By Andrea Calcagno
 
September 2, 2009
 
YREKA, Ca. - A fire that started Wednesday afternoon in the Black Mountain area between Montague and Hornbrook has scorched 103 acres so far.
 
As of Wednesday night the Black Fire in Siskiyou County was 51 percent contained. Officials say it broke out at about 2 p.m. and spread to 25 acres in two hours. It quickly moved towards several homes in the area and forced firefighters to close three nearby roads. The flames came within about 400 yards of structures before crews were able make a line around the fire.
 
A red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service for Siskiyou County and the Klamath Basin Wednesday afternoon made battling the fire a challenge. The warning meant crews faced low humidity and high winds as they attempted to keep flames away from homes.
 
"There were several structures to the east of here, anywhere from 25 to 30 homes, but we were able to steer the fire away from there and keep it in the wild land. And we were able to pitch it off with an aggressive attack with engines and dozers and aircrafts," CalFire Battalion Chief Ron Bravo said... "The cooler weather helped, although it did bring the strong gusts of winds. The winds came in from the south, which is typical of low pressure systems this time of year. And so it brought a lot of strong winds and gave us some challenges at first," Bravo said.
 
Crews had began mop up operations on the fire Wednesday night that will continue into Thursday. They will continue to monitor its progress in case of more high winds.
 
Many of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's efforts are currently focused in Southern California. On Wednesday morning Siskiyou County dispatched a strike crew to Los Angeles.
 
"We continue to send not only the engines and the crews down, but we also send what's called overhead, which is individuals that function in different command rolls," Bravo said.
 
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.