- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Supervisors approve emergency fire declaration; Cal Fire gives Mendocino Complex update
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – With Lakeport still under mandatory evacuation, on Tuesday morning the Board of Supervisors moved from its usual meeting location for a special meeting in Clearlake to ratify an emergency declaration and hear the latest Mendocino Complex developments from Cal Fire.
On Tuesday morning, the complex of the Ranch and River fires which began Friday reached 74,408 acres and 12 percent containment, according to Cal fire. By evening it had burned 80,408 acres, with containment unchanged.
The fire led to Sheriff Brian Martin declaring a local emergency, which the board then needed to ratify within seven days. The board gave its unanimous approval during the meeting.
Supervisor Rob Brown said the River fire on Tuesday morning was just north and west of Highland Springs Reservoir toward the Mendocino County line.
During the two-hour meeting at Clearlake City Hall, Martin reported that 19,000 people have been evacuated due to the fires. By nightfall the mandatory evacuations for the Kelseyville area had been lifted.
The reported number of structures destroyed as of Tuesday remained at 10. “Those numbers are expected to increase,” as personnel are able to inspect the fire area, Martin said.
He said Lampson Field is being used as a base, and the Lake County Jail had been evacuated, with inmates moved to the Santa Rita Jail.
The jail facility is now being used to house local emergency mutual aid responders, said.
Martin said the Army National Guard arrived overnight to help with guarding evacuated communities and conducting patrols.
He said several arrests of suspected looters have been made. “We will continue to protect our communities to the best of our abilities.” During the day, the sheriff's office issued a release identifying five individuals arrested for unauthorized entry of evacuated areas.
Cal Fire Sonoma Lake Mendocino Unit Chief Shana Jones said more than 2,000 firefighters are assigned to the complex, explaining that they want to get people back in their homes as soon as possible.
Operations Chief John Messina of Cal Fire Incident Management Team 2 explained, “There is a high demand for resources currently,” with the Carr fire in Shasta County and the Ferguson fire in Mariposa County still burning actively.
“We are now facing limited resources to suppress this incident,” Messina said.
Messina said they are approaching the fire like eating an elephant.
He said they are identifying critical areas, and prioritizing public safety and private property, then they will go after the fire in remote areas.
“Typically, we’d go at it all at once. There’s just not the resources for that,” Messina said.
Messina said that, just because there is a big column of smoke every day doesn’t mean they’re not having success on the fire line.
He said they thought they would hold the Ranch fire north of Highway 175, but on Monday it made a run. He said they got around part of it, with a good line around the south, and he believed things would improve by the afternoon. There also is line in the middle of the fire, and as soon as they feel it’s safe, they will work in the more remote areas.
On the Ranch incident, Messina said they had great success on Highway 20 near Blue Lakes, and they believe the situation should improve drastically by Wednesday.
Messina said at that point they were not doing anything on the portion of the fire burning up into the Mendocino National Forest. However, they have a plan and as soon as resources become available, they’ll begin working on it.
He said that at that time the fire was being held above Mendenhall Avenue, to the west of Elk Mountain Road. It was further up into the forest that the fire crossed Elk Mountain Road, he added.
Messina said the fire got to Bachelor Valley, and firefighters were successful in keeping it from moving any further east.
They were able to defend structures and some were lost; Messina estimated that there were fewer than half a dozen, and he believed some were outbuildings.
Damage assessments were under way on Tuesday, and he expected to have better numbers by Tuesday afternoon, although by evening Cal Fire’s report on structures damaged had not changed.
Cal Fire Incident Management Team 2 Deputy Incident Commander Ron Myers explained that the complex is nearing 80,000 acres in size, and that there has been minimal structure loss so far. “We have focused all of our attention on your property,” he said, explaining that they have prioritized areas around structures.
“We have no intentions of the two fires merging,” Myers said, adding that they’re doing everything they can to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Winds and fuels are not in their favor, Myers said. “We have every type of air tanker,” but when the smoke gets too bad, they can’t fly.
Local officials report on conditions, efforts
In other fire-related news, County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson said the majority of county offices in Lakeport, the county seat, can’t operate due to conditions. The county courthouse remains closed.
County staff is out responding to the fire, with many of them displaced. She said she had asked department heads to find alternative workstations, and that overall they were “hanging in.”
Brown also reported that a court closure has been approved by the state.
Red Cross volunteer Brianna Taylor said the organization is operating three shelters, including one at Lower Lake High School, which was at capacity with 460 residents; Middletown High School, which still had room for residents and their pets; and Twin Pine Casino, where she said 161 people were registered.
She said they had worked on offering a place for pets. “We know that people will not leave without their pets so we’re doing everything we can to accommodate pets there also.”
Lt. Hector Paredes, commander of the California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office, said eight roadways are currently closed.
“It is our focus to open roadways, especially when it comes to state routes,” he said.
Highway 20, one of the roads closed in the fire area, is a main artery for commercial vehicle traffic, and there had been a closure for through commercial traffic to Highway 101 because they couldn’t get through on the north side, he said.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. representative Herman Hernandez said that, at that time, there were 2,900 customers out of power – largely in the Lakeport, Upper Lake and Kelseyville areas. Later in the day, that number appeared to have been reduced, according to PG&E’s online outage center.
He said PG&E is working with Cal Fire to gain access to the fire area so they can get the power back on safely.
Hernandez said they used fire retardant to pretreat poles in the fire’s path, and identified 47 poles in the area that need to be replaced.
“Our team is out there working around the clock trying to get the power back up,” Hernandez said.
Air Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart said the fires have put hazardous smoke into Lake County’s air basin.
He said the smoke settles in during the early morning. “It’s very bad for everybody,” he said, adding that everyone – even children and healthy adults – are impacted, and that outdoor activity should be avoided.
Lakeport City Manager Margaret Silveira said the city has declared its own emergency declaration, which the council ratified on Monday.
The city also has its own staffed emergency operations center at Lakeport City Hall. She said Lakeport residents who have concerns can call the center at 707-263-5683. The center will be open 24/7 while the city is under evacuation.
Lakeport Chief Brad Rasmussen said his department is closely working with other agencies to protect the evacuated areas and ensure safety.
He said they are committed to protect homes from looters and prowlers. “We absolutely are not going to tolerate that.”
Since Sunday he said he’d counted up 13 arrests of individuals found in the evacuation area.
He said the city’s 5,000 residents had been very cooperative with the mandatory evacuation order, with less than 100 refusing to evacuate.
Rasmussen said 100-percent of his officers have been evacuated from their homes. They’re sleeping wherever they can, and working 18- to 20-hour shifts while they’re families have evacuated hours away.
“We completely understand how you feel,” Rasmussen said.
Shawn Swatosh of Mediacom said their facilities haven’t been damaged in the fire.
Lakeport Postmaster Ben Lovato said his facility was evacuated on Saturday and moved to Kelseyville on Monday.
When Kelseyville was evacuated, those operations then moved to the Clearlake Post Office, 14500 Olympic Drive, which he said is also hosting Upper Lake, Finley and Nice post office operations.
He said it was taking them a day to organize operations – including bringing in additional equipment from out-of-county – in order to be able on Wednesday to begin allowing residents of evacuated areas to pick up their mail at the Clearlake Post Office.
He said hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and photo identification will be required. Mail that was waiting at post offices is being held and is secure, he said.
Bruce McCracken of Clearlake Waste Solutions said many of his staffers has been impacted by the evacuations, and Tuesday was the first day they were able to go out and collect garbage again. Greenwaste and recycling are on hold temporarily due to lack of manpower.
He said the company’s Lakeport transfer station is closed but the county’s landfill in Clearlake remains open.
Wanda Gray of Lake Transit reported that staff is assisting with the evacuation effort, with drivers transporting people – especially the elderly and those with special needs – to evacuation shelters.
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