LOWER LAKE >> The once wildly roaming Rocky Fire now sits in a holding pattern — still at 69,636 acres destroy and 85 percent containment. Since Sunday evening, crews have been pulled from the tedious chore of extending the safe area around Rocky and directed toward a new threat not far away, the Jerusalem Fire.
“What they are doing is holding the line,” said Cal Fire’s Julie Rider on Monday evening.
While Rocky smolders, most of the air assets and heavy equipment abandoned the front for the Jerusalem Grade. Still, as of Tuesday at 7 a.m., 45 engine companies and 1,344 crew members patrolled the area, watching for flare ups within the burn area.
All evacuation orders and road closures associated with California’s largest wildfire of the season have been lifted. Rocky destroyed 43 homes and 53 other structures, many near its starting point near Morgan Valley Road east of Lower Lake.
When Rocky erupted in a remote area on the afternoon of July 29, California was in the middle of a relatively normal fire season. Through July 25, just over 29,000 acres had burned, compared to a 5-year annual average of close to 50,000. From over the next five days, fire swept another 70,000 acres — the majority scorched by Rocky.
In fact, over a 5 hour stretch at the beginning of this month, Rocky gobbled up 20,000 acres — something computer models predicted was possible, over seven days.
“That was beyond ridiculous,” said Cal Fire’s Jeremy Gaeta.
Some at Cal Fire compared this appetite, as well as the pyrocumulus clouds towering 35,000 feet over the inferno, to 2013’s Rim Fire, which blackened 257,314 acres in the Sierra.
Rocky has taken a swing at Cal Fire’s fiscal year budget, as well. Since July 1, the agency has spent $63 million of $392 million earmarked.
Crews that were dispatched to other fires are returning to the area to battle Jerusalem and completely squelch Rocky.
“The ultimate goal is 100 percent containment,” said Cal Fire’s Mike Yen.
And the agency still expects that to come on Thursday.
