Community raises concerns suggesting Lava Fire was not attacked aggressively

SISKIYOU COUNTY, Calif. — Siskiyou County and U.S. Forest Service officials gathered Monday night for a community meeting to give everyone updates on progress being made against the Lava Fire.

During the meeting, which was live-streamed on Facebook, there were many people voicing their concerns about how the fire was initially attacked.

Many people in the live-stream video asked officials why there wasn't a more aggressive attack.

Some people said they believe the fire wasn't properly managed, leading the fire to grow and spread at a very fast rate.

Fire Management Officer for the Shasta Trinity National Forest, Todd Mack, said they responded the first night and eventually said it was contained after making a line around the fire. Officials explained they also dumped more than 7,000 gallons of water and heat was not detected.

However, Mack said the smoke came back and re-sparked the fire.

It happens sometimes, it's not the intended outcome; it's not what we want. We're all disappointed that this happened, but it happened," Mack said. "We are working our tails off to get this fire... I can absolutely promise you that.

He explained this is unfortunate but does happen sometimes when battling fires.

I apologize for that getting out. I do. And I'll take the heat for that," he said. "I'm the Fire Management Officer for the Shasta Trinity National Forest and I will own that and we will continue to aggressively attack fires and to help prevent that from happening again.

Shasta Trinity National Forest PIO Adrienne Freeman said they did attack the fire from the beginning very aggressively. She said there was no heat detected, but winds caused it to flare up.

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