HUMBOLDT COUNTY, Calif. (KIEM)-the Red Salmon Complex fire has grown to more than 70,000 acres as it continues to burn in the Klamath, Six Rivers, And Shasta-Trinity National Forests, which spans across Humboldt, Trinity and Siskiyou counties.
The complex is a combined total of 71,610 acres, and has dropped to 17% containment.
The fire acreage has more than doubled over the past five days and is headed toward the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation.
“There are no evacuations in place at this time,” said the Hoopa’s Fire Chief Gregory Moon, who is also the incident commander.
However, if there is a need to evacuate there are plans in place.
“That’s what we’re doing today, finalizing that plan,” he said.
Hoopa OES is working closely with the Red Cross, Calfire OES, FEMA, the Red-Salmon Complex Fire Team, Yurok OES and all Tribal departments, under the leadership of the Hoopa Tribal Council – who on Monday announced a declaration of emergency.
It’s the second in only 5 months – the first was in response to the COVID outbreak back in March.
“The plan gets very complex when you add COVID, and you add elders, and you add people who are in quarantine, and people who are isolated due to COVID,” said Moon.
Lindsay McCovey is a disaster volunteer with the American Red Cross.
“We’re here just as a precautionary, to support the Hoopa Valley Tribe,” she said.
Hoopa OES is keeping a proactive approach – generators have been ordered, said Andrea Kelley who is on the logistics team for the Hoopa COVID-19 Management Team.
“These generators will be for elders that have health issues that require them to need an energy source if our PG&E generator source should fail us,” he said.
And the air purifiers ordered Wednesday, according to Kelley they have been rerouted due to neighboring fires.
As the wildfire from the Red-Salmon Fire approaches the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation – fire officials wait, and observe.
“We’re taking all these considerations into the plan, and so we want to make sure it’s well organized, and that it makes sense for the public before we release it,” said Moon.
Hoopa OES want to stress to their community members to stay calm – if evacuations are activated, the community will be notified and given instructions.
For status and updates of the fire call (530) 316-1042 between 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
