Mill Fire, Day 3, 8/1/19

7:30 pm — final update for the day, unless something unusual happens.

Incident Information

Basic Information

Current as of	8/1/2019, 7:04:06 PM
Incident Type	Wildfire
Date of Origin	Wednesday July 31st, 2019 approx. 05:30 AM — ERROR, IT STARTED TUES 7/30.
Location	Northwest of Ventana Wilderness off of Nacimiento Ferguson Road
Incident Commander	Anthony Zavalla
Incident Description	Wildland Fire
Coordinates	36.009 latitude, -121.467 longitude

Current Situation

Total Personnel	636
Size	280 Acres
Percent of Perimeter Contained	15%
Estimated Containment Date	Monday August 05th, 2019 approx. 11:00 PM
Fuels Involved	Chaparral, timber and tall grass
Significant Events	Isolated torching of trees and minimal movement has been observed.

Outlook

Planned Actions

Increase containment and keep the fire from crossing Nacimiento Ferguson Road to the south into the Ventana Wilderness and from getting into Mill and Kirk Creek drainages and north of Cone Peak.

Current Weather

Weather Concerns

Typical weather patterns along the Big Sur Coast line is to have a marine layer between 1000 to 1500 feet. Land above that elevation has no humidity recovery or influence from the marine layer, which increases fire behavior. The Mill Fire is located in this environment, contributing to increased fire behavior throughout the evening. High pressure is to begin establishing today with expected increase in temperatures and decrease in relative humidities.

USFS MILL FIRE INCIDENT REPORT AS OF 10 AM:

The Mill Fire was reported at 5:36 a.m. on July 30, 2019 on Mill Creek, north west of the Ventana Wilderness off of Nacimiento Ferguson Road. As of this morning, 280 acres have burned with 15% containment. The fire is burning in chaparral, timber and tall grass. It is burning in steep and rugged terrain. Currently, there is no threat to communities, structures or to the public. Access into the area via roads and trails has been closed off.

There are currently 676 resources assigned to the fire, including:

Crews – 23
Engines – 35
Type 1 Helicopters – 3
Type 2 Helicopters – 2
Lead planes – 2
Air Attack – 7

Basic Information

Current as of	8/1/2019, 11:10:00 AM
Incident Type	Wildfire
Date of Origin	Wednesday July 31st, 2019 approx. 05:30 AM
Location	Northwest of Ventana Wilderness off of Nacimiento Ferguson Road
Incident Commander	Anthony Zavalla
Incident Description	Wildland Fire
Coordinates	36.009 latitude, -121.467 longitude

Current Situation

Total Personnel	676
Size	280 Acres
Percent of Perimeter Contained	15%
Estimated Containment Date	Monday August 05th, 2019 approx. 11:00 PM
Fuels Involved	Chaparral, timber and tall grass
Significant Events	Isolated torching of trees and minimal movement has been observed.

Outlook

Planned Actions

Increase containment and keep the fire from crossing Nacimiento Ferguson Road to the south into the Ventana Wilderness and from getting into Mill and Kirk Creek drainages and north of Cone Peak.

Current Weather

Weather Concerns

Typical weather patterns along the Big Sur Coast line is to have a marine layer between 1000 to 1500 feet. Land above that elevation has no humidity recovery or influence from the marine layer, which increases fire behavior. The Mill Fire is located in this environment, contributing to increased fire behavior throughout the evening. High pressure is to begin establishing today with expected increase in temperatures and decrease in relative humidities.

This is what it looked like first thing this am:

Rocky came through, and he had a better view on the fire, and said there didn’t appear to be a lot of places burning, although he did see one tree go up. We are expecting a Type 2 federal team (sorry forgot the name) to take over at 10 am, meeting up in King City. Also expecting to bring in more ground personnel. Probably will establish the fire camp today, as well.

Inciweb was updated last night and lists containment at 10%. Typically, inciweb is updated twice a day — morning and evening. The link, for this incident is https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6478/

This is a google earth NOAA fire map I screen shot last night. Keep in mind that all those points of fire are not completely accurate as to placements due to distortion from the satellite, but this will give you a pretty good idea:

If you didn’t get a chance to see Michael Troutman’s stunning photos of the fire yesterday afternoon, scroll down for a treat.