FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) — Meteorologists explained what has given fire crews the upper hand is favorable weather, which means moist and cool conditions expected to last through Friday.
“I know your anxiety level because I share your anxiety level,” said Chief Steve McQuillan, Shaver Lake Fire Department.
Five years ago this month, the Shaver Lake community was battling the Creek Fire. Many residents are expressing PTSD from that historic wildfire as the Garnet Fire grows in size.
“You don’t sleep well; the smoke wakes you up at night,” said Cissy Van Vleet, Shaver Lake Resident
“The reality is none of us thought we’d be here again, especially this soon,” said Chief McQuillan.
The Garnet Fire was sparked by one of 40 lightning strikes in the Sierra National Forest.
The fire lookout at Buck Rock spotting the moment a strike hits the ground.
“I’m just 12 miles away from the fire when it first started and fortunately from my location, it was moving away from us, so we really had a front row seat for a few days,” said Mich Michigan, Fire Lookout for the Hume Lake Ranger District Fire Lookout.
MAP: See where California wildfires are burning right now
The wildfire has been burning for 19 consecutive days. On Thursday, fire crews held a briefing inside the Shaver Lake Community Center.
Officials pinpointing the areas where crews made the largest gains through creating a backburn from Dinkey Creek to Bret’s Mill.
“The line that crews have created out there are as wide as this building,” said Chief McQuillan.
The California Interagency Incident Management Team 5 shared a special connection to the New York Fire Department during Thursday’s briefing.
24 years ago, a team of about 100 firefighters flew to Washington, D.C. to assist with the attack on the Pentagon.
This September 11, a dozen firefighters from the NYFD are stationed at base camps fighting the Garnet Fire.
“Today, we have New York Fire Department personnel on our fire. I want to say thank you to those folks. What goes around comes around,” said Alex McBath, Incident Commander for the Garnet Fire.
The wildfire met with bipartisan support from local to state government leaders, including U.S. Senator Adam Schiff.
“When you have a fire, regardless of party affiliation, you work with everyone because fire doesn’t stop at a Republican house or a Democrat house. It just rolls through,” said Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig.
What has prevented those flames from rolling through Shaver Lake is favorable weather.
“We’ve had a stretch of cool and moist conditions that have been really conducive to getting a lot of work done on the fire and we’ll have one more day of that tomorrow where we’ll have these cooler temperatures; where we have a lot of humidity hanging around,” said Incident Meteorologist Terry Leno.
Beginning Friday morning, the command post at Avocado Lake will be no more. The post will be broken down and relocated to Harlan Ranch. Some 2,000 fire crews and personnel will have a new home later that evening.
