California Highway 299 remains closed and French Gulch remains under evacuation orders, because of the Carr Fire burning near Whiskeytown Lake in Shasta County.No structures have been lost to the fire, but it has given firefighters trouble since it started on Monday, burning in steep terrain. Cal Fire had estimated containment at 24% on Wednesday morning, but dropped that figure to 10% later in the day.
Some kind of mechanical failure to a vehicle is listed as the cause of the fire, but Cal Fire has not given further details on vehicle or failure.
The evacuation must have given a sense of deja vu to residents of French Gulch. The community was evacuated for another wildfire in August 2004, a fire that eventually burned down 26 homes and dozens of other buildings.
CalTrans workers said they did not expect to reopen 299 until at least Thursday morning.
