The fire, which has killed at least four people, broke out on July 29 in the Klamath National Forest near the Oregon border. It is the largest wildfire in California so far this year. Meanwhile, severe thunderstorms and heavy rains that have moved through the region this week prompted a flash flood warning for the Klamath River from the National Weather Service on Tuesday. Officials warned that areas that had been burned by the wildfire were at greater risk of flooding and mudslides because of the lack of vegetation that would otherwise have been there to help absorb the water According to the US Geological Survey, “highly destructive and fast-moving debris flows” caused by heavy rainfall are “one of the most dangerous post-fire hazards.” debris flows’ after flash floods in fire-affected areas are the cause of the dead fish.
“We know that the dissolved oxygen in the river plummeted two nights in a row when these mud pulses hit the main stem of the river, so it’s very clear to us that we had a high-intensity fire and then we had a flood sudden. came behind the fire and just threw ash, debris and mud into the river,” Tucker told CNN on Saturday.
“Pretty much everything in the river died,” he said, adding that they don’t yet know how many miles of the river the dead fish extend, as the area is still largely restricted by the fire.
“We’re trying to work with the incident command for these wildfires to do a real assessment,” Tucker said. “We see there are thousands of fish floating downstream, but we’re really struggling to figure out how bad it is.”
Dead fish have been seen up to 20 miles from the source of the debris flow, according to the tribe’s news release.
“The severity of the event is impossible to characterize until biologists can make direct observations in the currently restricted areas,” the statement said, adding that it is unknown how this might affect the fall migration of Chinook salmon, which have just it begins has been burning in Siskiyou County for more than a week, has burned more than 60,000 acres of land and was 30 percent contained by Saturday morning as hot, dry and windy conditions continued, according to the Department of California Forestry and Fire Protection.
His cause is under investigation, officials said.