Knight Fire Grows To Over 1,300 Acres

Sonora, CA — The four day old Knight Fire on the middle fork of the Stanislaus River Canyon has now exceeded 1,300 acres.

According to Stanislaus National Forest Public Affairs Officer Pat Kaunert the fire has now burned 1,332 acres since its Sunday afternoon ignition.

The top priority remains the protection of the few residences and cabins in the Mt. Knight subdivision. The second priority is locating acceptable anchor points where hand crews can build hand lines from Knight Ridge all the way down the canyon wall to the bottom of the canyon.

Committed resources include 658 personnel, 22 Type One hand crews, three Type Two hand crews, nine helicopters, six air tankers (two from Columbia, four from Stockton), 27 engines, 11 water tenders, seven dozers and 93 support personnel.

The Knight Fire is burning in inaccessible terrain and currently there is no estimated time of containment or percentage of containment.

Weather condition forecast remains hot and dry over the next few days possibly creating extreme fire behavior, multiple spot fires and torching with no relief during the evenings as the fire continues to burn actively throughout the night.

The Knight Fire is now under the Incident Command of Allen Johnson and the South Central Sierra Interagency Incident Management Team. The Incident Base is located in Hess Meadow.

Agencies on site include the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, Kern County, CAL Fire, Tuolumne County emergency personnel, Tuolumne County Fire, Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office and the Tuolumne County Office of Emergency Services.

Cost of fighting the Knight Fire is currently $929,000.   

For a location map click Knight Fire.