UPDATE, 5:14 p.m.: Fifteen to 20 CalFire workers have responded and have the blaze under control.
# # #
UPDATE, 4:58 p.m.: CalFire has returned! Firefighting underway.
###
UPDATE, 4:49 p.m.: The Outpost has some time to kill as it wanders around this forest fire all by itself, waiting for Calfire to return, so it is taking pictures.
Photos: Andrew Goff.
###
UPDATE, 4:30 p.m.: Firefighters have located the quarter-acre, slow-moving blaze in the McKay Tract and are attempting to find some way to get additional equipment to it.
The Outpost’s Andrew Goff is now all alone at the scene.
Location of the McKay Tract fire.
###
Photos: Andrew Goff.
UPDATE, 4:10 p.m.: Firefighters are still trying to determine the best access to the fire in Cutten’s McKay Tract.
###
Calfire trucks parked near the Cutten incident.
The skies opened up above Old Town Eureka in the last hour, dumping down the most significant rainfall burst we can remember so far this season. Meanwhile, firefighters were called out to two separate wildland fires in the Humboldt Bay region.
Though access was difficult firefighters quickly arrived at the site of a debris fire a ways behind the CHP office, near the intersection of Highway 101 and Samoa Boulevard. Police were called to the scene as well; according to scanner traffic, there were argumentative transients at the site as the fire was extinguished. Everything clear.
Meanwhile, Calfire is responding to a column of smoke visible in the woods near Winship Elementary in Cutten. Access to this fire is proving more difficult, though a spotter reported a quarter-acre fire moving toward PG&E lines. One person on scene said that a column of smoke was visible to the east of the Campton Road/Walnut Street intersection.
We’ll have more on that when we get it.
The Outpost apologizes for this photo of a fire engine attacking the debris fire off the side of the highway near Arcata, which is the best we could do. The engine’s lights are clearly active.