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By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
7-25-2009 Smoke is beginning to clear and residents in Bishop Creek are returning to their homes as the Forks Fire is 85 percent contained and State Route 168 is re-opened to traffic.
All camp sites other than the Bitterbrush Campground are now opened. Bitterbrush is being used as a staging point for firefighters.
Since the blaze started on Saturday there have been no injuries reported and no structures lost. Southern California Edison reported that it did lose some telephone poles to the blaze – a minor casualty, considering how close the fire came to the small community of Aspendell and a number of Forest Service-operated camp sites.
“The Inyo National Forest would like to thank everyone who has cooperated in the suppression of the Forks Fire, as well as all the residents, business owners, special use permit holders and the recreating public from Bishop Creek Canyon who have cooperated and supported the efforts of the firefighters,” a press release from the U.S. Forest Service states.
As of press time on Wednesday, the Forks Fire had burned 3,268 acres north and northwest of Bishop Creek canyon and officials said they anticipated having the blaze fully contained by Friday.
There were as many as 17 hand crews, 25 engines, six helicopters, a water tender and air tankers available on demand for the Forks Fire suppression effort Wednesday afternoon, but the agencies from all over the Owens Valley have pitched in to get the fire under control.
The multi-agency effort to battle the Forks blaze has included the U.S. Forest Service, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Bureau of Land Management, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Inyo County Sheriff, California Highway Patrol, Caltrans, the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Bishop, Big Pine and Lone Pine volunteer fire departments.
Thanks to the brave efforts of the firefighters, the fire hazard is coming to an end, but, with more thunderstorms on the horizon comes the potential for a new danger.
As residents and visitors begin making their way back into Bishop Creek Canyon, the Forest Service is asking everyone to exercise extreme caution.
“The public is advised to proceed with caution when traveling on State Route 168 due to the presence of firefighters and equipment and the possibility of falling rocks or debris on the road,” said Fire Information Officer Pam Bierce. “Some forest roads that access the fire area will remain closed to the public until further notice.”
With active thunderstorms in the area and the threat of yet more rain over the weekend, firefighters are already looking at erosion control to prevent mud slides and floods such as the Inyo Complex Mud Flows of last July which resulted from the Inyo Complex Fire the year before.
“That is a steep area there anyway, and at one spot the fire came down right there onto the road,” Bierce said. “I’m sure those mitigation factors are in turn because mud slides are always a concern, especially after a fire. It’s definitely on the top of our minds.”
With the Forks Fire winding down, officials are turning their attention to other fires in the Eastern Sierra.
According to the Forest Service, a small lightning-caused blaze is burning southwest of Aberdeen within the Bighorn Sheep Zoological Area in the John Muir Wilderness.
Though smoke may at times be visible from the Owens Valley, the Forest Service is not pursuing suppression of this fire, known as the Black Jack Fire
The Black Jack blaze is being used as a fire use fire, a naturally occurring conflagration that is left to run its natural course, so long as human life and structures are not threatened.
The Black Jack Fire may burn for up to a month.
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