The 1999 Jones Fire was a destructive

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

in the U.S. state of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Shasta County Shasta County (), officially the County of Shasta, is a county in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population is 182,155 as of the 2020 census, up from 177,223 from the 2010 census. The county seat is Redding. Shasta ...

. The fire ignited on October 16, and was contained on October 19, 1999. It burned 26,200 acres, destroyed 954 structures, and resulted in one fatality, becoming the then-2nd most destructive wildfire ever recorded in California, behind only the

Oakland firestorm of 1991 : The Oakland firestorm of 1991 was a large suburban wildland–urban interface conflagration that occurred on the hillsides of northern Oakland, California, and southeastern Berkeley over the weekend of October 19–20, 1991, before being br ...

. Though it has since fallen in the ranks, as of 2023 it remains one of the 20 most destructive wildfires in the history of the state. The cause of the fire was never determined.

Contributing factors

The Northern California Geographical Coordination Center identifies the weather pattern that fueled the Jones Fire as a typical critical fire weather setup in Northern California, noting that "Post-frontal conditions occur when

high pressure In science and engineering the study of high pressure examines its effects on materials and the design and construction of devices, such as a diamond anvil cell, which can create high pressure. By ''high pressure'' is usually meant pressures of th ...

following the passage of a

cold front A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface trough of low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropical cyclone (to the west in the Norther ...

causes strong winds from the north and northeast."

Fire progression

The fire began well before dawn on October 16 at a campsite on Clikapudi Trail between Bear Mountain and Backbone Ridge, east of Jones Valley, close to

Shasta Lake Shasta Lake, also popularly known as Lake Shasta, is a reservoir in Shasta County, California, United States. It began to store water in 1944 due to the impounding of the Sacramento River by Shasta Dam, the ninth tallest dam in the United State ...

. Investigators said it was human-caused (as opposed to caused by lightning or other natural phenomena), and appeared to be accidental. A campfire was ruled out, and alcohol bottles, bullet shells, and cigarette butts were all found at the site. The Shasta-Trinity Ranger Unit Emergency Command Center received the first report about a vegetation fire in the Jones Valley Resort area at approximately 3:49 a.m.By 4:17 am, a half-hour later, the fire had already burned an area of more than 150 acres, and was spreading rapidly to the south with multiple

spot fire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

s ahead of the main fire front. At this point the command center was already placing mutual aid requests for firefighters locally and regionally to respond and help protect structures in the fire's path. The fire, driven by hot, dry, winds of 25 miles per hour, burned south in a swath 3 miles wide and 20 miles long. The fire was estimated to be 50% contained by the evening of October 17, and by October 19 it was 100% contained.

Impacts

Damage

The Jones fire destroyed 954 structures, of which at least 128 were homes and the remainder either commercial structures or outbuildings. A further 37 structures were damaged. The fire damaged electrical infrastructure in the area, leaving many without power until October 19 and necessitating the replacement of 160 power poles.

Casualties

The fire led to one fatality when a volunteer firefighter from Junction City was struck by a firetruck along Highway 299 while responding to the incident on October 16. Then-

Governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, the g ...

Gray Davis Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. (born December 26, 1942) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the 37th governor of California from 1999 to 2003. In 2003, only a few months into his second term, Davis was recalled and remov ...

offered a statement of condolences. A Cal Fire investigation found that the command structure and communication issues were contributing factors in the incident. There were at least five injuries; four belonged to firefighters and one to a Bella Vista woman who was injured while helping her family evacuate, suffering 3rd degree burns.

References

{{California wildfires Wildfires in Shasta County, California October 1999 events in the United States 1990s wildfires in the United States 1999 in California