Earlier today, the US Forest Service announced that the China 2 Fire and Evans Fire have merged into a combined 300-350 acre incident. Expanded evacuations to the northwest of the fire have been added.
A Level 2 evacuation notice is now in place for the westside of the town of Yreka. Highway 96 remains closed in the area as well.
As of 11:30 AM the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office is upgrading the following zones to a mandatory evacuation order: McAdams Creek Road to Tyler Gulch Road. This is Zone SIS-2004 & SIS-2007, south of current Evacuation Orders, towards Highway 3. Officials say if you are in an affected zone, leave now!
Air support out of the two Medford Airport (MFR) tanker bases has been ongoing today. A combination of one Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT), one Large Air Tanker (LAT), and several smaller tankers are working the fires to try and suppress its movement towards more inhabited areas.
At this time, officials have confirmed that the McKinney Fire is at least 18,000 acres in size with 0% containment.
This is a developing incident. Medford Alert will continue to monitor and update as new information becomes available.
NOTE: A previous version incorrectly stated that the eastside of Yreka was under a Level 2 evacuation. Currently, only areas of the westside have evacuation orders.
