SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 03: The Klamath River, choked with mud and debris from Tuesday night’s rain deluge, flows through the charred landscape of the McKinney Fire, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022, in Siskiyou County west of Yreka, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
While the McKinney Fire continued to grow slowly Thursday in Siskiyou County, firefighters were reporting progress as they began to rack up some containment on the state’s largest wildfire.
As of Thursday evening, the blaze — which was 10% contained — had scorched 58,668 acres in the Klamath National Forest near the border of California and Oregon, according to Cal Fire. Authorities have reported that four people have been found dead in the burn zone, surpassing the total death toll of California’s 2021 fire season, which saw three deaths.
During a community meeting Wednesday night, Siskiyou County Supervisor Ray A. Haupt lauded the effort of firefighters battling the blaze.
“They’re making pretty short work of a monster of a fire,” Haupt said.
Strong storms that brought heavy rainfall over the area earlier this week were a mixed blessing for those battling the massive blaze. On the one hand, temperatures briefly cooled down, allowing firefighters to establish some containment lines and leading law enforcement in the area to allow some residents to return home. But at the same time, the rainfall further complicated efforts to contain flames on certain portions of the fire’s northeastern flank.
The monsoonal storms that rolled through the area earlier this week dropped no more than a tenth of an inch of rain over most of the burn area. However, 2.5 to 3 inches of rain fell along the fire’s eastern edge — causing debris flows down Humbug Creek, officials said.
So much rain over a short amount of time does little to help trees weakened by drought, because the water has little time to soak into the dry timber, according to fire behavior analyst Dennis Burns. It would have been more beneficial for the firefight to receive 1 inch of rain over three days, than 3 inches of rain over one day, Burns said during a Thursday morning briefing.
“For those heavy fuels — that rain made no effect on it,” he said.
Thanks to containment lines put in just north of the cities of Yreka and Hawkinsville, authorities on Wednesday reduced the evacuation orders within parts of those cities to warnings.
In this photo released by the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office is the washed away pick up truck of a private contractor who was aiding the firefighting efforts near Klamath River, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022. Amid storms Tuesday the contractor was hurt when a bridge gave out and washed his pickup truck away, said Courtney Kreider, a spokesperson with the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office. The McKinney Fire was still out of control on Wednesday despite some progress by firefighters who took advantage of thunderstorms that dumped rain and temporarily lowered heat in the parched region. (Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office via AP)
Sydney Corrales passes a lodge that burned during the McKinney Fire, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, in Klamath National Forest, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Flames burn inside a tree along Highway 96 which remains closed due to the McKinney Fire on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, in Klamath National Forest, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
A sheriff's deputy searches a scorched property following the McKinney Fire on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, in Klamath National Forest, Calif. His team did not find any fire victims at the location. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
A chimney stands at a home destroyed by the McKinney Fire on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, in Klamath National Forest, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
WEED, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 03: Harlene Schwander, 81, who lost her home in the McKinney Fire, takes shelter at an evacuation center in Weed, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022, (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
WEED, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 03: Chris Thompson, a fire captain with the Santee Fire Department, updates McKinney Fire evacuees at a Red Cross center in Weed, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 3, 3022. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
WEED, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 03: Chris Thompson, a fire captain with the Santee Fire Department, and Sarah Platt, a firefighter with Yosemite National Forest, update McKinney Fire evacuees at a Red Cross center in Weed, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 3, 3022. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
TOPSHOT - Flames make an upslope run at the McKinney Fire, in the Klamath National Forest near Yreka, California, on August 2, 2022. - At least four people are now known to have died in a wildfire sweeping through California, authorities said on August 2, as they warned the toll from the state's worst blaze this year could rise further. Rain and cooler conditions brought some relief to hundreds of firefighters battling to protect the 8,000-person town of Yreka, but the human cost of the inferno was already mounting. (Photo by DAVID MCNEW / AFP) (Photo by DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images)
A deer swims across the Klamath River at the McKinney Fire, in the Klamath National Forest near Yreka, California, on August 2, 2022. - At least four people are now known to have died in a wildfire sweeping through California, authorities said on August 2, as they warned the toll from the state's worst blaze this year could rise further. Rain and cooler conditions brought some relief to hundreds of firefighters battling to protect the 8,000-person town of Yreka, but the human cost of the inferno was already mounting. (Photo by DAVID MCNEW / AFP) (Photo by DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images)
A firefighting helicopter flies near smoke and flames at the McKinney Fire, in the Klamath National Forest near Yreka, California, on August 2, 2022. At least four people are now known to have died in a wildfire sweeping through California, authorities said on August 2, as they warned the toll from the state's worst blaze this year could rise further. Rain and cooler conditions brought some relief to hundreds of firefighters battling to protect the 8,000-person town of Yreka, but the human cost of the inferno was already mounting. (Photo by DAVID MCNEW / AFP) (Photo by DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images)
The body of a calf, one of many cattle that ranchers lost to the McKinney Fire in this location, lies on the ground in the Klamath National Forest near Yreka, California, on August 2, 2022. - At least four people are now known to have died in a wildfire sweeping through California, authorities said on August 2, as they warned the toll from the state's worst blaze this year could rise further. Rain and cooler conditions brought some relief to hundreds of firefighters battling to protect the 8,000-person town of Yreka, but the human cost of the inferno was already mounting. (Photo by DAVID MCNEW / AFP) (Photo by DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images)
A picture shows a burnt car in the Oak Ridge mobile home park destroyed in the McKinney Fire, in the Klamath National Forest near Yreka, California, on August 2, 2022. - At least four people are now known to have died in a wildfire sweeping through California, authorities said on August 2, as they warned the toll from the state's worst blaze this year could rise further. Rain and cooler conditions brought some relief to hundreds of firefighters battling to protect the 8,000-person town of Yreka, but the human cost of the inferno was already mounting. (Photo by DAVID MCNEW / AFP) (Photo by DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images)
Lightning strikes east of the eastern front of the McKinney Fire, in the Klamath National Forest near Yreka, California on August 2, 2022. - Like a double-edged sword, thunderstorms passing over the fire are bringing a blessing of rain along but with the curses of flash floods and lightning strike fires. Several people were rescued from a flash flood in the mountains inside the fire lines. One was hospitalized. Fueled by drought in a changing climate, the fire grew to over 50,000 acres in the first 48 hours and is California's biggest fire so far this year. Though the rate of spread has slowed, it is still 0 percent contained. At least four people are known to have perished in the fire. (Photo by DAVID MCNEW / AFP) (Photo by DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images)
Sheriff's Deputy Johnson carries remains of a McKinney Fire victim from a destroyed home on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022, in Klamath National Forest, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Angela Crawford leans against a fence as a wildfire called the McKinney fire burns a hillside above her home in Klamath National Forest, Calif., on Saturday, July 30, 2022. Crawford and her husband stayed, as other residents evacuated, to defend their home from the fire. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Paisley Bamberg and her family spend time outside a shelter for McKinney Fire evacuees in Weed, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022. Bamberg said they have stayed there for several days while waiting to return home to Yreka. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Susan Hobson, right, K9 handler, and forensics anthropologists from California State University, Chico, examine a vehicle where two people were found dead on Doggett Creek Road along Highway 96 as the McKinney Fire burns in Klamath National Forest in Siskiyou County on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022. (Sara Nevis/The Sacramento Bee)
A kitten singed whiskers that survived the McKinney Fire hides in rocks in the Klamath National Forest northwest of Yreka, California, on July 31, 2022. - The largest fire in California this year is forcing thousands of people to evacuate as it destroys homes and rips through the state's dry terrain, whipped up by strong winds and lightning storms. The McKinney Fire was zero percent contained, CalFire said, spreading more than 51,000 acres near the city of Yreka. (Photo by DAVID MCNEW / AFP) (Photo by DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images)
A firetruck drives along California Highway 96 as the McKinney Fire burns in Klamath National Forest, Calif., Saturday, July 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
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Still, residents in those warning zones were instructed to remain alert.
“We all saw how fast the fire grew on the first night, and we want to be prepared if that happens again,” Yreka Police Chief Mark Gilman wrote in a letter to residents. “We are not out of the woods yet, but we might be close.”
While the rainfall briefly helped to reduce flames, fire officials warned that as temperatures warmed up and humidity dropped, fuels will dry out rapidly, causing fire activity to ramp up again.
“We’re happy to have that (containment) line in,” Forest Services spokesperson Mike Lindbery said Thursday morning, “but we have a lot more to accomplish before we feel totally good on that.”
Meanwhile, another blaze burning in Klamath National Forest — the Yeti Fire — prompted new evacuation orders on Thursday in an area east of Happy Camp, a community along the Highway 96 corridor in Siskiyou County. The Yeti Fire stood at 4,626 acres on Thursday and threatened more than 300 structures. It had more than doubled in size in the 48 hours leading up to Thursday.
