The evacuation zone was reduced Wednesday for the Gold Complex wildfires, in Plumas County’s resort area.
At 4 p.m., the sheriff’s office said that the order was downgraded to a warning for the area north of Highway 70. The mandatory evacuation zone now covers 62 square miles, including the part of the city of Portola south of the Feather River.
Also Wednesday, a planned electrical outage was rolled back. Liberty Utilities had announced that its provider, NV Energy, would turn off power to Portola customers at 1 p.m. because of the fire, but it later said that decision had been reversed.
The Gold Complex was originally four fires — Smith and three called Mill — that were started by dry lightning strikes around 2:45 p.m. Monday.
The Mill fires merged on Tuesday, and by Wednesday afternoon they had burned about 2,960 acres (4.6 square miles), fire managers for Plumas National Forest said. Smith was holding at about 50 acres.
The map above shows the approximate perimeter of the largest fire as a black line and the evacuation area in red.
The area along the Feather River’s middle fork 40 miles northwest of Truckee is a recreation destination known for its golf resorts. Nakoma is in the evacuation zone; Grizzly Ranch and Whitehawk Ranch are under a warning.
A shelter was set up at Quincy High School, and animals can be taken to the county fairground, near Quincy, the sheriff’s department said.
Highway 89 between Calpine and Valley Ranch reopened around noon Tuesday.
For updates and details of evacuations, including warning areas, see the Plumas County sheriff’s Facebook page or the Genasys Protect map.
A public online meeting about the fire is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday, July 25, at Plumas National Forest’s Facebook page.
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