At about 9:00 pm on October 16, a fire broke out in the wilderness just southwest, about 1 mile, from Jackson Lake and northwest of Jackson Flat Campground. The terrain, where the Blue Fire is burning is rugged and crews were having trouble accessing the fire. A night-flying chopper was requested and began dropping water for most of the night, eventually being replaced with another chopper. Crews were able to make their way to the fire and began a direct attack. Crews also reported seeing additional fires that were “beginning to glow” next to the main fire and they could see somebody in the area “possibly starting the fires.” Law enforcement was requested as firefighters continued to fight the fire and try to locate the individual spotted near the fire. It is unconfirmed if this individual was starting fires, it could have been a hiker or hunter in the area according to radio traffic.

As of 7:45 am this morning (10/17/2020), Angeles National Forest reported that the fire had burned about 5 acres and crews had hose lay around about 3/4 of the fire and it was about 35% contained. Choppers continued to work the fire but were called off to a Castle Fire after reporting that the “fire is looking good with no spots over the line and just a little roll out of some materials.” Roll out is when burning material from within the boundaries of the fire breaks loose and rolls downhill past a fire line and could ignite another fire. A Forest Service plane that was making a routine survey flight over the Bobcat Fire, as well as the El Dorado Fire, spotted the Blue Fire as it was making passes around the area of Pinyon Ridge and Paradise Springs within the Bobcat fire scar area.

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