Single Publication

Size: 228 Acres
Containment: 0%
Fire Cause: Lightning

Today the Coffeepot Fire grew to 228 acres. This growth is expected, even as full suppression efforts continue. Should fire conditions change in a way that warrants evacuation advisories, please know that we will get that message out immediately. We are working closely with the Tulare County Sheriff's Office and the Office of Emergency Services should this need arise in the days or weeks ahead, but this is not foreseen at this time.

Yesterday we mentioned that a Type 3 Incident Team would arrive today, but we now have a larger Complex Incident Management Team arriving tomorrow, August 17. This team will transition with local NPS and partner agencies and will gain management of the fire beginning on Sunday morning, while continuing to work closely with local NPS fire personnel, Cal Fire, Tulare County Fire, BLM, and others.

We wanted to provide some more detailed information about this fire and how we've gotten to this point today. We'll be discussing this all in much more detail during a public meeting scheduled for this Sunday.

Coffeepot Fire Public Meeting

Sunday, August 18 at 6pm

Three Rivers Memorial Building

Suppression Efforts to Date

When the Coffeepot Fire was discovered, a fire crew was inserted and carried out full suppression efforts by establishing a fire line around the fire. This line was monitored by fire personnel and held for several days. When the fire line was breached early on August 11th, two highly-skilled hotshot crews and a third initial attack crew were inserted to contain the fire with heavy aircraft support. Even with great progress each day, they awoke each morning to fire breaching the containment line from logs and trees that were falling and rolling out of these lines due to the steep and rugged terrain. Four days of direct attack was not proving effective, and we are now switching over to a more indirect approach that should be more productive in this type of terrain. This approach requires more resources and a much larger containment box, with a higher complexity level requiring a Complex Incident Management Team. With this new approach, we can expect this fire to get much bigger before it is contained.

Efforts to suppress this wildfire include 70 fire personnel, one fire engine, 5 helicopters, and multiple fixed-wing air tankers.