The blaze began on July 3 along the Pacific Crest Trail close to the Marble Mountain Wilderness area and has forced evacuations for hikers and residents near the towns of Etna and Fort Jones.
Darren McMillan, a public information officer on the Shelly Fire incident team, said it was an eventful night for the fire that’s now covering the Scott Valley in smoke.
“Yesterday was a big day. The fire spotted over the Pacific Crest Trail and got into Kidder Creek and made a hard push to the northeast,” said Mcmillan from an incident command center in Etna. “So yesterday, at about four o'clock, it had grown to 1,200 acres. We're sitting today at 3,380. So it was a big evening.”
Mcmillan said there’s over 900 personnel assigned to help fight the blaze and firefighters are hiking into the remote wilderness area and camping for days at a time.
Residents aren’t the only ones fleeing the fire in this rural area. Tom Taylor has volunteered to help evacuate animals in the region since 2012. Today he’s caring for 14 horses, eight sheep, two pigs, two peacocks and 25 chickens at the Siskiyou Golden Fairgrounds in Yreka.
“I take care of them so that takes the stress off the owners. They can go deal with whatever they need to,” said Taylor.
He said owners should train their animals for evacuations beforehand, getting them used to being loaded and unloaded quickly. Unless they plan on traveling with chickens and peacocks which, he said, are untrainable.
An evacuation shelter for people can be found at the Kahtishraam Wellness Center in Yreka. For up-to-date information on the fire you can visit the Klamath National Forest Facebook page.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
