An arm of the Dixie Fire is nearing Highway 395, and evacuations were reinstated at Honey Lake.
On its eastern side, the fire has made an 18-mile run since Tuesday, from Lake Davis to within two miles of the highway near Herlong Junction. Evacuation orders include Milford, whose residents were also ordered to leave two weeks ago when a large spot fire jumped Highway 395 north of the town.
As of Friday morning, the highway remained open.
The arm of the fire is about six miles from the scar of the Beckwourth Complex fires (purple outline on the map), which burned more than 100,000 acres near Frenchman Lake in July.
The report Friday morning from the Forest Service fire managers put Dixie at 868,781 acres (1,357 square miles), an increase of 9,325 acres in 24 hours. Containment was 55%.
On the fire’s western side, evacuation orders are gradually being lifted. Most of the Lake Almanor area has been repopulated, as have the Feather River Canyon and the Bucks Lake area.
The approximate evacuation area is shown in orange on the map above. For updates and more detail, including warning areas, see the official map embedded below.
Dixie, California’s second-largest wildfire on record, was reported on July 13 along Highway 70 just north of the scar of the 2018 Camp Fire. Its cause is under investigation.