King Fire: Firefighters Making Progress On Blaze's 10th Day Through Thorough Plan
FORESTHILL (CBS13) — Progress is being made in the battle against the King Fire on its 10th day, but 12,000 homes are still threatened.
The 88,000-acre fire is 18 percent contained.
Smoke settled into Foresthill, but the King Fire was far off.
Sonny Cash remembers raging wildfires of years past, and he's hoping this one comes no closer.
"That rain was a welcome thing; that rain was perfect," he said.
We went to base camp in Foresthill where spokesman Mike McMillan says that's actually working in firefighters' favor, pushing the flames into natural barriers—two reservoirs and granite to the northeast.
"In this area we feel pretty good about the progress we're making. We've got some water going right to this," he said.
He says firefighters are also making progress getting containment lines in place on the western and eastern flanks.
Tacking a fire this size is as complicated as it is methodical. They've actually broken the King Fire down into two zones. Within each zone, there are branches of firefighters. Those branches are broken down into divisions. And for each 12-hour shift firefighters receive one an Incident Action Plan detailing every step of the firefighting operation.
Looking at the map compared to when we started and on Wednesday when we had a huge run in the north, things are looking better," McMillan said.
Cautious optimism that is welcome news for the people potentially in the King Fire's path.
