Updated: 4:53 p.m. July 17
First discovered: 1 week ago, 12:48 p.m. July 10
Initial location: Los Angeles County, Calif.
Fire type: Wildfire, Type 4
Fire name: Summit
Summit Fire initially started 12:48 p.m. July 10 in Los Angeles County, 7 miles west from Pinon Hills.
It has burned 2,690 acres of private land after being active for a week. 95% of the fire was brought under containment by a crew of 139 firefighters by Friday afternoon. The cause remains undetermined. Fire management expenses have accumulated to $12,700,000, with an estimated final cost of $15,000,000 for combating the wildfire.
NIFC Fire Complexity Analysis
This wildfire is considered to be a Type 4 incident. What it means:
• Command staff and general staff functions are not activated.
• Resources are local and vary from a single module to several resources.
• The incident is usually limited to one operational period in the control phase.
• No written incident action plan (IAP) is required. However, a documented operational briefing will be completed for all incoming resources.
Fire containment
Understanding what 95% containment means
The percentage indicates how much of the fire perimeter has been surrounded by a control line. In this case, it means that 95% of the wildfire is halted from spreading, while 5% is still uncontrolled.
Containment is part of a larger plan for managing a wildfire. It is normally expressed as a percentage and it refers to how much of the fire perimeter has been surrounded/enclosed by a control line that firefighters create. The containment percentage indicates a certain level of control, but it doesn’t always correlate to safety level. Also, it’s important to note that containment doesn’t mean a fire is out.
How is containment measured?
The incident’s central command constantly receives progress reports from firefighters on the ground. As the fireline is constructed, inspected or reinforced, mappers record those details to adjust the containment percentage. The percentage tells the public how much of the fire perimeter is believed to not go beyond the control lines.
Source: National Interagency Fire Center