LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Smoke from a large wildland fire in neighboring Colusa County has led to the issuance of an air quality alert for Lake County residents.

Smoke from the Mill Fire – burning since Saturday in the Mendocino National Forest – has poured into Lake County’s air basin, with conditions becoming especially hazy on Tuesday.

The fire was reported to be 13,000 acres and 20-percent contained on Tuesday, according to Mendocino National Forest officials.

On Tuesday evening Lake County Air Quality Management District issued an alert cautioning residents of unhealthy air conditions.

Values have exceeded state health-based particulate standards for small respirable particulate and ozone (photochemical smog), according to Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart.

He said that based on expected wind conditions and levels of particulate and ozone presently in the air, it’s predicted that Wednesday’s conditions will range from “unhealthy for sensitive individuals” to “unhealthy for everyone.”

Greatest concern exists from mid-morning through early evening, with conditions expected to improve as the afternoon west wind start to clear out the smoke, Gearhart reported.

The “unhealthy” alert results from smoke transported by winds and ozone generated with the smoke, high temperatures, significant sunlight and humidity, according to the report.

The smoke and sunlight cause chemical reactions in the air that further reduces visibility by forming secondary particles in addition to those already in the smoke. Gearhart reported that the particles draw the moisture out of the air, growing in number and size, making the haze even worse.

Residual haze and particulate from the region’s many ongoing wildfires can be expected to continue throughout Lake County until the fires are out, he said.

Gearhart said the morning inversion layer minimized impacts on the basin floor.

Earlier in the afternoon, he reported that the one-hour average measurement in Lakeport was greater than 90 percent of allowed state health-based particulate standards, designed to protect sensitive groups of the population, for small respirable particulate and the ultrafine, inhalable particulate.

Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Tait advised area residents to be cautious in resuming normal outdoor activities.

“Variable weather conditions and ongoing fire activity may result in localized areas of reduced air quality, which could still pose health risks to people with underlying health conditions,” she said. “Since we can’t always predict when and where ‘pockets’ of poorer air quality may occur, it is prudent to be careful until conditions stabilize.”

Smoky conditions can cause irritation of the eyes, nose and air passages, which can be hazardous for sensitive individual including young children, the elderly, individuals with heart conditions or chronic lung disease such as asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory conditions, Gearhart reported. The heat can make the stress worse, especially if exercising hard.

Individuals with asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and other lung or heart diseases should carefully adhere to their medical treatment plans and maintain at least a five-day supply of prescribed medications. They should limit outdoor activity and unnecessary physical exertion, county health officials reported.

Air conditioning that recirculates indoor air should be used, when available. Drinking plenty of water to avoid drying of the airways is recommended, unless restricted for medical reasons.

Dust masks are not protective against the most harmful pollutants caused by wildfire smoke that drifts to nearby areas. They are useful in filtering out the ash and larger particles that are encountered in burn areas and should be considered when recovering property or cleaning areas that have burned, health officials reported.

Air purifying respirators, such as N-95 filtering face pieces, may be effective in reducing harmful particulate matter, but also increase the work of breathing, can lead to physiologic stress, and are not recommended as a general protective measure.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – The largest wildland fire in California continued to grow on Monday, burning through brush and timber in a remote area of the Mendocino National Forest.

The Mill Fire has been burning since Saturday afternoon in steep terrain to the north and east of Upper Letts Lake in the Colusa County side of the forest.

On Monday morning the fire’s acreage was put at 2,500 acres; by nightfall the acreage had jumped to 10,000 acres, with 10 percent containment, according to a report from the Mendocino National Forest.

The acreage increase was reported to have occurred over Sunday and Monday, with an accurate size estimate via aircraft not possible until Monday, forest officials reported.

The cost to fight the fire was estimated at $1 million, according to a forest report.

On Monday forest officials said firefighters were able to slow fire growth on the north and east flanks near Fouts Springs, however the fire grew on its southern flank.

There has been active torching and spotting ahead of the main fire, with afternoon winds that firefighting officials said are unique to the area driving fire growth.

Northern California Team 2 (NorCal2), a Type 2 Interagency Incident Management Team is in command of the fire, based at Stonyford.

Resources on scene included 10 Type 1 crews, four Type 2 crews, seven helicopters, 59 engines, 19 dozers, two water tenders and 700 personnel, according to the Monday night update.

The fire – which has sent up a column of smoke that has dominated the hilltops separating Lake County from Colusa – has led to evacuations at the Mill Valley, Mill Creek and Letts Lake campgrounds, the Board Camp summer home tract, Fouts Springs and Bonnie View.

Under voluntary evacuation are portions of Stonyford, the Lake View Loop Road to the Goat Mountain Road, with residents west of the Stonyford Lodoga Road between Stonyford and Goat Mountain Road advised they should be prepared for a possible evacuation, the forest reported.

Fouts Spring Road – the M10 Road – is closed at Stonyford, Goat Mountain Road is closed at the Stonyford Lodoga Road. In addition, forest officials said an area closure is in effect for the Mendocino National Forest for all roads, trails, recreational facilities for the Stonyford Recreation Area within the Grindstone Ranger District.

More high temperatures and low humidity – along with erratic and gusty afternoon winds “influenced by coastal marine influences mixing with the dry valley air” – are expected to complicate the firefighting effort this week, officials reported.

The fire’s cause remains under investigation.

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – A fire burning since Saturday on the Colusa County side of the Mendocino National Forest has continued to grow, reaching an estimated 2,500 acres by Monday.

The Mill Fire – burning near the Mill Creek Campground, north and east of Upper Letts Lake – showed significant growth on Sunday, according to a Mendocino National Forest report.

On Monday morning, Northern California Team 2, a Type 2 Interagency Incident Management Team, assumed command of the Mill Fire. The team is based in Stonyford.

The fire was 10 percent contained on Monday, according to the forest officials.

The cause remains under investigation.

Forest officials reported that the fire's growth has been driven by hot, dry conditions, with growth taking place predominately to the east and north. It's burning in timber and brush.

The Mill Fire's behavior has shown active torching, crown runs and spotting up to one half mile in advance of the main fire, according to the report.

With the weather conditions forecast for the rest of this week temperatures between 90 and 95 degrees and low relative humidity between 9 and 16 percent – officials are concerned that firefighters will be met with additional challenges.

On scene Monday were nine Type 1 crews, three Type 2 crews, eight helicopters, 17 engines, four dozers, two water tenders and a total of 360 personnel, according to the incident management team's report.

The communities of Fouts Springs, Bonnie View and Board Camp Springs and campgrounds within the Upper Letts Lake area remain under evacuation order, incident command reported.

Portions of the community of Stonyford are under voluntary evacuation, and officials reported that an advisory has been issued to residents west of the Stonyford Lodoga Road between Stonyford and Goat Mountain Road to be prepared for a possible evacuation

Road closures include Fouts Spring Road (The M10 Road) at Stonyford and Goat Mountain Road at Stonyford Lodoga Road, officials reported.

The incident management team will hold a meeting at the Stonyford Grange at 7 p.m. Monday, at which time the team and Mendocino National Forest officials will provide updates and new information on the incident.

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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Police Department is investigating two kidnapping and assault incidents and a home invasion robbery that occurred at two separate residences early Tuesday morning.

The incidents were reported at residences on 45th Avenue and Tana Street, according to a report from Sgt. Rodd Joseph.

Shortly before 2:30 a.m. Tuesday Clearlake Police officers responded to a report of a possible home invasion robbery, assault and kidnapping which had occurred a short time earlier at a residence located in the 15800 block of 45th Avenue, according to Joseph.

He said the caller was an adult female who claimed to have been kidnapped from the home at gunpoint, assaulted and subsequently released by the suspects.

According to the woman, an adult male companion also had been kidnapped by the suspects from the home and his whereabouts were not known at the time, Joseph said.

Officers viewed evidence at the scene, which Joseph said appeared to corroborate the victim’s statement.  

Evidence at the scene led officers to another residence located in the 15400 block of Tana Street, where they hoped to locate the kidnapped male victim. Joseph said additional evidence at that home appeared to indicate that another possible kidnapping and assault – by the same suspects – had occurred there.

Clearlake Police detectives responded to the scene. Joseph said detectives have worked feverishly throughout the morning and afternoon in an effort to solve the case.

He said police eventually located the male kidnapping victim and another male assault victim at another Clearlake residence.

Joseph said two of the victims sustained injuries requiring medical treatment at local hospitals.

Police aren’t releasing the identities or other identifying information of the three victims at this time.  

The residences on 45th Avenue and Tana Street have been secured pending the issuance of search warrants, Joseph said.

The suspects have been described as four unidentified black male adults wearing ski masks, last seen driving a white four-door vehicle. They had a gun that Joseph described as a silver-colored handgun.

No other suspect description is available, he said.

Officers and detectives are continuing to work the case in hopes of developing leads to the suspects’ identities. Joseph said no other details of the crimes are being released at this time.

Anyone with information regarding this crime is urged to contact Det. Tim Alvarado or Det. Ryan Peterson at 707-994-8251. Callers may remain anonymous.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Firefighters made progress Monday on a complex of five fires in Colusa County, but there are concerns that the incident’s size could continue to grow.

The Sites Complex has been burning since Sunday afternoon near the town of Sites and East Park Road.

The complex’s size was reported at 3,700 acres on Monday, with 50 percent containment.

There are no structures threatened, no injuries reported and no evacuations in effect, according to Cal Fire.

Cal Fire reported there is a potential for the complex to burn more acreage due to the difficult terrain in which the fires are burning.

Sixty fire engines, 38 fire crews, 17 bulldozers, two airtankers, six helicopters and a total of 1,339 personnel were on the fire Monday, according to Cal Fire.

Incident Command Team 4 was activated and delegated command of the fire at 6 p.m. Monday. Incident base camp is located at the Colusa Fairgrounds.

In addition to Cal Fire, cooperating agencies include Napa County Fire, Williams Fire Protection District, Maxwell Fire Protection District, Willows Fire Protection District, California Emergency Management Agency, California Highway Patrol, Colusa County Sheriff’s Office, Glenn County Sheriff’s Office, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – An Upper Lake man who walked away from an inmate work detail over the weekend has been arrested.

Alden Vincent Miller, 50, was reported missing from the crew shortly before 4 p.m. in Upper Lake last Saturday, July 7, while working for the Lake County Public Services Department.

He was a minimum custody inmate who had been in custody on a drug-related charge, according to sheriff’s officials.

Sgt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said sheriff’s deputies responded to the area of Second and League streets in Upper Lake shortly before 9 p.m. Monday on a reported sighting of Miller.

Deputies located Miller on Mendenhall Lane and took him into custody without incident, Brooks said.

Miller was arrested for escaping from custody and transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and booked. He is being held without bail.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A Monday night fire burned a structure and a small amount of grassland in Clearlake.

The fire was reported shortly after 9 p.m. on Olympic Drive at Burns Valley Road, near Safeway and next door to Lake County Fire Protection District’s Station 70.

Firefighters arriving on scene reported a fully involved shed-type structure along with a grass fire.

The grass fire, contained at approximately 9:24 p.m., burned about a quarter acre. The shed fire was contained at 9:30 p.m., according to reports from the scene.

Another 45 minutes was needed for mop up, with the scene terminated just before 10:15 p.m., based on radio traffic.

Also on Monday, shortly before 9 p.m. a car fire with a report of a small vegetation fire was reported near The Oasis on Highway 20, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Additional information on that incident – terminated about an hour later – was not immediately available.

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – A wildland fire complex that began burning in neighboring Colusa County on Sunday had burned an estimated 3,700 acres by Monday morning.

The five-fire Sites Complex – reported at about 4 p.m. Sunday – is burning between the town of Sites and East Park Road, according to a Cal Fire update.

Cal Fire said the fires are burning in grass, brush and grassy oak woodland.

Five structures – outbuildings on rural properties – are threatened, according to Cal Fire.

On Monday morning firefighters had achieved 40 percent containment on the complex, with Cal Fire estimating full containment will be reached at some point on Thursday, July 12.

Approximately 1,145 firefighter personnel were working the complex on Monday, along with 42 engines, 16 dozers, 144 overhead or command positions, 10 water tenders, three helicopters, four air tankers and one air tactical.

The cause of the fires so far has not been reported.

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Wildland fires burning in Colusa County continued to grow early Tuesday.

The Mill Fire and Sites Complex both started burning over the weekend, as Lake County News has reported.

By Tuesday morning the Mill had grown to 13,000 acres and the Sites to 3,922 acres, according to state and federal fire officials.

The Mill Fire is burning on the Mendocino National Forest in northwestern Colusa County, 10 miles west of Stonyford.

The incident – the largest single fire currently burning in California – was reported to be 20 percent contained, according to a Tuesday morning report.

The hot, dry conditions have spurred the growth of the fire, which officials said is burning in steep, rugged terrain.

Approximately 917 personnel are working the fire, officials reported.

The fire's cause remains under investigation.

The Sites Complex, which started Sunday afternoon along Sites Lodoga Road west of Maxwell, consists of several fires, only one of which is reported to still be burning and threatening five outbuildings.

The fires include the Grapevine Fire, which had burned 3,740 acres and reached 50 percent containment Tuesday. The remaining fires – including the 75-acre Antelope, the 100-acre Sites and the seven-acre Standard – all are fully contained, according to Cal Fire.

Cal Fire said that approximately 1,339 personnel, 99 engines, 44 crews, three air tankers, six helicopters, 23 bulldozers and 12 water tenders were on the incident Tuesday.

Lake County residents woke up to murky skies on Tuesday, as smoke from the two fires poured into the air basin.

Air Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart said Lake County Air Quality Management District has a continuous particulate sampler running in Lakeport.

“The monitor is still reading in the healthy range for air quality, although the numbers continue to go higher,” he told Lake County News in a Tuesday email. “We have an inversion in the basin that is holding the smoke above the valley floor, which is helping minimize impacts. But once that inversion breaks, we could see a significant increase in smoke at ground level. That may happen by noon.”

He added, “Areas that are currently above the inversion and some localized areas may already be experiencing high levels of smoke. In driving through the county this morning, there are localized areas of dense smoke and very poor visibility, indicating potentially unhealthy conditions.”

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – A gray wolf that crossed the Oregon border into California late last year has traveled farther down the state, arriving in Butte County.

Known as OR7, the 3-year-old wolf was first tracked by satellite in Butte County on June 28, according to an update from the California Department of Fish and Game.

The agency said it intentionally delays updating maps on OR7’s movements to protect his current location.

A Monday update said the wolf was in northeastern Butte County.

OR7 was born in spring 2009 in northeastern Oregon, the Department of Fish and Game reported.

He grew up as part of the state’s Imnaha pack, which was first documented the year he was born in the Imnaha River drainage, east of the communities of Enterprise and Joseph in Wallowa County. Officials reported that the pack’s founding members migrated to Oregon from Idaho.

OR7 was collared with a radio transmitter by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) in February 2011, about nine months before officials said he dispersed from the Imnaha pack.

He headed south, traveling hundreds of miles and crossing Interstate 84 and several highways before passing into California near Dorris in Siskiyou County on Dec. 28, according to the California and Oregon wildlife agencies.

His appearance in California is the first of any wild wolf since 1924. That year, the last gray wolf was killed in Lassen County, the state reported.

Since then, tracking has shown he’s traveled an average of 15 miles a day through a variety of habitats and predominantly on public lands.

He was spotted in May in Modoc County by state and federal wildlife officials.

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – As federal and state firefighters worked on a fire inside the Colusa County area of the Mendocino National Forest on Sunday, resources were sent to several more fires reported around the region.

The Mill Fire – near the Mill Creek Campground in the national forest – was sparked on Saturday afternoon, and remained the focus of an aggressive firefighting effort on Sunday.

Air resources continued to hit the fire from above due to the steep terrain, according to reports from the scene.

Mendocino National Forest officials reported Sunday evening that the Mill Fire had reached approximately 1,200 acres, more than tripling in size since the morning. There was no containment estimate given.

In the midst of that effort, on Sunday afternoon the Sites Complex along Sites Lodoga Road west of Maxwell was reported.

On Sunday night, Cal Fire reported that the Sites Complex’s five fires had blown up to an estimated 2,500 acres over the course of about five hours. A report on that incident can be found at http://bit.ly/ONjOS7 .

In the video posted below and submitted by Steve and Sara Marks of Woodland, both the Mill Fire and the Sites Complex can be seen from the Marks' family ranch near Stonyford.

Smoke from the fires – all in Colusa County – mushroomed up over the Lake County horizon, casting a reddish-brown cloud along the hilltops.

On Saturday officials had set a Friday containment date for the Mill Fire, but forest spokesperson Tamara Schmidt said Sunday night that there was no current estimate for a containment time on the incident, the cause of which remains under investigation.

Schmidt reported that the Mill Fire on Sunday continued to move to the north and east toward the Fouts Springs area in Colusa County.

She said terrain and wind dominated the active fire behavior exhibited on Sunday, with spotting a half mile ahead of the fire and running crown fire. The fire is burning in heavy mixed brush and timber.

The incident is expected to transition to a Type 2 Incident Team on Monday at 6 a.m., with the team’s operations to be based in Stonyford, Schmidt said.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, a Type 2 team includes members from a wide variety of federal, state, county and local agencies. The team manages large wildland fire incidents and addresses safety, fiscal, planning, operational and logistical issues.

As of Sunday night, Schmidt said evacuations were in effect for the Fouts Springs Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Area, as well as in the Happy Valley area.  

Mill Valley, Mill Creek and Letts Lake campgrounds and the Board Camp summer home tract were evacuated on Saturday, she said.

Approximately 25 structures are threatened, including the campgrounds, according to Schmidt.

She said the M10 Road between Letts Lake and Fouts Springs, leading to Stonyford, is currently inaccessible.  

The Mendocino National Forest is preparing a formal closure order restricting access to the entire area, including roads and the OHV trail system, she said.

Also on Sunday, Cal Fire sent air and ground resources to the Jelly Fire, a small incident near Jellystone Park Campground, located at 14117 Bottle Rock Road in Cobb.

The fire, reported shortly before 3 p.m., was contained at approximately 3:38 p.m., reports from the scene indicated.

Burn piles were located in the middle of the fire, and heavy mop up was required, according to radio reports.

Cal Fire said the Jelly Fire burned a total of nine acres. No cause was immediately reported.

In other fire news around the state, Cal Fire reported that the Oregon Fire, west of Lake Oroville in Butte County, was fully contained at 60 acres Sunday night.

The Fish Fire, located in Inyo County, had reached 1,103 acres Sunday night, and was 85 percent contained, Cal Fire said.

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