DOWNIEVILLE - Early on Tuesday afternoon a structure fire near the Rices Crossing of the South Yuba River escaped into the wildland and began moving uphill into the forest. Attacks against the blaze by air tankers and a Type 1 helicopter (the largest, fastest flying and most expensive helicopter used to fight forest fires) began minutes later in an attempt to quelch multiple spot fires seen erupting on the hillside above the structure.

Less than an hour after the fire was first reported, with the fire growing quickly and affecting 50-60 acres, fire crews and water tenders began arriving at the scene and a Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT) capable of delivering 8,000 gallons of fire retardant was requested by the Incident Commander.

With hotshot crews from both the Tahoe and Plumas National forests also on the way to the scene, a little more than an hour after the fire was first reported, evacuation orders were issued for several locations in the area north of Pleasant Valley Road from Bridgeport and east on Birchville Road up to the Yuba County line. Moreover, the CHP began shutting down roads leading into the area affected by the flames and people were advised to not make attempts to "go have a look."

Within two hours of the fire's entrance into wildland, the Nevada County Fairgrounds were being opened for animals and livestock and a Temporary Evacuation Point was opened at the Madelyn Helling Library in Nevada City.

During the third hour of the fire, with high temperatures (99F), low humidity (7%), and winds out of the southwest at 6 mph and gusts up to 13 mph, multiple spot fires were reported to be hampering containment efforts; the main fire had been mapped at 256 acres. Also during this period, PG&E de-energized transmission lines for firefighter safety and nearly 2,800 customers in North San Juan, Alleghany, Pike City, Camptonville, Goodyears Bar, Downieville, Sierra City, and Green Acres lost power.

By 5:30 PM, the fire was mapping out at 398 acres and the flames had moved from brush and hardwood slash into heavily timbered areas.

Less than an hour later the size of blaze was estimated to have affected 520 acres, with multiple structures threatened and the fire continuing to move in a northeasterly direction.

Overnight, with bulldozers and fire crews continuing to create firebreaks, lower temperatures and increased humidity slowed the rate ofgrowth for the conflaguration.

On Wednesday, the number of firefighters on the scene doubled and the main focus of their efforts was to keep the fire from spotting across the canyon and to reinforce defenses in place along the eastern and northern flanks of the fire.

Over the course of yesterday morning, aircraft over the fire took advantage of good visibility while ground crews continued to build depth along containment lines with a major goal being to get lines to the bottom of the very steep canyon of the Yuba River.

By early afternoon power was restored to home in Nevada County and local, back-up generators had brought power supplies back to almost all customers in Yuba and Sierra counties.

Also during Wednesday afternoon, with lower temperatures than on Tuesday and more firefighting resources on the ground, the behaviour of the fire moderated and grew by only 20 acres between 1:00 and 4:00 PM.

At the close of the day the fire has consumed 904 acres of brush and woodland, destroyed four structures and was 10% contained.