Photo: View from Springville, looking northeast. 10/10/17, 7am. 

The Lion fire has grown an additional 750 acres and is now 11,700 acres. The fire continues to actively back down towards the Little Kern, 32E02, and 33E14 trails in the Golden Trout Wilderness. Keeping the fire from the North system trails 32E02 and the Needles Rock outcrop to protect the community of Ponderosa, and South of the Sequoia National Park boundary. Crews continue prepping and strengthening the southern control lines and began prep work on the summit trail yesterday near Jacobson Meadow.

The current suppression strategy remains to keep the fire in a planned area, using natural barriers and existing trails, keeping new control line construction to a minimum. “This strategy combined with defensive firing allows for the mitigation of known and anticipated hazards, reducing fuels ahead of the fire providing our firefighters the highest probability of success,” stated Jack Medina Lion fire Incident Commander.

As the fire gets closer to the control lines on the south and east flanks of the Lion fire crews are monitoring for any potential threat and are ready to take defensive action if necessary. Fire crews have implemented structure defense operations by constructing fireline before the wildfire burns around structures at Grey Meadow and Trout Meadow.

The fire continues to burn actively, driven by wind, standing dead trees, and scattered debris from previous wildfires. Forest managers have closed several trails to keep hikers from walking into the fire area. Information and a map of the closure area

Smoke Impacts:

East transport winds today should clear out smoke from Eastern Kern County, but will bring smoke into San Joaquin Valley and Western Sierra mountain communities. Diurnal winds will continue to bring smoke into Kernville and the surrounding communities in Lake Isabella in the evening and morning. Dispersion conditions will remain good today into the region becoming fair tomorrow. You can learn more about air quality, and daily smoke forecasts are available visiting either http://www.airnow.gov or http://www.valleyair.org. Lion Fire visit https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5626/