The Smith River Complex is made up of 13 wildfires, burning a total of around 4,000 acres. They’re located mostly north and east of the community of Gasquet in the Six Rivers National Forest. A variety of mandatory evacuations have been issued in the area.
On Wednesday afternoon, Highway 199, also known as Redwood Highway, closed in Del Norte County between mile markers 16 and 31 because of dangerous fire conditions. It’s expected to stay closed for three to four days, according to firefighting personnel.
“We have a ton of debris that has come down on the road. The road is basically impassable between the rocks and the fire-weakened trees that have come down,” said Tom Stokesberry, a public information officer with the California Interagency Incident Management Team 15, which took over management of the fire on Thursday.
There have been no reports of injuries or damaged structures so far.
Windy conditions and lighting are expected in the next few days, but Stokesbury said his team has orders in for more firefighting resources.
“The entire North State was hit pretty hard with lightning, and there’s fires across Northern California here in Region 5, so right now resources are thin,” he said. “But we’ve got the orders in, and they’re coming in from all over the Western U.S."
