Updated: 9:19 a.m. Aug. 13

First discovered: 8 days ago, 7:51 a.m. Aug. 5

Initial location: Kern County, Calif.

Fire type: Wildfire, Type 4

Fire name: Buzzard

Buzzard Fire initially started at 7:51 a.m. Aug. 5 in Kern County, 6 miles Nw from Lebec.

Since its discovery eight days ago, it has burned 902 acres of private land. A fire crew of 55 managed to contain the blaze entirely by Thursday morning. Although human activity is believed to be responsible for the fire, there is no information available on the precise event that caused it.

This fire is primarily fueled by tall 2.5-foot grass.

Historic data

NIFC statistics for 2024 show that 8,011 fires in California were caused by humans, resulting in 990,939 acres of wildland burned.

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

What does 100% containment mean?

Note that full containment doesn’t mean the fire is completely out. In this case, it means that the wildfire has been fully enclosed by a control line and it is now stopped from spreading. A fully contained wildfire may continue to burn within the containment perimeter but is not likely to spread.

However, there’s a significant difference between containing and controlling a wildfire. After the fire is fully contained, the next step is to control it. Controlling a fire means ensuring that the fire can’t spread or cross the containment line.

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