LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Firefighters finished the work of fully containing a wildland fire south of Lower Lake on Saturday evening.

The 29 Fire, which started Thursday afternoon off of Highway 29 near Murphy Springs Road, was fully contained at 300 acres, according to Cal Fire.

The fire’s cause remains under investigation, officials said.

Within the first day the fire had reached its full size, resulting in evacuation orders and a highway closure, and destroying a residence, seven outbuildings, 10 acres of vineyard, 12 pieces of equipment and 11 vehicles, Cal Fire said.

Firefighters were able to protect dozens more homes in the Murphy Springs and Twin Lakes areas.

A Red Cross shelter had been set up at Lower Lake High School as officials ordered mandatory evacuations for the Murphy Springs area and voluntary evacuations for the Twin Lakes Subdivision.

Twin Lakes residents’ voluntary evacuation order was lifted Thursday night and the Murphy Springs residents had their mandatory order lifted Friday afternoon, as Lake County News has reported.

All of the Pacific Gas and Electric customers who had lost power because of the fire – originally estimated at about 30 – have had their service restored, officials said.

Mop up and fire suppression damage repairs are continuing in the fire area, where smoke may still be visible for several days, Cal Fire reported.

Cal Fire, which had incident command on the 29 Fire, said it was preparing to begin releasing resources from the scene.

Still assigned on Saturday night are 363 personnel, 34 fire engines and 16 fire crews, Cal Fire said.

Drivers are asked to use caution when driving in the fire’s vicinity due to firefighting personnel and equipment continuing to work on mop up.

Cooperating agencies include Cal Fire, Lake County Fire Protection, Kelseyville Fire, Lakeport Fire, Northshore Fire, South Lake County Fire, Williams Fire Department, US Forest Service, Lake County Sheriff’s Office, American Red Cross, Lake Evacuation and Animal Protection, Lake County Animal Care and Control, the California Highway Patrol, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Caltrans, Lake County Public Health Department, Lake County Road Department and PG&E.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

At least once in the last 20 years, every county in California has had a federal flood disaster declared in its borders, and with winter storms looming, government agencies are urging Californians to learn their risk and prepare for the worst.

California’s first-ever Flood Preparedness Week, Oct. 15-20, launched with new educational Web site sponsored by state and federal agencies.

The flood preparedness education campaign is a joint effort by the California Department of Water Resources, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the California Emergency Management Agency, the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration’s National Weather Service, and Sacramento County.

The campaign is designed to make more people aware of the many types of flood risk in California. The state is subject not only to river and coastal flooding, but also at risk of tsunami, deep floodplain, alluvial fan and debris flow flooding.

With increased awareness, families and individuals should make an effort to become better prepared for disaster. Nationally, more people die in flooding than any other natural disaster.

Throughout California Flood Preparedness Week, participating agencies will be posting information on their Facebook pages and sending out messages via Twitter about the different types of flooding

Californians should be aware of flood dangers not only where they live, but where they work and visit. Facebook friends and Twitter followers will be encouraged to visit the California Flood Preparedness Web site for more information and for practical instruction on how to prepare, including what to put in a preparedness kit and how to create a family evacuation plan.

For more information on California Flood Preparedness Week, and to learn more about California’s flood risk and preparation efforts, visit www.water.ca.gov/ca-flood-preparedness/ .

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Fire officials said containment has increased on a wildland fire south of Lower Lake, with some evacuations remaining in place.

The 29 Fire, burning since Thursday afternoon along Highway 29 and Perini Road, remains at 300 acres, having burned a barn and 10 vehicles, according to Cal Fire and county officials.

While Cal Fire said the fire's forward spread has been stopped, the number of personnel assigned to the incident since Thursday night has nearly doubled, rising to 363.

Cal Fire said firefighters are working hard to build and improve fire line, and are aided by 34 engines, 16 crews, one helicopter, three bulldozers and five water tenders.

Following a morning briefing on the fire, Lake County Deputy Administrative Officer Debra Sommerfield told Lake County News that officials were keeping in place mandatory evacuations for the Murphy Springs area.

A Red Cross evacuation shelter at Lower Lake High School remains on standby, Sommerfield said. No community members went to the shelter Thursday night.

She said about 30 Pacific Gas & Electric customers remained without power Friday morning, with the company expecting full power restoration by 8 p.m. Friday.

Highway 29, which had been closed during the initial fire response and then under one-way traffic control overnight, has been fully reopened, Sommerfield said.

Cal Fire said Murphy Springs Road remains closed.

Sommerfield said the fire's cause remains under investigation.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

Pass your mouse over the blue bubbles over each community to see the number of unemployed for that area in September 2012. The filter and layer boxes partially obscuring the map may be closed by clicking on the small green arrows on the edges.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – State and federal officials said on Friday that unemployment rates across Lake County, California and the nation showed declines in September, with the latest rates coming in among the lowest in several years.

The California Employment Development Department said Lake County’s preliminary September unemployment rate is 13.4 percent, down from 14 percent in August and 15 percent in September 2011.  

It’s the county’s lowest unemployment rate since December 2008 – the 13.4 percent rate was, incidentally, the highest rate for 2008 – and earned the county a rank of No. 49 statewide last month, the agency reported.

California’s unemployment rate – derived from a federal survey of 5,500 California households – was 10.2 percent in September, compared to 10.6 percent in August and 11.7 percent in September 2011.

California’s nonfarm jobs in September totaled 14,347,900, an increase of 8,500 jobs over the month, according to a survey of 42,000 businesses that is larger and less variable statistically that the federal household survey.

The state said the year-over-year change – September 2011 to September 2012 – showed an increase of 262,000 jobs, or a 1.9-percent increase.

The Friday report said California has gained 505,600 jobs since the economic recovery began in February 2010.

The 10.2-percent unemployment rate California saw in September was the lowest for the state since February 2009, when the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was at 10.1 percent, according to Employment Development Department records.

Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said September’s unemployment rate was 7.8 percent, which also is the lowest nationwide unemployment rate since February 2009, the agency reported. The August nationwide unemployment rate was 8.1 percent and the September 2011 rate was 9 percent.

The bureau released a Friday report that said in September 41 states and the District of Columbia recorded lower unemployment, while six states posted increases and three states had no change.

In addition, 41 states and the District of Columbia registered unemployment rate decreases from a year earlier, while six states experienced increases, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

Around California, the lowest unemployment rate in September once again was to be found in Marin, which had a 5.8 percent jobless rate, while Imperial came in at No. 58 with 28.5 percent unemployment.

Neighboring Napa County came in No. 3 in the state with 6.9 percent, while Sonoma was ranked No. 8 with 7.6 percent and Mendocino registered 8.8 percent, earning it the No. 17 slot, the state reported.

Other neighboring counties included Colusa, 14 percent, No. 53; Glenn, 12.4 percent, No. 43; and Yolo, 9 percent, No. 21.

Within Lake County, Clearlake Oaks had the highest unemployment in September, at 20.3 percent, followed by Nice, 19.8 percent; Clearlake, 19.5 percent; Lucerne, 14.2 percent; Middletown and Kelseyville, tied at 13.6 percent; Lakeport, 12.9 percent; Cobb, 11.9 percent; Lower Lake, 11.2 percent; Hidden Valley Lake, 11 percent; north Lakeport, 10.6 percent; and Upper Lake, 6.9 percent.

Dennis Mullins of the Employment Development Department’s North Coast Region Labor Market Information Division said Lake County’s wage and salary employment declined 140 jobs between August and September.

Seasonal farm layoffs – totaling 200 jobs – accounted for the bulk of the decline, entirely offsetting month-over local government gains, which Mullins said totaled 150 new jobs, resulting from area schools hiring for the new term.

Mullins said that for the year over, Lake is down 410 jobs with the net government cutbacks of 150 jobs accounting for over a third of the decline.

He said four industry sectors gained or were unchanged over the year and seven declined.

Year-over job growth occurred in private educational and health services, 10, and other services, 10, with manufacturing and leisure and hospitality showing no change, Mullins said.

Industries that Mullins said had declines over the year included farm, -210; mining, logging and construction, -20; trade, transportation and utilities, -30; information, -10; financial activities, -10; professional and business services, -10; and  government, -150.

The Employment Development Department report also stated that during the September survey week 470,515 Californians received regular unemployment insurance benefits, compared with 501,158 last month and 494,882 last year.

At the same time, new claims for unemployment insurance were 48,017 in September 2012, compared with 51,467 in August and 53,861 in September of last year.

A closer look at California's job picture

The Employment Development Department’s report on payroll employment – wage and salary jobs – in California’s nonfarm industries totaled 14,347,900 in September, a net gain of 8,500 jobs since the August survey. August had seen a gain of 5,100 jobs.

In a year-over-year comparison – September 2011 to September 2012 – nonfarm payroll employment in California increased by 262,000 jobs, up 1.9 percent, the report showed.

A federal survey of households, done with a smaller sample than the survey of employers, showed an increase in the number of employed people, estimating 16,457,000 Californians were employed in September. That was an increase of 53,000 jobs from August and up 203,000 from the employment total in September of last year.

The number of people unemployed in California in September was 1,876,000, down by 60,000 over the month and down by 277,000 compared with September of last year, the agency reported.

Other report findings from the Employment Development Department showed that six categories – trade, transportation and utilities; information; financial activities; professional and business services; educational and health services; and leisure and hospitality – added jobs over the month, gaining 28,300 jobs. Leisure and hospitality posted the largest increase over the month, adding 10,700 jobs.

Five categories – mining and logging; construction; manufacturing; other services; and government – reported job declines over the month, down 19,800 jobs. Government posted the largest decrease over the month, down 6,400 jobs.

Seven categories – construction; trade, transportation and utilities; information; financial activities; professional and business services; educational and health services; and leisure and hospitality – posted job gains over the year, adding 319,600 jobs.

Professional and business services posted the largest gains on a numerical basis, adding 88,000 jobs, up 4.1 percent. Information posted the largest gains on a percentage basis, up 6 percent, adding 25,700 jobs.

Four categories – mining and logging; manufacturing; other services; and government – posted job declines over the year, down 57,600 jobs. Government posted the largest decline on both a numerical and percentage basis, down by 41,100 jobs, a 1.7 percent decrease.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

Financing the purchase of one’s home and refinancing one’s mortgage can each create estate planning traps for the unwary.   

The traps created may be due to the name on the title or the manner in which title is held.   

Let us consider two scenarios involving title that can create major problems once someone dies or becomes incapacitated.

The first is when someone lacking good credit purchases or refinances their home.

Often the only way such a person is able to secure financing is by involving another person – usually a parent or other family member – with good credit.  

This person is included on title for that reason solely, even though they may not pay anything towards the purchase price or mortgage payments.  

Nonetheless, that person is presumed to be legal owner of the property because they are on title.

The problems develop when the family member either dies or becomes incompetent. At death, who succeeds to that person’s ownership share? And during incompetency, how can the property be sold or refinanced?  

The answers to these questions are often disturbing. That is, when the family member dies, any share that he or she owned in the home as a tenant in common will pass under his or her will to named beneficiaries or by intestacy to his heirs.  

This may result in other persons, besides the original owners who involved the decedent, becoming co-owners; a result not intended at the outset when financing was considered the sole issue.  

Moreover, including the real property interest in the deceased person’s estate may trigger a probate, with all the associated expense, aggravation and delay that probate entails.

In addition, if the family member is ever unable to handle his or her financial and property affairs, then it may not be possible to sell or refinance the home. A court supervised conservatorship may then become necessary.

With proper estate planning, these problems can be avoided.

First, the family member’s co-ownership interest should be held as a joint tenancy interest with the other owners of the home, or the interest should be held in the family member’s trust and left to the other co-owners at death. That way, when the family member dies, his or her undivided co-ownership interest passes without either probate or legal dispute to the other original co-owners, presumably as originally intended.

Second, the family member's incapacity planning should provide legal authority for a responsible person to control the ownership interest. That is, in the event of the family member’s incapacity, an agent under a durable power of attorney, or a successor trustee in the case of a trust, can authorize transactions, including a sale or refinancing.  

A different scenario where people may unwarily step into a trap occurs when they refinance their own home.  

The lender takes title temporarily out of the person’s living trust so that it is held in the person's name individually. The lien is then recorded against the title in the person’s name individually.  

If title is not then reconveyed back into the living trust and the person dies holding title individually an unintended probate may then become necessary at the person’s death.  

The solution is to insist, and double check, that the title company reconveys title back into one's living trust at the conclusion of the refinancing.

The foregoing illustrates how ignorance regarding the implications of title can result in unforeseen problems at the death or incapacity of a title holder.  

Consultation with an attorney at the outset can allow one to avoid these problems with the appropriate means.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 707-263-3235. Visit his Web site at www.dennisfordhamlaw.com .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity has received a sizable grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to aid in improving the homes of low-income families.

Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager announced that Habitat for Humanity Lake County had received a $55,541 grant to assist 12 homeowners in Lake County with home repairs and rehabilitation.

“For many rural residents, maintaining a home with basic features such as indoor plumbing and safe electrical wiring is often unaffordable,” Tonsager said. “This program supports basic repairs to improve living conditions for rural residents with extremely limited incomes.”

Habitat for Humanity Lake County was among seven California organizations to receive the funds from the USDA Rural Development’s Housing Preservation Grant program.

In California, each of the grants is being leveraged with funding from additional sources totaling over $629,000, the USDA reported.

Other California recipients include:

• County of Nevada: $85,000 grant will assist with repairs for seven homeowners in Nevada County.
• Great Northern Corp.:$45,184 grant will assist six families repair their homes in Siskiyou County.
• Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians: $47,500 grant will assist in repairing six tribal members’ homes.
• Self-Help Enterprises: $85,000 grant will help preserve seven homes throughout Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare counties.
• Self-Help Home Improvement Project: $95,000 grant will assist in repairing 25 homes in Shasta and Tehama counties.
• Yurok Indian Housing Authority: $47,500 grant will help repair 11 homes of tribal members.

In all, more than $4.4 million in funding was given to recipients from 49 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to make repairs and improve housing conditions for low- and very-low-income rural residents, the USDA reported.

Funds are provided to intermediaries such as town or county governments, public agencies, federally recognized Indian tribes, and nonprofit and faith-based and community organizations.

These organizations then distribute the funds to homeowners and owners of multi-family rental properties or cooperative dwellings who repair dwellings occupied by low- and very-low-income residents. Funds are not provided directly to the ultimate recipients by USDA.

The USDA said grants may be used to make general repairs, such as installing or improving plumbing or providing or enhancing access to people with disabilities.

Funds also may be used to weatherize and make homes more energy efficient, the USDA reported.

NICE, Calif. – A popular lakeside restaurant is now under new management and will celebrate its grand reopening this weekend.

The reopening celebration at the Boathouse Restaurant, located at 2685 Lakeshore Blvd. in Nice, will take place from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20.

Jennifer McKnight and her mother, Cathy Farley, recently took over the restaurant.

McKnight said she and her mother have worked together in the food industry – from professional kitchens to private catering – for years. It has always been their dream to open a restaurant together.

So earlier this summer, when they found out that there was the opportunity to take over the restaurant portion of the business, “We decided to jump on the offer,” said McKnight.

They’ve been working on the project for two months, and opened three weeks ago, McKnight said.

“It’s been great,” she said, explaining that they’ve got a lot of helpful and constructive feedback from regulars, as well as a huge outpouring of support.

Those faithful customers have helped the mother-daughter team dial in their new menu, which has been in place about a week, McKnight said.

Some of the highlights of the dinner menu include beer battered fish and chips using fresh caught rock cod and beer battered prawns and chips – McKnight said the beer batter is a secret recipe – plus three cheese tortellini and a new rib eye steak.

McKnight said the lunch menu includes burgers built to order, a variety of salads and a very popular bunless burger served in a bowl of hot au jus.

They’ve also recently started serving breakfast, and plan to soon offer a champagne brunch, said McKnight.

Saturday evening’s grand reopening celebration will offer guests the chance to get to know the menu by enjoying free appetizers and free dessert samplers, she said.

There also will be dinner specials, promotions and giveaways, McKnight said.

The Boathouse Restaurant is open from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. Hours Thursday through Sunday are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.; breakfast is available on those days.

For more information call the restaurant at 707-274-1100.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

            
It’s a big claim, but Washington University in St. Louis planetary scientist Frédéric Moynier says his group has discovered evidence that the Moon was born in a flaming blaze of glory when a body the size of Mars collided with the early Earth.

The evidence might not seem all that impressive to a nonscientist: a tiny excess of a heavier variant of the element zinc in Moon rocks.

But the enrichment probably arose because heavier zinc atoms condensed out of the roiling cloud of vaporized rock created by a catastrophic collision faster than lighter zinc atoms, and the remaining vapor escaped before it could condense.

Scientists have been looking for this kind of sorting by mass, called isotopic fractionation, since the Apollo missions first brought Moon rocks to Earth in the 1970s, and Moynier, PhD, assistant professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences – together with PhD student, Randal Paniello, and colleague James Day of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography – are the first to find it.    

The Moon rocks, geochemists discovered, while otherwise chemically similar to Earth rocks, were woefully short on volatiles (easily evaporated elements). A giant impact explained this depletion, whereas alternative theories for the Moon’s origin did not.

But a creation event that allowed volatiles to slip away should also have produced isotopic fractionation. Scientists looked for fractionation but were unable to find it, leaving the impact theory of origin in limbo – neither proved nor disproved – for more than 30 years.

“The magnitude of the fractionation we measured in lunar rocks is 10 times larger than what we see in terrestrial and martian rocks,” Moynier said, “so it’s an important difference.”

The data, published in the Oct. 18, 2012, issue of Nature, provide the first physical evidence for wholesale vaporization event since the discovery of volatile depletion in Moon rocks, Moynier said.
                
The Giant Impact Theory

According to the Giant Impact Theory, proposed in its modern form at a conference in 1975, Earth’s moon was created in a apocalyptic collision between a planetary body called Theia (in Greek mythology the mother of the moon Selene) and the early Earth.

This collision was so powerful it is hard for mere mortals to imagine, but the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs is thought to have been the size of Manhattan, whereas Theia is thought to have been the size of the planet Mars.

The smashup released so much energy it melted and vaporized Theia and much of the proto-Earth’s mantle. The Moon then condensed out of the cloud of rock vapor, some of which also re-accreted to the Earth.

This seemingly outlandish idea gained traction because computer simulations showed a giant collision could have created a Earth-Moon system with the right orbital dynamics and because it explained a key characteristic of the Moon rocks.

Once geochemists got Moon rocks into the lab, they quickly realized that the rocks are depleted in what geochemists call “moderately volatile” elements. They are very poor in sodium, potassium, zinc, and lead, said Moynier.

“But if the rocks were depleted in volatiles because they had been vaporized during a giant impact, we should also have seen isotopic fractionation,” he said. (Isotopes are variants of an element that have slightly different masses.)

“When a rock is melted and then evaporated, the light isotopes enter the vapor phase faster than the heavy isotopes, so you end up with a vapor enriched in the light isotopes and a solid residue enriched in the heavier isotopes. If you lose the vapor, the residue will be enriched in the heavy isotopes compared to the starting material,” explained Moynier.

The trouble was that scientists who looked for isotopic fractionation couldn’t find it.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary data

Asked how he felt when he saw the first results, Moynier said, “When you find something that is new and that has important ramifications, you want to be sure you haven’t gotten anything wrong.”

“I half expected results like those previously obtained for moderately volatile elements, so when we got something so different, we reproduced everything from scratch to make sure there were no mistakes because some of the procedures in the lab could conceivably fractionate the isotopes,” Moynier said.

He also worried that fractionation could have occurred through localized processes on the moon, such as fire fountaining.

To make sure the effect was global, the team analyzed 20 samples of lunar rocks, including ones from the Apollo 11, Apollo 12, Apollo 15, and Apollo 17 missions – all of which went to different locations on the Moon – and one lunar meteorite.

To obtain the samples, which are stored in Houston at the Johnson Space Center, Moynier had to convince committee that controls access to them of the scientific merit of his project.

“What we wanted were the basalts,” Moynier said, “because they’re the ones that came from inside the Moon and would be more representative of the Moon’s composition.”

But lunar basalts have different chemical compositions, Moynier said, including a wide range of titanium concentrations. Isotopes can also be fractionating during during the solidification of minerals from a melt.

“The effect should be very, very tiny,” he said, “but to make sure this wasn’t what we were seeing, we analyzed both titanium-rich and titanium-poor basalts, which are at the two extremes of the range of chemical composition on the Moon.”

The low and high titanium basalts had the same zinc isotopic ratios.

For comparison, they also analyzed 10 Martian meteorits. A few had been found in Antarctica but the others were from the collections at the Field Museum, the Smithsonian Institution and the Vatican.

Mars, like the Earth, is very rich in volatile elements, Moynier said. “Because there is a decent amount of zinc inside the rocks, we only needed a tiny bit to test for fractionation, and so these samples were easier to get.”

What it means

Compared to terrestrial or martian rocks, the lunar rocks Moynier and his team analyzed have much lower concentrations of zinc but are enriched in the heavy isotopes of zinc.

Earth and Mars have isotopic compositions like those of chondritic meteorites, which are thought to represent the original composition of the cloud of gas and dust from which the solar system formed.

The simplest explanation for these differences is that conditions during or after the formation of the Moon led to more extensive volatile loss and isotopic fractionation than was experienced by Earth or Mars.

The isotopic homogeneity of the lunar materials, in turn, suggests that isotopic fractionation resulted from a large-scale process rather than one that operated only locally.

Given these lines of evidence, the most likely large-scale event is wholesale melting during the formation of the Moon. The zinc isotopic data therefore supports the theory that a giant impact gave rise to the Earth-Moon system.

“The work also has implications for the origin of the Earth,” Moynier pointed out, “because the origin of the Moon was a big part of the origin of the Earth.”

Without the stabilizing influence of the Moon, the Earth would probably be a very different sort of place.

Planetary sciences think the Earth would spin more rapidly, days would be shorter, weather more violent, and climate more chaotic and extreme. In fact it might have been such a harsh world, it would have been unfit for the evolution of our favorite species: us.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – As part of its continuing commemoration of Domestic Violence Awareness Month throughout October, Lake Family Resource Center will host an open house at its domestic violence shelter on Sunday, Oct. 21.

The open house will take place from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Freedom House, located at 5350 Main St. in Kelseyville.

The event will provide the community with an opportunity to become familiar with the services available at the shelter, see “behind the fence” and hear about the programming available to domestic violence victims.  

Freedom House shelters female and male victims with their children up to 18 years of age. Victims stay as long as necessary to prepare for a new safe and secure life after being sheltered. Plan to take advantage of this rare opportunity to tour this secure facility.

The public is encouraged to come and see Freedom House and learn some about domestic violence. Tours and refreshments will be provided.

Lake Family Resource Center is determined to call awareness to the tragedy of domestic violence in the hope of ending it in Lake County.

The center provides a multitude of services to build family stability and strength. The agency supports all Lake County residents in achieving stable, self-sufficient, and healthy families and communities.  

Call them at at 707-279-0563 to find out more about what they offer.

MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – The closure order for the North Pass Fire, number 08-12-16, was lifted at 6 p.m. Friday, which reopened all forest roads and recreation areas in the Yolla Bolly Middle Eel Wilderness and surrounding areas on the Mendocino National Forest.

Visitors to the forest should be aware that just because the fire is out and the closure is no longer in effect, many hazards still remain. Burnt stump holes, snags and other forest hazards remain a concern in the area.

“We are happy to be able to restore access to the western portion of the Forest,” said Forest Supervisor Sherry Tune. “We are asking the public to exercise caution when entering and recreating in the area- there are still several hazards out there.”

The North Pass Fire started Saturday, August 18 and consumed approximately 41,983 acres north of Forest Highway 7 between Anthony Peak and the community of Covelo.

The Mendocino National Forest lifted fire restrictions Tuesday.

Although visitors can once again have a campfire in the forest, fire season is not over. Please use caution when recreating in the forest, especially if you have a campfire.

As a reminder, for those recreating in open areas of the forest this fall:

• Be aware of current conditions before heading to the forest, including closure orders, alerts, notices and current weather.
• Be prepared for changing conditions, including the appropriate gear and layered clothing. Especially in the mountains, weather conditions can change rapidly from hot and sunny to cold and wet.
• Let someone know when you are leaving, where you are going and when you will be back.
• If camping in the open forest, select a level campsite away from dead trees or possible rolling debris.  Remember to look up to identify potential hazards.
• Flash flooding and mud flows may be common in areas without vegetation.

For more information, please visit www.fs.usda.gov/mendocino or contact the Forest at 530-934-3316.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Firefighters on Friday continued to make progress on a fire that began the day before along Highway 29, with their efforts doubling containment and leading to the lifting of an evacuation order.

The 29 Fire was at 300 acres and 60 percent containment Friday evening, with Cal Fire anticipating full containment by 10 a.m. Saturday.

The fire, the cause of which is still under investigation, was sparked Thursday afternoon near Murphy Springs Road.

Cal Fire said that because its personnel levels are being held to peak staffing through the end of October, personnel and resources were readily available to aggressively battle the 29 Fire when it broke out.

Assigned to the incident Friday evening were 363 personnel, 34 engines, 16 fire crews, three bulldozers and one helicopter, Cal Fire said.

Lake County Deputy Administrative Officer Debra Sommerfield told Lake County News that one residence was destroyed and seven outbuildings were destroyed or damaged.

The aggressive efforts by firefighters had saved 10 homes in the fire’s path near Murphy Springs, and prevented the fire getting to another 50 homes in the Twin Lakes Subdivision, Sommerfield said.

Ten acres of vineyard were destroyed, but Cal Fire said firefighters saved another 90 acres of winegrapes.

In addition, Cal Fire said 11 vehicles and 12 pieces of equipment – the latter ranging from a riding lawn mower to a bulldozer – were destroyed by the fire.

Sommerfield said that as of 3 p.m. the mandatory evacuations for the Murphy Springs area had been lifted. She said Murphy Springs Road was being reopened to residents only.

State and local officials said no injuries have occurred.

Cal Fire said Pacific Gas & Electric is continuing to work on restoring power to residences in the area. Earlier in the day it was estimated that about 30 customers were still without power.

Cooperating agencies include Cal Fire, Lake County Fire Protection, Kelseyville Fire, Lakeport Fire, Northshore Fire, South Lake County Fire, Williams Fire Department, US Forest Service, Lake County Sheriff’s Office, American Red Cross, Lake Evacuation and Animal Protection, Lake County Animal Care and Control, the California Highway Patrol, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Caltrans, Lake County Public Health Department, Lake County Road Department and PG&E.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.