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Fire fighters douse water after flames from the Mosquito Fire jumped the American River, burning structures in Volcanoville, Calif on Sept. 10, 2022. The fast-moving Mosquito Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills doubled in size Friday to at least 46 square miles and threatened 3,600 homes, while blanketing the region in smoke.
A burned fence after flames from the Mosquito Fire jumped the American River, burning structures in Volcanoville, Calif on Sept. 10, 2022. The fast-moving Mosquito Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills doubled in size Friday to at least 46 square miles and threatened 3,600 homes, while blanketing the region in smoke.
Burned structures after flames from the Mosquito Fire jumped the American River, destroying properties Volcanoville, Calif on Sept. 10, 2022. The fast-moving Mosquito Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills doubled in size Friday to at least 46 square miles and threatened 3,600 homes, while blanketing the region in smoke.
A burned sign after flames from the Mosquito Fire jumped the American River, burning structures in Volcanoville, Calif on Sept. 10, 2022. The fast-moving Mosquito Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills doubled in size Friday to at least 46 square miles and threatened 3,600 homes, while blanketing the region in smoke.
Burned structures after flames from the Mosquito Fire jumped the American River, burning structures in Volcanoville, Calif. on Sept. 10, 2022. The fast-moving fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills doubled in size Friday to at least 46 square miles and threatened 3,600 homes, while blanketing the region in smoke.
The Mosquito Fire burning in Placer and El Dorado counties grew more slowly Friday and overnight as it consumed dry landscapes, destroying homes and sending thousands of residents fleeing. The wildfire, which started Tuesday evening north of the Oxbow Reservoir, had burned nearly 34,000 acres by Saturday morning and remains 0% contained, making it one of the state’s largest wildfires of the season so far. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has expanded its air advisory through Saturday to account for the incoming plume of smoke and haze.
We’ll be reporting on all the latest news on the Mosquito Fire and other major California wildfires throughout the day.
Fire officials said most of the action on Saturday was near Volcanoville, 17 miles northeast of Auburn and 35 miles west of Lake Tahoe as the crow flies. The unincorporated community of 231 residents is south of where the Mosquito Fire did its early damage in Michigan Bluff and Foresthill. Firefighters worked in and around the town, putting out hot spots and cutting down dead trees. Some fire engines were stationed in the driveways of nearby homes.
On Volcanoville Road approaching the town, three firefighters hunched over a down tree and doused the inside of the trunk with water through a hole in the side. The ground around them was ashy and huge trees had fallen over everywhere. The fire destroyed at least one property in Trinity Trail in Volcanoville. A “Beware of Dog” and “Smile you’re on camera” sign were untouched. But everything else was destroyed — what once appeared to be a building was now a pile of debris. Tree trunks surrounding the property still smoldered.
Near the Otter Creek School, some homeowners had left their sprinklers on as they evacuated. Pink flame retardant, dropped from the air earlier, blanketed lawns, vehicles and a “No Trespassing” sign. A haze of smoke billowed from the charred grounds surrounding the road as some firefighters worked with shovels to dig into the earth. “I’m sweating,” one firefighter said, wiping his forehead.
A burned fence after flames from the Mosquito Fire jumped the American River, burning structures in Volcanoville, Calif on Sept. 10, 2022. The fast-moving Mosquito Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills doubled in size Friday to at least 46 square miles and threatened 3,600 homes, while blanketing the region in smoke.
The fire destroyed several structures on Volcanoville Road. At one property, the only thing remaining were three American flags, still tacked onto a wood fence. Fire officials surveyed the destruction. Nearby, officials stapled a yellow piece of paper to a stump that read, “1 small cabin — loss” and “1 outbuilding — loss.” The fire raged through the neighborhood, toppling over trees and scorching the landscape. Smoke still billowed into the air.
Jonathan Richards got the message he was dreading Thursday afternoon. Georgetown, a northeastern town in El Dorado County, was ordered evacuated as the Mosquito Fire raged through the Tahoe National Forest. He and his family moved into a house in Georgetown a year and a half ago, fully aware that California wildfires had incinerated communities like his. The fire insurance bill Richards paid monthly kept that threat front and center in his mind. Still, wildfire wasn’t something he liked to imagine becoming a reality. Read more about an evacuee’s nightmare.
A former Mosquito Fire shelter in Auburn has now relocated to Sierra College in Rocklin, roughly mid-way between Auburn and Sacramento, ReadyPlacer.org said this morning. The emergency shelter at 5100 Sierra College Blvd. opened today at 10 a.m. for evacuees, supported by the American Red Cross, California Gold Country Region. According to Placer County’s official Twitter account, “the former shelter site at the Bell Road Baptist Church in Auburn is now closed. The RV/Trailer Temporary Evacuation Point Parking at Auburn Regional Park Gym (3770 Richardson Dr, Auburn) remains open for parking, bathrooms and shower access ONLY (no hookups, sleeping space, etc).”
Firefighters battling the Walker Fire south of Willits in Mendocino County have reached 97% containment as of Saturday morning, according to Cal Fire. The vegetation fire ignited east of Highway 101 near Walker Road Sept. 1 and injured five firefighters. Officials are still investigating the cause of the 124-acre fire.
The sky was clear Saturday morning in the town of Georgetown, 10 miles east of Auburn on Highway 193, which was evacuated on Thursday afternoon due to the Mosquito Fire. But Randy Erwin, who works at Georgetown’s Gas and Go said the blue sky was a stark difference from the smoke on Friday.
“Yesterday it was so thick you could cut it with a knife,” he said.
Erwin kept the store open for law enforcement and firefighters working in the area. He said at any given time, at least three trucks are stopping for fuel. And it’s not just first responders coming to the small shop. Residents also stopped in to stock up on frozen dinners and cases of beer.
Michael Guest, 31, a Georgetown resident, came to get fuel for his dirt bike. Guest said he refused to evacuate. “I ain’t leaving my house,” he said.
Guest said he’s been tracking the fire from certain lookout points in the forest. He said it appeared the blaze was still far from Georgetown.
“It’s been one helluva week,” he said, before returning to home to ride his dirt bike out to check on the fire again.
Lynnette Rollins-Brown, 71, and her 16-year-old granddaughter stood near the town of Cool, three miles outside of Auburn, next to a trailer filled with seven goats. The two women had evacuated — along with Rollins-Brown’s daughter-in-law — two days ago from Garden Valley when the Mosquito fire jumped toward Volcanoville. Since none of the shelters accepts goats, the three had been camping outside behind Cool’s fire station.
Lynnette Rollins-Brown of Garden Valley, Calif. evacuates with her beloved goats and her 16-year-old granddaughter near the town of Cool on Sept. 10, 2022. California’s Mosquito Fire, burning near the Placer County town of Foresthill, has reached 33,754 acres.
Her goats are her yard babies — better than dogs, she said.
Rollins-Brown said it was her first time evacuating, after living on her 20-acre property for 31 years.
“If we burn, we burn,” she said. “All that’s important is these things — family and my goats.”
While the Mosquito Fire exploded by more than 21,000 acres on Thursday and another 8,500 acres on Friday, its growth slowed to just 4,200 acres overnight to Saturday morning. Fire officials explained at a town hall with the El Dorado County sheriff’s office that increased humidity paired with lower temperatures and slower winds helped slow the blaze down. Rob Scott, a fire analyst with Cal Fire, explained that Thursday was “a big day” for growth, with the temperature reaching 95 degrees with 15% humidity and six mile per hour winds, all contributing to the fire’s spread. But on Friday, he said, all of those conditions improved. The temperature dropped to 88, with 20% humidity and winds under 3 miles per hour. “That’s a good day considering what we’ve been seeing,” he said. Moving forward, the fire’s behavior will be dependent on what the wind and the smoke do, he said. If the smoke stays over the fire, that means the fire is capped, and its behavior will be more like Friday’s calm behavior.
The Mosquito Fire burning in El Dorado and Placer counties grew to more than 33,700 acres overnight — up from 29,500 late Friday — and is still 0% contained, according to Cal Fire. The Sierra foothills wildfire, which started Tuesday evening north of the Oxbow Reservoir in Placer County, exploded on Friday, sending thousands of residents fleeing with little or no time to collect belongings. It was continuing to burn out of control, with no containment, and temperatures expected to remain over 100 degrees with low humidity Saturday, making it difficult to attack the fire in steep terrain, officials said.
Firefighters made significant progress against the Fairview Fire in Riverside County Friday as moisture from Tropical Storm Kay “greatly reduced” fire activity, according to Cal Fire, and the fire is now 40% contained. Cooler temperatures are also expected through the weekend as California’s scorching heat wave is in retreat. The deadly Fairview blaze has burned through nearly 30,000 acres, destroyed or damaged 17 structures, injured one and killed two people. Evacuation orders are still in place.
Just over a week after they started, firefighters have made progress against the deadly Mill Fire, which killed two and destroyed the Lincoln Heights neighborhood in Weed, as well as the nearby Mountain Fire. The Mill Fire has burned nearly 4,000 acres and is 85% contained, and the Mountain Fire has burned more than 11,000 acres and is 60% contained.The area where both fires are burning is under a Red Flag warning for Saturday due to high winds and low humidity, though temperatures are expected to cool over the weekend.
The Placer County animal services shelter posted on Twitter Friday night that it was no longer accepting new intakes as thousands of people and their pets evacuate due to the Mosquito fire.“We are currently caring for nearly 190 evacuated pets from the #MosquitoFire,” the shelter said. “Our dedicated team of staff/volunteers are providing the best care possible for these pets.” The other Placer County shelter for pets, the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley, is still open.
The blaze’s impacts have quickly expanded well beyond the fire perimeter, with air quality reaching hazardous AQI levels over 300 in parts of the Sacramento Valley. Even the Bay Area is experiencing some of these impacts Saturday, with moderate air quality levels of 50-100 expected all the way to the North Bay, East Bay, San Francisco Peninsula, South Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains. Adding on to the smoke concerns, the remnants of tropical cyclone Kay that brought extreme weather to Southern California are now shifting the upper-level winds over the rest of California. Read more about how all these events will affect Bay Area weather and air quality this weekend.
Elevated smoke from the Mosquito Fire is forecast to continue moving into the Bay Area Saturday.
Washoe County health officials in western Nevada issued a stage 2 emergency episode alert on Friday afternoon due to the Mosquito Fire burning west of Lake Tahoe. The air quality in the Reno-Sparks area is expected to get progressively worse through Saturday and Sunday, according to the bulletin.
Approximately 5,700 people have been evacuated from areas affected by Mosquito Fire, according to Placer County Sheriff Lieutenant Josh Barhhart in an afternoon update. Evacuation orders are in place in Foresthill and the Todd Valley areas.
At least 14 California school districts in six counties have closed classrooms this week due to the wildfires burning across the state according to a report from the education site EdSource. More than 90,500 students in 119 schools were sent home, said Tim Taylor, executive director of the Small School District Association.
Sarah Ravani covers Oakland and the East Bay at The San Francisco Chronicle. She joined The Chronicle in 2016 after graduating from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Previously, she covered breaking news and crime for The Chronicle. She has provided coverage on wildfires, mass shootings, the fatal shooting of police officers and massive floods in the North Bay.
Danielle Echeverria is a reporter for The Chronicle's Engagement and Breaking News team. She recently completed her Master's degree in journalism at Stanford University, where she won the Nicholas Roosevelt Environmental Journalism Award for her reporting and covered agriculture, climate change and worker safety. She previously interned The Chronicle on the Business desk, as well as at Big Local News, focusing on data journalism. She is originally from Bakersfield, California.
Gerry Díaz is The San Francisco Chronicle's first ever Newsroom Meteorologist.
He previously served as a meteorologist for the National Weather Service Bay Area, working from the agency's Monterey office. In that position he led an initiative aimed at increasing outreach to Spanish speaking communities during extreme weather events.
Most recently he worked as a meteorology specialist for utility Southern California Edison.
Díaz enjoys hiking through California's national parks and shooting panoramic photography, including of the Central Coast.