I drove up Plaskett to get home today and saw lots of resources, some burned areas, some borayed areas, but no smoke or fire. Looking really good. Andrew Marsden, the PIO of LPF said, Andrew says, “I think this is going to be a success story for us. It could have gone a different direction.” I absolutely agree with him. The USFS brought in a lot of resources right from the beginning, which was easy to do as there was little wildfire in California. Within just a few hours, there were four planes flying this one, two from Hollister and 2 from Paso.
It is at 24 acres and 20% containment and that number will go up this afternoon. There are 200 people on the fire and it looks like it is boxed in. It will be in mop up for the next few days and there will be an investigation into the cause of the fire. There are additional photos that Brendon took Of the couple who were at that spot with evidence of a campfire yesterday morning at 8 am when he drove by. I have not posted these additional photos, yet and I have offered these to Marsden.
Here are a few photos I just took an hour ago driving up.
I have some more marvelous photos by Brendon Shave from yesterday that I will put together in a photo essay later today.
I am with Andrew. This could have been so much worse. This is one of the spots I have been complaining about for the last few years. That path up the hill was not there just a few years ago, now most of the ridge looks like that. THIS is what happens when Plaskett Ridge Rd is closed with signs and barricades, and SIP is in place for the entire state. One good thing to come out of this (no, not a fire break as this goes away from my place, not toward it) is that there is now a forest ranger up here. I hope I get to meet her soon and welcome her to the neighborhood.
And so…welcome to fire season 2020.
Whew. Whew. Whew. Give all those fire personnel up there a big hug, will ya Kate?
Hallelujah!
Congratulations with the rapid response and sighting. what about the ones responsible? How to avoid when there is an observation made? Illegal parking, camping and not notified?
Regretable…
Locked gate at Hwy 1.
That would be nice for me, but there has to be a balance. Maybe no vehicles?
A ranger? You mean a VWA volunteer?
People aren’t observing the barricades at the bottom of the closed roads. They just move them aside and drive right in. Drive past the signs of Road Closed, No Campfires and have their fires! They need to be ticketed for the full amount.of $1000 + $5000 for the fire.Nothing makes a statement like reaching in your pocketbook to pay that fine. It’ll be on social media in a minute telling others it’s not the place for free camping! They’ll move on to the next place hopefully away from us.
My vote is to go ahead and post the pictures of those…and any illegal campers and keep a running pubic log of the violations and the violators. There is too much at stake.
Glad everyone is safe & sound. People from the City are getting pissed when they get to the Forest & it’s yet another place that’s off limits. That’s compounded by our Covid 19 issue. Like Little Philly said tickets & fines hit hard especially right now so hopefully that will help. Hope everyone likes the new Forest Ranger!!
Phew! Good news Kate, the fire is contained, all of you are safe. Grateful there were many people and trained personel responding.
These campers/individuals who disregard the closures think they have a sense of entitlement. Their selfishness leaves a message that their behavior is disrespectful😠. Many thank you‘s to the fire personnel and their rapid response👏.
Having Plaskett Ridge Rd open to the public during the dry/fire season is like
leaving a loaded gun on the table when you go out, leaving your children alone at home.
It could be creating paying employment for the coroner & undertaker
– just like jobs for the firefighters-
or, it could be ruining a lot of lives & homes for a lot of people & animals.
“Do you feel lucky?”
Well put, Wally
And the USFS does this over and over. Put up a sign and walk away. I see campers on a regular basis on Plaskett. Some for two or three days.
how is there apparently enough money for fire fighting but not proactive enforcement ? way way way more has been spent on just the latest Plaskett fire suppression than annual salary of multiple rangers. wtf ? long ago sensible people recognized ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’.
I was behind a State Parks official vehicle the other day and they did NOTHING as we passed JP Burns and people were parked behind the cones, flying drones, milling around in crowds. again, wtf ?
and now the government wants to erect some surveillance tower here, because why ? the daily problems we are facing as we live here are US citizens pooping everywhere and starting fires by being stupid, entitled nitwits breaking rules with zero consequences.
bathrooms and rangers please !!! pretty simple and far cheaper than what is happening now.
I despair at the nonsense, on and on and on and on…..