The denouement was lacking.
After week of unprecedented infernos. After impromptu heroics, such as National Guard troops rushing down from Redding to build access bridges, after volunteers flooded to makeshift aid centers — after all of that. Without fanfare, Cal Fire tacked the word “final” to their early Monday morning update on the Jerusalem Fire.
“It’s been a long stretch of people being on duty,” said Cal Fire’s Leah Simmons-Davis.
The response to apparent victory was almost too understated. The Jerusalem Fire stood at 90 percent contained after ravishing 25,118 acres as of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Monday. Cal Fire declined to update the figures, assuring only that they expected 95 percent containment on Wednesday morning.
In other words, both Rocky and Jerusalem have been essentially smothered, ending long weeks of evacuations and destruction for some in Lake County.
“There will be more days of patrolling,” Simmons-Davis assured, alluding to the Wragg Fire. “We will still be out there.”
Authorities called the Wragg Fire 80 percent contained and turned their attention to other threats. But the blaze flared up again, forcing Cal Fire to scramble resources.
And so on Monday, with a solid belt of containment around the Jerusalem Fire, more than 120 engines, 19 water tenders, 11 helicopters and over 2,000 men an women worked the perimeter.
At the same time, however, evacuation notices were lifted over the weekend. On Monday, Cal Fire competed their initial damage assessment and cut the number of homes presumed destroyed by Jerusalem from nine to six.
Cal Fire issued a statement noting that three structures initially identified as homes were in fact hunting cabins, with no permanent occupancy.
Weeks of damage, weeks on the edge, came to a rather quiet and not at all absolute end for Lake County residents on Monday. Crews will continue to attack hotspots, but resources will now head out to assist with the 17 other notable fires in California.
“It’s nice — it feels a little ‘back to normal,’” Simmons-Davis said. “But it is a wild fire season.”
The Rocky Fire consumed 69,438 acres. Jerusalem gobbled up another 24,118 acres, for a total of 94,556 since the afternoon of July 29.
