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Fire Near Redding Closes Part Of I-5

Victoria Reed/JPR

UPDATED 4:08 p.m.

A wildfire north of Redding forced new evacuations and a temporary closure of Interstate Five late this morning.

First fire reports came in around 11 AM.  The fire that Cal Fire says was human caused burned more than sixteen acres in the community of Mountaingate.

Police evacuated homes, businesses, and a school along Wonderland Boulevard and Fawndale Road, and opened an evacuation center at the Family Celebration Center. The evacuations were later lifted.

Firefighters quickly contained spot fires on both sides of the freeway, up to a mile from the source fire.  Cal Fire says crews were able to reach 75% containment by mid-afternoon. By 4pm both lanes of I-5 were re-opened.

Geoffrey Riley is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has hosted the Jefferson Exchange on JPR since 2009. He's been a broadcaster in the Rogue Valley for more than 35 years, working in both television and radio.
Valerie Ing was a teenager when she hosted her first music program on the airwaves. As a student at SOU, she was JPR’s Chief Student Announcer and the first volunteer in our newsroom. She's now JPR’s Northern California Program Coordinator, hosting Siskiyou Music Hall from JPR's Redding studio in the Cascade Theatre.