At least separate 2 fires, one on each of the Colby Mtn cameras. The fire on Colby Mtn #2 is reported as the Humboldt fire on WD.
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Gonna burn up whatâs left after Dixie and Park?
FYI, Watch Duty is showing a fire in Butte Meadows, but is sounds like the fires are actually north of there toward Humboldt Summit and Cub Creek.
Two fires are visible on the Colby Mtn camera. One is in Cub Creek, east of Deer Creek Falls - likely in roadless area with no easy ground access. The other is on the ridge to the NW of Humboldt Summit. 9:45pm, 8/25/2025
Red lines are webcam azimuths from Colby Mtn.
UPDATE: NIFC is showing the Deer Creek Falls-area fire as the L-2 Fire. The Humboldt Fire, on this map, is my guesstimate.
L-2 is in the 2008 Cub Fire burn, in an area with a lot of snags from that fire. This whole part of Deer Creek Canyon has a lot of standing dead Douglas Fir from bark beetles.
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Fire always finds a way to close the gaps on previous burns!
#funnyhowthatworks!
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Potentially both these fires will be in the 2008 Cub Fire footprint. Once you get north of rattlesnake Creek, that whole side of Deer Creek is roadless, and wild AF.
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At Colby Mtn. RAWS, the RH is around 84%, with sustained winds at 10 mph and gusts at 27, from ENE.
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There is still a lot of standing dead from previous fires, too. Here are a few pictures of the terrain taken from Deer Creek Falls area just a couple of weeks ago.
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L-2 lat long should be 40 11.773 -121 30.548 from report this morning. It is burning in heavy down from the Cub Complex @pyrogeography
L-3 is half mile away, further up Cub Creek up near the top. IC to AA on A/G this morning when AA didnât know which was which due to proximity, âIâve been calling the fire with the heaviest smoke the L-3â
heavy rumor L-3 is being referenced as Humboldt fire on the BTU response. Still shaking that truth out.
Chester SEATS just dropped on L-3 I believe, and Chester rotor on L-2 now.
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My Northern Sacramento Valley Fire feed is hustling all the area IA at the moment.
TGU and SHU local on priority 1
SHF will have Peak fire (200 acres)
LNF Fire has the L-2 and L-3 with A/G 43 and AT44 assigned
Iâll focus the feed more on LNF if things get crazy later in the day.
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LNF L-3 was the same as BTU-Humboldt from last night.
L-3 getting boxed in heavy with retardant, good S-2 and LAT action, dropping and being released back to base by AA. Air Tactics 44
UPDATE 11:00
L-2 still just helitack crew on ground and KMax working it.
L-3 1.1 acres, completely boxed in by retardant and holding within, making good progress. Doesnât expect it to do much more unless TStorm outflows
L-4 3 rappellers inserted
UPDATE 1520
L-6 new start from IR Detection. Sec 11, T26N R4E, fire at bottom of the Colby Creek drainage. Colby Lookout not seeing any smoke on that hit.
Earlier heard traffic that L-5 âfire is outâ but no intel heard on L-4 and 5 coordinates. Itâs all in that small area North and East of Colby Mtn.
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LNU filling Type 3 STE order now.
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1700 Update
L-2 spotted over the line. Helitack crew requesting extraction, closest ship is C514 fueling in Alturas.
kmax just left L-2 clearing the airspace to launch 2 SEATS off Chester with no ASM in place.
NOPS offered it all to L-2, theyâll be getting an AA off Grass Valley, LAT off Chico, 2 LATâs off MCC, and a Lead off Redding. VLAT was offered but it wonât fit in that tight spot.
1730 Update:
My feed just switched to focus on LNF and the L-2. LNF Fire on pri1, AG43 pri2, AT44 pri3
rotor 8EC will work on firefighter extraction, 3 LATs enroute no divert for life safety.
1800 Update:
Copter 8EC extracting 11 helitack crew off the L-2 in two trips, inbound to Chester with first load. No Divert still in place for two LATS T169 T133 on scene. IC wants this thing boxed in as much as possible tonight before he can get two shot crews in tomorrow. âIf this thing gets going the whole drainage will go.â
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1845 Update:
L-2 is about 5 acres, made it up to the top. Fire still holding inside their retardant operation. Dropping mud till pumpkin.
8EC was enroute to Chester with second load of crew shuttle. One more load for last part of crew and gear. Then fire will be unstaffed until they can reassess tomorrow with some Shot crews ready to possibly get shuttled in.
Nearby L-3 and other fires bedding down as close as they can to get an early start for tomorrow morning.
L-4 fire holding inside containment lines.
Likely last update for the evening.
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Solid copy, Thank u!
The LNF, those troops & fires are all close to my heart. Appreciate the intel youâve providedâŚ
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L-2 feels like one of those fires that is not going to be contained. Mud is holding it for now, but that is one hard-to-operate-in, snag-filled, squirrely-winded piece of ground. And other fires are gobbling crews and aircraft, with more assets at risk, closer-by.
That said, itâs sprinkling here in Chico, the Gods may make the call.
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Extended frequencies assigned to the LNF
L-2 (which covers the âmini-complexâ of L1-5 in the Colby Mtn area)
Air Tactics FM 165.575
Air Ground Cmd 173.025
Air Ground Tac 168.0625
Rotor Vic 133.725
Hat Creek LCA (H-10 Fire)
Air Tactics FM 171.8625
Air Ground 163.825
Rotor Vic 125.475
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Per AA 06, both the L-3 and L-4 are looking real good and they should pick them up today if all goes their way. The rappellers staffing the L-4 agree. Priority will be the L-2 today, and helicopter crew shuttles should start getting boots back on the L-2 starting around 0900.
For reference on the L-2, last nightâs LZ for the crew extraction by copter 8EC was N40 11.4858 W121 30.3354. Not sure which side of that spur the fire is on, but itâs down in an area that isnât VLAT friendly, and any hike-in from a road was described as a long day and not feasible.
0915 Update:
L-2 held in the retardant lines overnight, 5-10 acres, getting bucket drops on it now.
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L-2 sounds similar to the initial attack stories of the South Canyon Fire.
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I got up to Deer Creek today to check out the L-2 Fire, which is burning in super-gnarly ground above Deer Creek Falls.
There were 2 Hotshot crews working the fire, or at least a couple squads from each, and 2 heavy helicopters. They were mainly working on trying to extinguish burning snags and some rollout/spots. The fire did not grow during the time we were there. The other 2 fires in the Humboldt Summit area appear to also be fairly well-wrapped.
Tough access! Not sure if the crews hiked in from the bottom = all of the buggies were parked on Hwy 32 at Deer Creek Falls.
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A cal fire copter flew the 2 hot shot crews in this morning around 7:30.
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Its duty & service like this that make normal humans run as far away as possible from it!
#wildlanders #1stResponders #notunskilledlaborers!
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