California Wildfire Roundup: Blaze Burns Close to Weaverville

Cal Fire crews are hurrying to throw containment lines around a fire burning on the outskirts of the town of Weaverville, in Trinity County northwest of Redding.

The Oregon Fire broke out Sunday afternoon after a boat trailer became unhitched on Highway 299 just west of town. The trailer threw sparks into roadside brush before it crashed on the edge of the road, igniting a brush fire that quickly burned across about 650 acres.

Trinity County sheriff's officials ordered the evacuation of about 200 homes on the edge of Weaverville, a Gold Rush-era town with about 3,600 residents. Those evacuation orders were lifted Monday as the blaze burned away from the settlement and a force of more than 800 firefighters made progress building control lines.

The fire was reported 25 percent contained at midday Monday.

Farther north, firefighters are still contending with two major blazes that have been spreading in the Klamath National Forest for weeks.

The 35,385-acre Whites Fire is 49 percent contained with evacuation orders still in place in several communities. The Whites Fire is part of a group of lightning-sparked fires that started about 40 miles west of Mount Shasta on July 31.

A second group of lightning-caused fires, the Happy Camp Complex, has grown to more than 22,000 acres since igniting on Aug. 11. The biggest of the blazes is the Frying Pan Fire, burning south of the Klamath River about 45 miles east of Crescent City. The Frying Pan blaze, which has consumed nearly 20,000 acres, is 10 percent contained. Another fire in the complex, the Faulkstein, has burned 1,900 acres with no containment.