SIERRA NATIONAL FOREST – With the French Fire now 95% contained, and crews being demobilized at a rapid pace, the Type 2 Management Team has officially transferred control to the Bass Lake Ranger District as of the 6 a.m. briefing today.
USFS Battalion Chief Charlotte Jordan will head up the Type 3 team who will manage the incident to its conclusion.
Showers and laundry units, office buildings and sleeper trailers, catering units and trucks full of supplies are moving out of the Old Mill Site and the Rec Center today. By tomorrow, it will be as it was two weeks ago, when the French Fire started.
The fire is now 95% contained, and the crews stationed at Minarets Work Center, the new Command Post for the French Fire, are working to complete the last unsecured line on the northwest perimeter. Interior parts of the fire continue to cool, but some areas may still produce smoke for several more days.
The estimated date for full containment is Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 6 p.m. The fire has held at 13, 835 acres for the past several days, and personnel assigned to the incident has been drawn down to just 662.
Crews continue to do mop-up and suppression repair on all parts of the fire, and the Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Team has arrived to begin assessing the job of repairing and restoring the burned area.
Two helicopters remain assigned to the fire, and will be stationed out of the Ranger Station in North Fork.
Southern California Edison has set up at Clearwater Station, and 50-100 workers will begin the task of replacing over 50 power poles and some 6 miles of wire, using helicopters to set the poles.
A Forest Service Area Road and Trail Closure, Forest Order # 15-14-07, has been issued for the French Fire area, and will be in place until the fire is officially declared out.
Forest Road 4S81 (Minarets/Mammoth Pool Rd) between Powerhouse 8 and Arch Rock remains closed. Forest Road 8S09 (Iron Telephone) from the 7S07 to Forest Road 4S81 and the entire 6S01 road (Grizzly Road) between Beasore Road and Minarets Road remains closed to for all public use.
