Excelsior Fire: Evacuation orders lifted for area residents, part of Jackson Road closed
Updated: June 16, 2024 4:24 PM PDT
This is breaking news. Breaking news out of Sacramento County where there is a large vegetation fire going on right now. Livecopter 3 is flying overhead and taking some aerial footage. Take a look. This footage just came into our newsroom. We know that the fire is 686 acres right now. This just started just before noon today. This large vegetation fire is just south of Mather, at the intersection of Excelsior and Jackson Road. Like I said, it started just before noon and you can see the cemetery there. Dirk Verdoorn and I were just talking. It turns out this area is a Muslim cemetery. It just exploded in the last hour or so. Cal Fire and Sacramento Metro Fire are responding with air and ground. We can confirm that evacuations are underway. Sacramento Metro Fire says evacuations are in place for all homes along Jackson Road from Excelsior to Sunrise. Advisories have been issued along Florin between Excelsior and Sunrise, and Jackson is closed between Excelsior and Sunrise. Let’s go back to our guys on the ground. Photojournalist Jack Noonan is on the ground right now. He’s at Eagle’s Nest on Jackson Road. And this is near the cemetery and he showed us that scorch from the air, but you could actually see the bulldozers going through the very dry grass in this area. The Metro Fire Station is right off Excelsior Road. It’s a very strategic placement. But this area is very dry and very vulnerable to these types of fires. If we go back to LIVECOPTER3 now and look at another aerial image, you can see a lot of fire retardant being sprayed. You can see the lines at the top of the screen. If you zoom in, you can see smoke billowing out of that area. We have viewers from all over our viewing area, from Amador County to Sacramento County. Everybody can see this big plume of smoke. You can see the flames. The lines are there and there are trucks working to get the lines down and put out the flames.So I’m going to turn to Dirk Burdone. Dirk, are you prepared for this today? Because today is a red flag day, right? Yes, you’re right. Very dry conditions. So let’s take a look at what the weather is like. You can see where this is located on the Doppler radar. You can see where it is along Jackson Highway. Highway 16. This is south of Rancho Cordova. West of Sloughhouse, east of Sacramento, just south of Mather Field. What we’re seeing right now is northwest winds blowing at about 14 miles per hour. We’re seeing pretty strong winds up to 17 miles per hour. These are measurements from Mather Field. Again, just south of there. You can actually see a little bit of the runway up north above the banner. Humidity, that’s the key thing here. Very dry. Humidity is at 15%. This is what you would normally see with a north wind. When it’s dry, it’s easier for fires to start. But the wind and the dry conditions make it easier for fires to spread.Zooming in a little bit more, you can see the area that’s affected by the fire. Here is Eagle’s Nest Road. You can see that the fire is up in this area. Here is the cemetery. That’s where the cemetery is in the center. You can see the cross pattern and the field with the markers. But this is the area that we’re dealing with the fire. You can also see the amount of smoke. Look for the area that’s smoking the most. That’s where the fire is most active. You can see that the grass is producing a fair amount of smoke. This fire is moving pretty fast over the grass. The wind is again pushing the smoke south and east. And the wind is coming from the northwest, pushing the smoke south and east. Most of the fire is heading in that direction. The wind is pushing the fire away. It’s interesting to watch them fight this. They’re trying to get around this. Those bulldozers that we saw earlier were putting lines up to try and slow things down. And the good news is if we can get around this, we can see the road. It doesn’t look like it’s jumping over the road. Again, if we can get around this, it looks like we can contain it pretty well. And in the video that we just saw, it certainly looked like the fire had gotten into what looked like a lawn. You can see the fire on the north side of the screen, the very top, and there were some charred areas. You can see the graveyard on the right. There are charred areas. But the area where the graves are, looks perfectly fine. So right now, they’re working to get the fire under control. Weather-wise, that’s where we are. And that’s the fire situation that we’re dealing with at this point. Aaron. And thanks, Dirk. Now, I just want to remind you about the evacuations that are in place for the folks gathered here right now, according to the Sacramento Metro Fire Department. Evacuations are in place for all the homes along Jackson Road from Excelsior to Sunrise. There’s a warning in place along Florin between Excelsior and Sunrise. And Jackson is closed between Excelsior and Sunrise. Now, we’re watching live from the ground. And now, a Livecopter 3 aerial shot of Eagle’s Nest and Jackson Road from the air. The line at the bottom of the screen will update with the acreage. The latest update we got from the fire department is 686 acres. This happened probably in less than an hour and 50 minutes. So that’s about 300+ acres per hour. We’re watching now as crews on the ground try to put up lines and stop the advance. We’ll bring you this live image as more happens. Wow. Look at those flames. Also eating up that very dry grass. Dirk Verdoorn notes that humidity is very low at the moment, 15%. 686 acres, currently evacuated, fighting a large vegetation fire in Sacramento County. Along Excelsior and Jackson Road, mandatory evacuations. South of Mather. Mandatory evacuations for those of you familiar with the area.
Excelsior Fire: Evacuation orders lifted for area residents, part of Jackson Road closed
Updated: June 16, 2024 4:24 PM PDT
Residents in areas where a large vegetation fire broke out in Sacramento were evacuated Sunday, officials said. (Video player above: A look at damage from the Excelsior Fire on Sunday afternoon)The Sacramento Fire Department said evacuations were ordered from Excelsior Road along Jackson Road to Sunrise Boulevard because of the fire. The order was lifted around 4 p.m., the sheriff’s office said. Jackson Road was closed in the area. Cal Fire said 800 acres have burned so far. A LiveCopter3 flew over the fire and a KCRA 3 cameraman was on the scene gathering more information.
Residents in an area where a large vegetation fire was burning in Sacramento were evacuated Sunday, authorities said.
(Video player above: A look at the damage caused by the Excelsior Fire on Sunday afternoon)
The Sacramento Fire Department said evacuations were in effect from Excelsior Boulevard to Sunrise Boulevard along Jackson Street because of the fire. The orders were lifted around 4 p.m., the sheriff’s office said.
Jackson Road is closed in the area.
Cal Fire said 800 acres have burned so far.
LiveCopter3 is flying over the fire and a KCRA 3 cameraman is on scene gathering more information.
