South Fork fires, as of a couple of days ago. Click to enlarge.

This afternoon, a flurry of activity on the 3-9 Fire prompted the Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services to issue an “evacuation warning” for the areas surrounding that blaze, which has been burning north of Dinsmore and just west over the ridge from Hyampom.

The “warning” — the lowest level of alert published by the Office of Emergency Services — was published to the Office of Emergency Services social media channels at around 3:20 p.m. It asks residents to be ready to evacuate, and advises people who need extra time to leave to do so now.

Fortunately, the warning doesn’t appear to affect many people, if anyone at all. Though the OES has split up the “E114” zone into three for purposes of this fire, then issued a warning for two of those three subzones, records from last year show that the OES estimates that only one person actually lives in any of the three subzones.

This afternoon, fire managers on the South Fork Complex wrote on their own Facebook page that it’s been busy today.

“Spot fires occurred in the southern flank of the 3-9 fire area, which were spread by northwest winds with gusts up to 30 mph,” they wrote. “Fire behavior is showing a rapid rate of spread to the south, close to Henry Ridge.”

Elsewhere in the county: The town of Orleans and surrounding areas remain under a similar evacuation warning due to the nearby Pearch Fire, which stands at about 2,700 acres.

Photo via South Fork Complex Facebook page.