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Many Fires Still Plague California

As of Aug. 8, 2012, the Inciweb.org site reports the following regarding the Chips Fire: Firefighters remained vigilant in holding containment lines last night. Today crews will continue to aggressively attack an area where the fire escaped containment lines into the Mosquito Creek drainage. Aircraft will assist throughout the day by dropping water on hot spots near the fire's advancing edge as smoke conditions allow.

The fire is expected to slowly creep downslope towards Highway 70 on the southern flank where crews will mop-up along the line to secure additional containment.

Meanwhile, the Salt Creek Fire is considered "100% contained." The public will continue to see smoke from the fire and isolated pockets of unburned vegetation may ignite, producing columns of smoke visible from surrounding areas.

The Lake Complex Fire north of the other two fires was caused by lightning. It is considered 80% contained at this point and is creeping with isolated torching and mostly stump holes burning out. With the dry weather adverse conditions could cause the fire to rapidly grow.

This natural-color satellite image shows smoke from the fire streaming northeast. It was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on August 07, 2012. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner.