat Gulch Area off of Oregon Street in Weaverville. There is a hard road closure on Oregon Street at Democrat Gulch to the top of Oregon Mountain.

The west side of Oregon Mountain down to Highway 299 is under mandatory evacuation.

Steiner Flat Road in Douglas City is under voluntary evacuation. An evacuation center will be set-up at the First Baptist Church at 1261 S. Main Street in Weaverville.

More notices will be released as it is being assessed.

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Original post:

Some neighborhoods on the outskirts of Weaverville are under immediate evacuation orders this afternoon, after a fast-moving fire erupted west of the town just a couple of hours ago.

According to Redding’s KRCR-TV, the fire is over 20 acres is size and growing rapidly.

From the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office:

There is currently a wildfire burning in the Democrat Gulch Area off of Oregon Street in Weaverville. 

There is a hard road closure on Oregon Street at Democrat Gulch to the top of Oregon Mountain. The west side of Oregon Mountain down to Highway 299 is under mandatory evacuation. More notices will be released as it is being assessed.

The map below indicates the intersection of Oregon Street and Democrat Gulch Road, west of the town and a bit up the mountain. As you can see if you click over to the satellite area, there seem to be quite a few homes whose occupants are now being told to get out of the area.

They’re calling this the Democrat Fire. We’ll update this post when we have more information.