Vegetation fire burns along Stanislaus River in popular rafting area near Oakdale
As rafters were trying to beat the heat Saturday afternoon, a vegetation fire burning on both sides of the Stanislaus River east of Oakdale added to it.
Cal Fire, Modesto, Oakdale and Stanislaus Consolidated crews were dispatched to the fire about 1:15 p.m. It was burning along the river in the area of Orange Blossom Road and Stone and Olive avenues. That’s about a mile east of the Orange Blossom Recreation Area.
The fire had a moderate rate of spread, according to a Modesto Fire Department battalion chief’s incident brief, and was contained to 25 acres. No structures were involved and there were no reports of injury.
Modesto Fire referred requests for additional information to Cal Fire, but the on-duty public information officer Sunday morning had no details immediately available.
Scanner communications Saturday said the fire started on one side of the Stanislaus and at some point jumped to the other. There was a request from fire officials to stop rafters from going through the area burning.
Sunshine Rafting Adventures owner Shiloh Foust said his company and others were advised to “temporarily hold customers away from a certain section of river” while the fire was active.
He did so but does not know whether nonprofessionals out rafting on their own were stopped by authorities.
Fire crews got the blaze under control “pretty quickly,” Foust said, so the delay to rafters was brief. There was no risk to anyone rafting with his company, he said. “We have firefighters on our staff, so we’re pretty dialed in” to how the situation was progressing.
A stretch of perhaps 150 yards along the river burned, said Foust, who’s since been through the damaged area. Rafters will pass through it in not time — “it’s less than half a percent of the trip,” he said.
The fire was attacked from the ground and air. An aerial photo-illustration included in the Modesto Fire incident brief shows the burn area was held at Orange Blossom Road to the north. On the south, it jumped Highway 108-120, but just a small area burned past that point.
This story was originally published June 12, 2022 at 8:39 AM.
