Creek Fire: 175,000 Acres Burned, 365 Structures Destroyed

Cal Fire Incident Commander Nick Truax gives updates on damage inspection on structures in the impacted area of the Creek Fire. (Courtesy of Sierra National Forest)

The Creek Fire has burned 175,893 acres in just six days with zero containment. The fire began last Friday evening on Sept. 4 in the Big Creek draining area.

According to Cal Fire, there are currently 1,336 personnel battling the Creek Fire. 11,936 people have been evacuated and over 360 structures have been destroyed due to the fire.

“These are historic times,” said Nick Truax, Cal Fire Incidence Commander.

Truax also talked about their damage inspection team surveying the status of structures. There are about 4,900 structures in the area according to Truax. Inspectors were only able to reach certain parts of impacted areas in the southern region of the fire, due to downed power lines and fallen debris.

“We don’t have a good percentage, I think it’s over 50 percent of the areas that we were able to get into,” said Truax.

Lt. Brandon Purcell from Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, stressed evacuation orders and warnings are still in place and for mountain residents to not be expected to be home for some time.

“Timeliness of our re-population efforts, that’s going to be awhile especially in the higher areas…it’s going to probably be a couple weeks,” said Purcell. “Just be patient with us, we want you to be able to get back into your home, we do, but we have to make sure it is safe for you to be able to do that.”

Purcell went on to address that law enforcement are patrolling the evacuated areas daily for the possibility of looters and home burglaries.

“We are, every night, patrolling those areas that are evacuated, for people that would be looting or breaking into homes,” said Purcell.

The USDA Forest Service has also announced recently the temporary closure of all southern California Forests including the Sierra National Forest.

For updates on the Creek Fire, visit https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7147/.