Thursday, September 6, 2007
(09-06) 09:07 PDT Greenville -- A fire burning more than 200 miles from San Francisco has cast an eerie pall over the Bay Area this morning, making the sun appear red.
Offshore winds are pushing smoke and haze southwest from a 24,300-acre blaze in Plumas County, near Greenville, said National Weather Service forecaster Brian Tentinger. Much of the smoke from the Moonlight Fire had settled in the Sacramento Valley on Wednesday, but now appears to have spread south away from the capital and into the Bay Area, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
"The Plumas (County) fire is burning pretty good and ... blowing all the smoke down to the Bay Area ... the sunlight passing through the smoke and haze makes it do different things," said Tentinger. "(It) should switch back to onshore winds by tomorrow and (the smoke) will start to disperse a little bit this afternoon and evening."
Dennis Perfetto, who lives in San Francisco's Panhandle area, said he was stunned by the red and orange sky this morning.
"It was absolutely beautiful, spectacular," he said. "I looked east about 8 a.m. and I just thought, that's spectacular, then I thought, 'What's causing this?' I figured it was smoke ... It looked like in Hawaii, on the Big Island, when the volcano kicks up."
The rural blaze, which is only eight percent contained, is being fed by windy, dry conditions and low humidity, Berlant said. It has forced the evacuation of 500 homes in Greenville, said Berlant, though the majority of the blaze is in rugged, steep and rural terrain.
"It fanned out to a huge number of acres in a short amount of time," he said.
Firefighters' efforts are also being hampered in Santa Clara County, where about 1,750 people are battling an 18,900-acre fire east of Morgan Hill in Henry W. Coe State Park. Officials said Wednesday that the blaze was caused by an illegal debris burn. Both fires began on Monday.
Henry DeKruyff, a forestry spokesman, said the Santa Clara County blaze, dubbed the Lick Fire, is still only 25 percent contained. Officials are bracing for a rough day, he said, with low humidity also expected to help fan the flames in the South Bay.
"The low humidity is affecting burnout operations and will continue to affect our efforts intensely," he said. "We're expecting significant resistance (today) - the fire is going into a lot of heavy timber and brush."
The large amount of smoke from that fire has also grounded air support this morning, said DeKruyff. Officials hope to get planes and helicopters back up later this morning, he said.
Fire crews are attempting to build 19 miles of fire lines around the blaze, which is still moving east. Twenty-five residences and 10 outbuildings remain in danger, as well as the park's visitor center and several campgrounds. State park officials and archeologists are also working to protect archeological sites in the area, said DeKruyff.
The good news, according to the National Weather Service, is that temperatures are expected to peak today in the low 90s and then drop off a bit tomorrow into the mid-80s.
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