Sierra forest fire growing slowly near Yosemite

A forest fire burning about 65 miles south of Minden near Strawberry gained some ground overnight with around 500 acres burned, according to the Fire Information for Resource Management map.

Officially, the Sheering Fire was at 370 acres last night as it burned in timber on the west slope of the Sierra northwest of Yosemite National Park, according to the Inciweb.

“The fire is primarily flanking into Lost Creek,” explained Incident Commander Shaun Craig. “There’s small short-lived uphill runs occurring from roll out into the drainages.”

Single and group tree torching has been observed in areas outside of dense snag patches where the canopy is still intact due to decadent shrub growth, according to Stanislaus National Forest spokesman Ben Cossel.
“Numerous snags in the area have fallen and drastically increased the fuel loading though it does not have much impact on the rate of spread,” he said.

 In addition to ground resources on scene, air resources were assigned to the fire on Tuesday and more than 17,000 gallons of water on the fire by the Stanislaus National Forest Helitak crew.
With winds expected to be out of the north for the next few days, smoke from the fire may remain clear of Carson Valley.

Air quality gauges in the Valley were mostly in the good to moderate range this morning with the Gardnerville Ranchos reading right around 50 at 4 a.m.