The Shelly Fire, which broke out last week, is the newest wildfire in California, devastating greater than 4,000 acres.
It began on July 3 near Shelly Lake within the Klamath National Forest; the cause is currently under investigation.
The area where evacuations have to be ordered covers nearly 200 square miles. U.S. Forest Service fire officials said Friday that the evacuation orders and warnings affect 4,200 people and that greater than 3,800 homes and 300 industrial buildings are threatened.
The largest community evacuated was Greenview in Scott Valley, 15 miles west of Interstate 5. On Thursday, the order was reduced to a warning for many Greenview residents.
A community meeting in regards to the fire is planned for Friday, July 12, at 7 p.m. at Etna High School and could be attended virtually on the Facebook page. Klamath National Forest or CalFire's Siskiyou Unit.
The map above shows the approximate fire perimeter as a black line and the evacuation zone in red. For current information and details, including warning zone boundaries, see the Genasys Protect emergency card (formerly Zonehaven).
So far this season, seven wildfires in California have burned greater than 10,000 acres of land. The largest of those is Lake, which began in Santa Barbara County on July 5. As of Friday, July 12, 36,707 acres of land had already burned and the fires were 16% contained.
At this time last yr, there had been no wildfires in California larger than 1,600 acres. The 2023 season ended with a below-average 324,917 acres burned. About 75% of that was attributed to a few fires: Smith River Complex (95,107 acres) and SRF Lightning Complex (50,198) within the northwest of the state, and York (93,078) in San Bernardino County.
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