FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) — With the Garnet Fire forcing evacuations not far from Shaver Lake, the U.S. Forest Service is staging a base to the north.
“They are planning on moving most, if not all, their personnel up here at China Peak,” China Peak General Manager Troy Cohee said.
The resort has rescheduled four weddings as employees prepare for the arrival of nearly 3,000 firefighters.
“They’re actually talking about moving the incident command center up here, so it’ll bring quite a bit more personnel,” Cohee said. “We’ve been hearing talks of twice the personnel as we saw during the Creek Fire.”
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Action News was there as one of the first Forest Service trucks rolled in. Officials surveyed what will soon be home.
The bulk could arrive late Monday and throughout the rest of the week. Upon arrival, they will encounter thick smoke with less than a mile of visibility and raining ash.
“Luckily for them, we have basically everything they need up here,” Cohee said. “We’ve got full, full parking lot facilities. We’ve got internet infrastructure. We’ve got water and gray water in the whole nine yards.”
The move to China Peak comes as the fire exploded in size over the weekend, pushing past 50,000 acres.
“It is holding on the primary line,” Garnet Fire Public Information Officer Jay Tracy confirmed to Action News.
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Crews are establishing second and even third lines of defense.
“We’ll bring in dozers,” Tracy said. “We’ll bring in hand-crews to put in line, and then we’ll further bolster those with, actually, hose lines at times.”
As firefighters work to hold the line, the resort is also preparing for the worst-case scenario. Cohee is filling the snow-making reservoir with water.
“[We’re] counting on and expecting CAL FIRE and [the] Forest Service to get a grip on this fire and hopefully slow it down, and get some turn in the luck,” Cohee said. “Some colder temperatures should help out.”
