What can you tell us about? The the fire was dispatched at about 328 this afternoon in the area of Arrow Road and hunt Road just outside of Copper. The strong winds continue to persist at about 15 MPH with gusts up and over 30 MPH. So the fire has been moving pretty quickly to the south. Most of the area of copper has been under an evacuation order and the public is encouraged to visit the Cal Bears County Sheriff's office website or Facebook page for current evacuation information as it changes. So that particular helicopter is a Chinook helicopter that's on contract through exclusive use with CAL Fire. Currently, it's actually for Alpha Juliet and it's been stationed at Columbia Airport for the duration of the summer. Do you know roughly how many kinds of air resources that you have here on this attack? I don't have a current number. It keeps changing. Ok. But roughly what kinds of aircraft we do have two air tankers, a very heavy air tanker type, one air attack, three helicopters and two type one helicopters as well. And what kind is it? That's a Chinook a chinook. Ok. Um And so just tell me about this firefight, where do we stand? What are, what are some of the priorities right now? The priorities right now is to continue to protect life and property. So I'm trying to make sure that the public is aware of the evacuation information and staying out of the area and getting additional resources in um to assist the firefighters that are currently on the ground. And where does the city of Copper? How does it stand? Where is it like in, in relation to the fire? It, it seems like the fire is moving in pretty quickly. So the fire is uh moving just, it's moving south down Urns ferry road and to the east of Urns ferry road toward the Tuam County line at the moment. So is the wind blowing it for copper? It's, yes. If, if you had to give a general direction it's toward and into the east a little bit. This area is like very much in the line of fire, very much in, in at risk. This area is um being impacted currently by the fire. Yes. Um And what can you tell us about the other resources that you have here uh, that are all on this fire that there's a lot of local government resources. Um You know, from Tuolumne County, like the Tuy Bound of me walks um Twain Hart Fire Department, Alta Maloney's Fire, the um Copper Apolis Fire District as well as um, resources still coming in from out of the area. So the fire started, what, about three hours ago, uh, 3.5 hours ago, roughly, and it, it blew up to over 1500 acres. How quick of a, you know, how fast of a rate of growth is that, that's what we would consider the rapid or critical rate to spread. And when it comes to a fire that spreads that quickly, what kind of dangers are associated with that? I'm just trying to get the public out of the way so that firefighters can do their job and do it safely. Ok. Well, thanks for, that's not quite the way I want. That said, what kind is that one? That's a cal fire hawk. That's helicopter 610. It was stationed at Columbia Airport today when the fire was dispatched. And what is the purpose of? So they're bringing water to the areas of the fire line that have a need to cool the fire so that firefighters can get in safely to attack the fire directly. Um, and what would be your message to anybody that lives in this area or in the evacuation zones? Um What should people know? Uh, if you haven't signed up for your evacuation warnings through county office of emergency service? I highly encourage you to do so and also understand what your evacuation zone number is for your given location and then make sure you have multiple ways to obtain information, not just off social media sites like the, like our cal fire site or the sheriff's office, but also have a radio available in case your phone no longer works. Um, oh, let's talk just briefly about these conditions. It's a red flag warning. What does that mean? What kind of conditions does that bring? And what does that mean? Red flag warnings tend to come into play when we have high winds, um very high temperatures and low humidities. And uh this particular area was at the most southern end of that red flag warning. But as you can see, we are definitely feeling the effects of the wind and the weather and the is it the would it be safe to say this is really a wind driven fire or the wind is what's pushing it to expand? So the wind is playing its part, there is some steeper train in this area and then the vegetation here in some of the areas is very dense and it transitioned from mostly grass to a brush and oak woodland type fuel model. So all of those things combined are contributing to the fire spread. Um And yeah, anything I haven't. No, I think we covered it. I want people to understand the need for evacuation and adhere to those as much as they possibly can. Yeah, I mean, we saw the line of just a procession of cars all one way. So that a good thing. I guess I would like to add that the evacuation centers are set up. Um, one is at the Veterans Hall in Valley Springs and also at the Mark Twain Elementary School. Um, and they are taking some, um, animals depending on the size large animals can be taken to the Calaveras County fairgrounds. Ok. Good to know.
