Zogg Fire update: No containment and 3 deaths as dry weather persists in Shasta County

The Zogg Fire, fueled by strong winds through a rural area of Shasta County, grew by 50% overnight and remained uncontained, Cal Fire said Tuesday.

The fire, already blamed in three deaths, was at 50,102 acres with zero containment, Cal Fire said Tuesday night. The night before, the fire was at 31,000 acres.

The agency did report some encouraging news: Winds were tailing off, offering hope that Cal Fire could begin to gain containment.

“The weather’s given us a break,” incident commander Sean Kavanaugh said at a late morning briefing Tuesday. “We’re starting to get a foothold.”

But dry and hot weather continued to challenge firefighters Tuesday with temperatures climbing into the 90s, Cal Fire said. Nearly 1,000 firefighters were assigned to battle the wildfire.

“Firefighters continue to work aggressively in steep and rugged terrain while working towards obtaining containment lines on the fire perimeter,” according to a Tuesday night update from Cal Fire.

Already 146 buildings have been destroyed and another 1,538 are threatened, the agency said. At a late Monday news briefing, Cal Fire officials said the fire was moving south through heavy grasslands in an area that burned in the 2018 Carr Fire.

With zero containment, “every area of this fire is a concern,” Cal Fire spokeswoman Toni Davis said early Tuesday.

She said firefighters were gearing up for a difficult day, with low humidity. In addition, the wind, which had been blowing out of the northwest, was expected to shift at some point Tuesday and come out of the southeast.

“Our fields are going to be drier and more receptive to fire,” she said. The fire was expected to continue growing.

More than 1,200 residents were evacuated, and it was possible the evacuations would expand, said Shasta County Sheriff Eric Magrini on Monday.

He announced the three fatalities Monday afternoon, but as of Tuesday morning no details were available.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation.

This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 8:39 AM with the headline "Zogg Fire update: No containment and 3 deaths as dry weather persists in Shasta County."