Friday Morning Update

I think today is the last day I will need to do a daily update! Here is the fire report updated as of 10:30 a.m.

Great news all the way around. The Moonlight Wildfire containment lines held firm last night through the Red Flag event with 64,997 total acres burned and 90% containment. Though InciWeb is showing a rounded up 65,000 acres, we are keeping ours at 64,997 as the official "209" report shows. Winds were actually beneficial in reducing the risk to lines and aided the heavy burning of interior fuels. Mop-up efforts are continuing at 100-500' in from the fireline. With five miles of fireline left to build, full containment is expected by Monday, Sept. 17, 2007!!! HIP, HIP HOORAY!

The Greenville, Taylorsville, and Indian Valley areas will be smokey in the morning for the next few days due to smoke funneling down drainages and an inversion layer predicted by weather forecasters. With less wind, these areas will get smokey, but should clear by afternoon as light winds help to blow the smoke away. Those in the Susanville and Janesville areas may see smoke for the next few days due to the southwest winds.
Humidity levels will rise through tonight and temperatures will be colder, aiding the firefighters efforts.

During the day 19 helicopters, 35 dozers, 41 water tenders, and 135 engines are assisted by 95 fire crews.

According to SIFC Aircraft Dispatcher Bob Bare, Tanker 09 is standing by at the Chester Airport in case they need it.

Some crews will begin to demobilize as they reach their 14-day limit. 21 crews, 34 engines, six helicoptors and all OES engines will be released from the fire as of 6 p.m. Friday night.

The spike camp at Murdock Crossing is being closed.

Air operations logged over 1000 hours of flight time and 1/2 million gallons of retardant was pumped out of the Chester Air Base alone.

$22.2 million has been spent to date to fight this fire. Only 28 minor injuries occurred while personnel logged in 430,000 person hours. 3,216 personnel are still in mop up operations and support.

The mandatory evacuation for Franks Valley has been lifted, but the order still continues for Antelope Lake, Wilcox Valley and Taylor Lake areas as they are still within the fires lines.

There is minimal potential for fire spread, if any, it is predicted to be to the Northeast. Minimal night operations are expected Friday night.

The official report this morning had this comment, "Four burned structures were found yesterday. The type of structures and historic value is being evaluated." As more details about these structures becomes available, we will pass it on to our readers, but at this time, Fire Information officers have no further knowledge than what is written in the report.

I think we will spend the next several weeks counting our many blessings. Here are just a few: we are grateful for the firefighters and public safety officers who worked so hard to contain this fire and protect us at great personal sacrifice, we are grateful to live in such a wonderful community with such giving and caring neighbors who were so willing to help in our time of need, we are grateful no one was killed or seriously injured by this fire, we are grateful Coppercreek came through this unscathed, we are grateful to the Coppercreek community for their prayers and good thoughts (we are sure they helped!), and we are grateful to Plumas News and their blog site for keeping all of the information about this fire at our fingertips!

Stay Safe! Big Coppercreek hugs to all!
Becky

Thursday's Update! 77% Contained!

The horses are all home and the fire is 77% contained. They have also lifted the mandatory evacuations for our neighbors out on North Arm. Fire officials are a little bit worried about the expected winds today. The forecast is for a low pressure system to move into the area and bring with it 20 to 30 mile per hour winds. However if the fire lines hold through this wind event. They will start sending some of these crews home for a well deserved rest! We are starting to feel the relief of the major threat being past us. I think we all feel like we could sleep for a week! It has definitely been a long and stressful 10 days.

This is a photo of pieces of burnt bark that Ryleigh and I picked up walking through the meadow yesterday. There is burnt bark, leaves, manzanita and ash everywhere! You can just walk through the open areas of camp and pick up as much as you like.
We were so lucky!! We feel very blessed and grateful.
Thank you all again for checking in, and your thoughts and prayers. We really appreciate having you as part of our camp community.

Becky

Wednesday Morning! 58% Contained!

Firefighters had another great night and we are up to 58% contained this morning. We also woke up to fairly clear skies. It feels like we have finally turned a corner, and this fire might be contained soon. It has burned 64,271 (100 square miles) acres so far. Fire officials are still concerned about the active areas you see on this morning's map. The wind is supposed to come up again this afternoon and tomorrow, but we are hopeful the cool temperatures will help them keep making progress toward containment. We brought 13 horses home yesterday and hope to bring another few loads today.

Thank you all for your good thoughts! I think they definitely helped!
Becky

Tuesday Update

The firefighters had another good day & night. The fire is at 63,418 acres. They were able to keep it's growth to just 600 acres yesterday and it is now 33% contained!! This is the Modis picture from 7 am. It hasn't changed much in the last few days. The winds didn't materialize again yesterday. We hope all this news means we are turning the corner and the firefighters are getting a handle on this fire. They used the big DC-10 yesterday to drop retardant on Wildcat Ridge. I guess it was a sight to see. The kids are out of school again. There are still too many people displaced and Taylorsville is still in the fire's path. We are discussing bringing a few horses home today. We will watch through the rest of today and make some decisions this afternoon.

Thank you again for all of the nice notes, e-mails and offers of help. It is so nice to know we have such a large community willing to help in our time of need.
Becky

Monday Update

Well, we have good news. The wind that was expected to blow yesterday didn't! The fire didn't grow much last night and firefighters were able to strengthen the fire lines nearest us. The fire is at 62,000 acres, or almost 98 square miles, and is still only 16% contained. I didn't get any photos yesterday because the smoke was so thick. The mountains behind camp are hardly visible again this morning. School was cancelled again due to the smoke and fire danger. They are expecting some extreme fire behavior today due to the low humidity. We really need some rain and clouds!! It would help the fire personnel so much. Unfortunately there are no storms on the horizon at the moment. Lornie and Sutter are back in Quincy this morning, feeding, watering and caring for the horses. Craig found Lynne's scanner yesterday, so we have been able to listen to some of the official radio traffic. It will be very nice to have the scanner if anything changes in the next day or so, but we are crossing our fingers that things are looking better and progress is being made towards getting this fire out.

Take care! We hope all is well with you and your families!

Becky

Sunday Afternoon

Here is a new MODIS map updated at about 12. We were glad to see the red dot near us become an orange dot. We are totally socked in with smoke today and can't see much of anything happening. It also means the helicopters and air tankers aren't flying. No new updates from the front lines.

Becky

Sunday Morning

Hi All,
Things were fairly quiet here at camp most of the day yesterday, but the fire grew from 31,000 acres on Friday night to 52,000 acres this morning! Yesterday afternoon, this cloud bloomed over the Equestrian Center and I started to worry. Craig again ran up the mountain on the dirt bike to get a better look. It's a good thing he actually LIKES riding his dirt bike, because we have been sending him all over the last few days. He took this photo of a helicopter making a water drop.

Again, we are humbled by the men and women who are risking their lives fighting this very nasty fire. We went out to breakfast in town yesterday and saw firetrucks from Santa Barbara, Ventura and the Office of Emergency Services. There are people from all over California here protecting us and our neighbors. Thank you doesn't seem adequate.

The bloom over the Equestrian Center bothered me enough that we decided to drive around the Valley and get a little closer look. As we drove, it became more clear that the main part of the fire is still a good distance from us. This photo was taken outside of Taylorsville about a 10 mile drive from camp and shows how big and aggressive this fire has become.
Unfortunately, there is a change expected today in the wind and therefore, the fire's movements. We were hoping to possibly start bringing our horses home, but with the weather forecast, we are going to again, "wait and see", which is of course, very frustrating!!
Here is the weather forecast from the Incident Command:
Projected movement of fire:
12 hour: Predicted low humidity and NE wind event is expected to push fire to SW.
24 hr: NE wind forecasted with anticipated spread to SW
48 hr: Stronger NE influence and lower humidity expected; could case significant spread to SW
72 hr: SE influence and lower humidity expected to continue, which could cause significant spread to SW.
I will update if anything changes today.
Take care,
Becky

Saturday Update

Good Morning. Craig headed back up to the saddle yesterday evening and took this photo looking East. The fire is still raging, but heading toward Antelope Lake which burned earlier this summer. That is good news for us. We were even considering bringing the horses back if things continued to improve. However, the forecast for the wind has changed for Monday. They are now calling for an East wind which could blow the fire toward us.

Here is the Modis photo from this morning. The red dot just above the word Greenville is the one that concerns us. It is just over the ridge from camp and a shift in the winds could send it our way.
I think we are going to be nervous for a while here, but for now, all is well.
Lornie visited each of our horses yesterday and everyone is healthy and happy. They all look a little confused about their situation, but are settled into their temporary homes. She is going to go visit them today as well. Other than that, we are just staying close to home and each other and watching all the news we can find.
I will continue to post updates as I get them.

Love to all!
Becky

Friday Update

Hello All!
Thank you again for the calls and e-mails! This picture was taken from the Plumas News website. It shows the fire activity as of 8 am. The red & orange are actively burning areas and the yellow is areas that have been burned in the last 6 months. As you can see, there is still a ridge between the fire and Greenville!! It is a quiet morning here at camp. It is VERY EERIE to not hear the horses walking around in their pens and calling to each other! They are all safe and happy in their temporary homes. Lornie and Sutter have headed to Susanville to check on everyone. Craig and I are holding down the fort here at camp. From the latest reports, firefighters are holding the edge of the fire near us. It sounds like they are not having as much luck with the edge of the fire near Taylorsville. While we are so grateful to be safe, our hearts are breaking for the families who are displaced and don't know about their homes or livestock.

I think my very favorite moment from the Community meeting last night was when our local sheriff was answering a question about people getting into the evacuated area to feed and water livestock. In the middle of his answer, he looked at one of the ladies sitting nearby and said, "By the way, Mrs. Wittingham, your chickens are all fine, we checked on them today!"

We are so grateful for the amazing efforts and sacrifices of the personnel on the fire lines, our local sheriff, search and rescue, Red Cross and all of the others who are out there helping to protect our families and property!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Moonlight Fire News

Hello Coppercreek Families and Friends!
The photo to the right was taken from our camp meadow on Tuesday afternoon. For those of you who haven't heard, we have a major forest fire (approximately 30,000 acres) burning near Coppercreek. First, I should say, everyone (people, horses, dogs, and cats) and everything (buildings, land, arenas and cabins) here at camp is absolutely fine for the time being. But, it has been a wild ride the last few days! We have received many calls and e-mails from our campers, staff, former campers and staff, family and friends. Thank you all for your kind words. We have so appreciated knowing you are all out there and thinking of us.
The very best site for current information on the fire and what is happening here is our local plumas news site http://www.plumasnews.com/news_story.edi?sid=5411. We have been keeping it open on our computers and hitting refresh every few moments!

Here is a timeline of what has happened so far.

Monday afternoon: Fire begins. We noticed a small plume of smoke rising on the other side of the ridge line you can see from the camp meadow. We called the fire department and were told the fire had started in Moonlight Valley about 6 to 8 air miles from camp. Craig jumped on his dirt bike and rode up the mountain to get a closer view. From the "Saddle" (the low spot of the mountain behind camp, just beneath Keddie Peak), he could clearly see the fire. From this vantage point, he could see a canyon behind the Keddie ridge line(Cook's Creek) and then another small ridge line. The fire was burning on the other side of that small ridge line. We had a quick meeting (Lornie, Craig and I) and decided that for the time being, we would watch it closely, but sit tight. We were all VERY grateful camp was empty and our campers were all home with their families!


Monday night and Tuesday day: Very little smoke was visible and the fire seemed to be quieting from our side of the mountain. According to the fire department and news reports from Monday & Tuesday, the fire was growing and very active, but the good news for us was that is was moving away from us all day. We went to Ryleigh's soccer practice on the other side of the Indian Valley late in the afternoon and this photo was taken from there. Although we were thrilled that camp was safe, we were starting to worry about our friends and neighbors who were closer to the fire!

Tuesday evening: A fierce wind begins to blow, thunderstorms roll in and the fire boils up into the cloud you see in the top photo. We start to make phone calls and develop contingency plans, but overnight, things quiet down. Some precautionary evacuations begin on the other side of the Valley, but still authorities are telling us the fire is moving away from us.


Wednesday: This is what the sky looked like at 8 am. Lauren, Craig and I sit down and line out a plan to evacuate the horses, goats, dogs and people. We put together lists of phone numbers and start calling friends and neighbors who will loan us horse trailers and can help with transporting our 42 head of horses. Officials still feel like the fire has no chance of reaching us, but we know it will take several hours to evacuate our horses and we really want to be prepared! We also call Kassandra (Brady the JC's Mom and a local CHP officer) in the evening. She was monitoring her CHP radio closely and she promised to call us if she heard anything about the fire moving toward us.

Wednesday night: The wind howled all night long and created spot fires which started to move the fire into Cook's Creek (the canyon just behind Keddie Ridge) and the Greenville Rancheria just a few miles away. We spent a sleepless night as precautionary evacuations were posted for our friends and neighbors nearby.

Thursday morning 6:30 am: We meet again and decide to evacuate our horses. Although fire officials tell us the fire is a long way from us, we decide the risk of spot fires is too big to keep the horses here. We know it will take up to 8 hours to move them all and we don't want to be moving animals at 2 am under an evacuation notice!

OH, School is cancelled, too!!

9 am: Friends and neighbors begin calling and showing up at camp to help. Most of them call or arrive before we even have a chance to call them! We feel so blessed to live in this community where neighbors are so willing to drop everything and help their neighbors in need. Within 20 minutes of deciding to move the horses, we had offers of places for all of them to go and more than enough trucks and trailers to move them. Trucks pulling horse trailers filed into our meadow and we moved all 42 horses to 3 ranches in Quincy and 1 outside Susanville. The whole operation was complete by about 1:30. We were blown away! We even were able to turn down some offers for help because we had enough. Everything was so smooth and the horses were amazingly calm and cooperated like we knew they would :)! After we moved our horses, we headed down the road and helped some of our neighbors move their horses. Big thank you's to the folks who helped us and our neighbors: Dennis and Dorothy Miller, Ken Radar, Kassandra Dimaggio and her friend Dave, Marsha Ravenaugh, Emily Jones and Erin, Jared Tappero, Bonnie Fox for giving up her horse trailer and our wonderful employees, Bobbie, Dean, Linda and Regina. We need to send another Thank You the people who are housing our horses: Patty Hughes, Tracy Sims, Katrina and Steve Tolen and Emily Jones!

Thursday evening: We attended the community meeting in the Greenville Cafeteria about the fire. There was even news crews there from Sacramento!! The fire officials confirmed that at this time, there is little chance of the fire reaching Coppercreek, UNLESS the North wind picks up like it did Wednesday night. We are all so glad we decided to move the horses rather than wait! Although we do not feel we or camp is in immediate danger, we know we can leave in just a few minutes at this point rather than several hours.