KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Firefighters continued their work overnight to contain a wildland fire burning near Kelseyville that began Saturday evening.

The Peterson fire was first reported at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday in the 9000 block of Peterson Lane at Adobe Creek Road, behind Highland Springs, according to Cal Fire.

A Saturday evening report from Cal Fire had put the Peterson fire's size at 400 acres with no containment, but that acreage estimate was cut in half later that night.

Chris Veilleux of the Cal Fire Command Center said the acreage estimate was reduced to 200 acres due to better visibility on mapping.

He said there had been no new estimate on containment on Saturday night, adding that another update on the fire's size is expected after the 7 a.m. Sunday briefing.

Cal Fire said Saturday night that approximately 210 firefighters were assigned to the incident.

Among the first calls to 911 about the incident Saturday evening came from a man who indicated his equipment had started a brush fire, according to radio reports. Numerous other people also called to report the fire.

Despite that report of a possible source for the blaze, Cal Fire said the fire's cause is remaining under investigation.

Kelseyville Fire initially was dispatched, with Lakeport Fire and Cal Fire soon responding, according to radio reports.

Within 20 minutes of the fire's initial dispatch, the call went out for an in-county strike team of three engines and two water tenders, with additional resources coming in from Lake County Fire, Northshore Fire and South Lake County Fire.

Cal Fire tankers, air attack and helicopters also hit the fire hard from above while firefighters worked on the ground.

One person was reported to have been injured, suffering burns on his hands, according to radio traffic.

Cal Fire said the fire had “a dangerous rate of spread,” with spots fires occurring a quarter of a mile ahead of the main fire.

Structures were threatened in the area, and Cal Fire Battalion Chief Greg Bertelli told Lake County News late Saturday that the Peterson Lane area was evacuated.

Winds in the area were a concern as the smoke plume built, and smoke was pushed around the county, including across the lake to the Northshore and into Clearlake.

The National Weather Service indicated later that night that south southwest winds in the fire area were between 5 and 8 miles per hour.

Bertelli, who also confirmed the revised 200-acre size estimate, said firefighters were going to continue working aggressively on the fire through the night.

Among those working to get a line around the fire overnight were a number of dozer operators, including privately owned dozers that were brought in to work on the incident, according to radio reports.

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.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Firefighters are on the scene of a wildland fire that broke out on Saturday evening.

The Peterson fire was first reported at 5:30 p.m. on Peterson Lane at Adobe Creek, according to Cal Fire.

Shortly before 8 p.m., Cal Fire said the blaze had burned 400 acres with no containment, and was threatening structures.

Cal Fire said the fire has a dangerous rate of spread, with spotting a quarter-mile ahead of the main fire.

Air resources and ground crews are on scene with additional resources en route, Cal Fire said.

Early reports from the scene had indicated that the fire may have started because of a piece of equipment, but Cal Fire said the cause of the incident is under investigation.

Resources on scene include 210 firefighters, 11 engine/truck companies, seven air tankers, seven fire crews, six bulldozers, six overhead personnel, three helicopters and one water tender.

Additional information will be posted as it becomes available.

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.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – With the Lake County Fair coming to town in less than two weeks, fair staff and volunteers are in full preparation mode, getting the grounds ready to receive tens of thousands of visitors.

While every year sees a flurry of activity in the final weeks before the big event, this year is presenting a special challenge.

That's because for the last three and a half weeks the fairgrounds, located at 401 Martin St. in Lakeport, have been home to the Cal Fire incident command center for the Rocky and Jerusalem fires.

Cal Fire turned the grounds into a little city to accommodate the thousands of firefighters from across California – and the nation – who joined the effort to fight the fires, which together burned more than 94,500 acres.

The Rocky fire broke out on the afternoon of July 29, and that same night Lake County Fair Chief Executive Officer Debbie Strickler opened up the fairgrounds so Cal Fire's personnel could start populating the property.

This wasn't the fire time Cal Fire had based its incident command operations for a large wildfire at the fairgrounds.

In August 2012, Cal Fire was based there for the Wye fire, leaving in time for the fair. Then, shortly after the fair was over, Cal Fire returned to the location to oversee the Scotts fire.

With the Rocky fire contained Aug. 14 and the Jerusalem fire expecting to be contained on Monday, Cal Fire this week began rolling out of the fairgrounds.

Some Cal Fire personnel remained on scene throughout the week as fair staff worked around them, Strickler said.

The last of the Cal Fire crews were reported by fair staff to have left on Friday.

With the firefighters packing up and heading out, Strickler and her team began getting down to the work of prepping the grounds to host an anticipated 40,000 visitors Sept. 3 through 6.

Normally, that final prep work has a one-month window. Circumstances now, however, have left fair staff with half of that.

“Everything has been backed up,” said Strickler.

One of the chief concerns for Strickler is that – while preparations are under way, and presale fair tickets are being sold – some community members believe there isn't going to be a fair this year.

She said she's even had community members tell her that there was no fair – not knowing she is the fair CEO.

Some of the confusion also may stem from a county fair to the north – in the midst of a number of the state's far northern wildland fires – having been canceled, she said.

Strickler said the fair had extended the deadline for entries by several days due to the circumstances.

One of the first buildings to be cleared with the departure of Cal Fire was Phil Lewis Hall, which this week has served as the reception center for fair entries.

Fair staff began taking entries from noon to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, a process that is continuing daily through Sunday.

The fairgrounds' attendant, who is a talented carpenter, has been doing woodworking for displays, including building a little stagecoach, Strickler said.

There also remains a lot of work to be done on the grounds. “None of the buildings are decorated,” she said.

She said they haven't been able to water the grass on the grounds – which has been under trailers and vehicles for weeks because of the command center – so it's going to be drier and look browner than in normal years.

First year leading the fair

This is Strickler's first fair as CEO, having been appointed to the job last summer after then-fair CEO Richard Persons left to take a job as head of the Santa Maria Fairpark.

Strickler, a lifelong Lake County resident, had worked as the fair's business assistant for a decade before taking over the top spot.

She's got deep roots in the event – having shown livestock at the fair as a girl – and for Strickler, the event is a multigenerational family affair.

Her mother, Floye Clark – who passed away in April – had enjoyed entering fair contests, with one of her scarecrow entries pictured in this year's handbook.

And this year, as in past years, Strickler has pulled in all of her resources to help prepare for the fair – including putting her grandkids to work.

She said there will be more than 160 vendors on hand this year, with all venues inside the buildings filled up.

This year there are several new additions to the fair under Strickler's leadership.

They include a new family area, where the Hero Project will host an obstacle course, the Children's Museum of Art and Sciences will have exhibits, the Lake County Library will offer reading times and there will be a climbing wall, she said.

This year the fair will open up more areas where people can sit down and eat, she said. There also will be a separate wine garden area.

For thrill-seekers who want to try something different than the fair rides on the midway, debuting this year will be a 200-foot zip line, Strickler said.

Collections of nonperishable food items will take place at the fair this year as part of Lake County CAN!'s effort to help stock food pantries to assist Rocky and Jerusalem fire victims.

Strickler said that, some months past, her mother had suggested that the fair needed donkeys.

It was a comment that Strickler said came out of the blue, noting she didn't recall donkeys having been featured before.

While she didn't set out to add donkeys to the roster, her mother's comment turned out to be prescient, as one of the main new offerings this year is the donkey baseball game between law enforcement and firefighter teams. Strickler said there is a $500 purse to go to the nonprofit of the winning team's choice.

The fair will kick off with the annual parade, which will go down Main Street and enter the fairgrounds beginning at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3.

This year's fair grand marshal is Grant Lindeblad, the retired deputy chief for the Lakeport Fire Protection District who himself has volunteered time to make improvements at the fairgrounds, Strickler said.

Once the parade arrives at the fair's main gate, Lindeblad and fair board directors will gather to officially open the fair at 6 p.m.

The event will continue until the night of Sunday, Sept. 6.

Strickler said volunteers are needed both for set up and to assist during the fair. They will be compensated with free fair admission.

She said there also are still a few job openings available. Anyone interested should visit the fair office and pick up and application.

For more information call the Lake County Fair at 707-263-6181, visit the fair online at www.lakecountyfair.com or check out the fair's Facebook page.

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.

This is the first of two columns about Lake County pioneer, Nancy Kelsey.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Nancy Kelsey’s story, as it was recorded by her daughter in 1896, illustrates the quintessential California pioneer story.

Mrs. Kelsey, wife of Lake County pioneer Benjamin Kelsey and sister-in-law of Andrew Kelsey, remarked in her interview compiled by Roy M. Sylar, “So it is my history you want? Well it would make a book. The remarkable adventures of my life are as clear as if they happened yesterday.”

Nancy Kelsey was born in Kentucky in August of 1823, and later moved with her parents to Missouri where she married Benjamin Kelsey at age 16 in 1839.

A mere two years later saw the young couple and their baby begin an overland journey to California.

When asked why they decided to make the arduous crossing so long before gold was discovered in California Mrs. Kelsey explained, “Well, it is because of Mr. Kelsey’s health and adventurous disposition.”

So, as so many pioneers did before and after them, the Kelseys sold their belongings and formed a company to journey across the prairies to the mountains, west to California.

The team was to be led by Captain “Brokenhand” Fitzpatrick, who relied upon the incomplete map obtained from Dr. John Marsh, which left out important geographical landforms such as the desert and mountains they were to travel.

At about this time there was a 20-year-old school teacher named John Bidwell who organized the Western Emigration Society.

Around 500 excited adventure-seekers listened to his call for moving “wagons west.” Various reports of adversity and hardship surfaced however, which discouraged many from joining – that, along with the factor of Bidwell’s young age.

In the end, Bidwell attracted 60 people to join, including the Kelsey family.

Among the hearty group was John Bartleson, who vied for the title of “wagonmaster.” In fact, if he wasn’t granted this key position, he promised to pull out his assemblage of armed and able men.

Bidwell took him at his word, and then the “Bartleson Party” was formed. Others in the group included Joseph B. Chiles, Grover C. Cook, Nicholas “Bear” Dawson, Charles Hooper and V.M. Dawson.

The party crossed the Kansas River in picturesque style, via buffalo-skin boats provided by the Pawnee Indians on their third day of travel. Their oxen labored across the river with the wagons in tow.

They witnessed the scenic beauty of nature along the way, as well as her fury when a cyclone struck within a mile of their party.

The storm hit with a vengeance, uprooting trees and other vegetation, and tossing them about like a salad.

They dined on buffalo at the Platte River, but at a steep price, barely escaping with their lives in a buffalo stampede.

They then spent a few days at Independence Rock, Nebraska to dry some buffalo meat for their “meals-on-wheels.”

Here they inscribed their names on the rock face, as did so many pioneers after them.

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.

Mars turned cold and dry long ago, but researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered evidence of an ancient lake that likely represents some of the last potentially habitable surface water ever to exist on the Red Planet.

The study, published in the journal Geology, examined an 18-square-mile chloride salt deposit (roughly the size of the city of Boulder) in the planet's Meridiani region near the Mars Opportunity rover's landing site.

As seen on Earth in locations such as Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats, large-scale salt deposits are considered to be evidence of evaporated bodies of water.

Digital terrain mapping and mineralogical analysis of the features surrounding the deposit indicate that this one-time lakebed is no older than 3.6 billion years old, well after the time period when Mars is thought to have been warm enough to sustain large amounts of surface water planet-wide.

Planetary scientists believe that the solar system formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago.

“This was a long-lived lake, and we were able to put a very good time boundary on its maximum age,” said Brian Hynek, a research associate at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU-Boulder and lead author of the study. “We can be pretty certain that this is one of the last instances of a sizeable lake on Mars.”

Based on the extent and thickness of the salt, the researchers estimate that the lake was only about 8 percent as salty as the Earth's oceans and therefore may have been hospitable to microbial life.

“By salinity alone, it certainly seems as though this lake would have been habitable throughout much of its existence,” said Hynek, who is also an associate professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at CU-Boulder and director of the CU Center for Astrobiology. He noted, however, that other factors such as acidity levels were not included in the scope of the study.

Mikki Osterloo and Kathryn Kierein-Young, both research associates at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU-Boulder, co-authored the study.

The University of Alaska Geophysical Institute's Remote Sensing Laboratory and the University of Arizona's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) team provided assistance with digital terrain mapping and data processing.

The NASA-Mars Data Analysis Program provided funding for the research.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Fire officials reported on Thursday evening that they are closer to fully containing the Jerusalem fire.

The fire as of Thursday night was at 97-percent containment, with the size holding at 25,118 acres, according to Cal Fire.

The Jerusalem fire began on Aug. 9 in the Jerusalem Valley area, northeast of Middletown, 11 days after the Rocky fire, which was 100-percent contained last Friday.

A total of six residences and 21 outbuildings were burned in the Jerusalem fire, officials reported.

Cal Fire has estimated the Jerusalem fire would reach full containment on Friday.

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.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control is seeking homes for several new canines this week, including one who survived one of the recent wildland fires.

The dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of German Shepherd, pit bull, terrier and wirehaired terrier, as well as a Rottweiler/chow mix named Cache who firefighters rescued from the Rocky fire.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

'Cache'

“Cache” is a male Rottweiler/chow mix who gained some notoriety when firefighters rescued him from the Rocky fire, when he was found in a creek bed off of Highway 20.

Shelter staff said he was not burned in the fire, but has undergone treatment for an ear infection.

They describe him as a gentle giant who is very mellow, and who has been through a lot.

Cache is in kennel No. 24, ID No. 3101.

Female pit bull terrier mix

This female pit bull terrier mix has a short tan coat.

Shelter staff said she has a sweet personality.

She's in kennel No. 13, ID No. 2880.

Female terrier mix

This female terrier mix has a short tan and brown coat.

Shelter staff said she will do great with a senior person who is in a calm environment.

She does not seem to mind cats and has no issues with food guarding.

She's in kennel No. 11, ID No. 3017.

Female German Shepherd

This beautiful female German Shepherd mix has a black and tan coat.

Shelter staff said she will be best suited to a home with no cats, and children ages 7 and above.

She has no food aggression, does fine with other dogs once she warms up, has a drive to play with balls and loves getting in the kiddy pool.

She's in kennel No. 9, ID No. 2918.

To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

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.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Fire officials have pushed back the estimated date for full containment of the Jerusalem fire, according to a Friday report.

Containment on the fire, which has burned 25,118 acres, edged up to 98 percent by Friday evening, according to Cal Fire.

Cal Fire said Friday that it now anticipates having the fire 100-percent contained by Monday, Aug. 24.

The fire began Aug. 9 northeast of Middletown. Cal Fire said it destroyed six residences and 21 outbuildings.

Lake County Fair officials reported that on Friday the last of the Cal Fire personnel left the fairgrounds, where incident command for both the Rocky and Jerusalem fires had been located.

Resources on the fire have been significantly reduced over the past week.

Cal Fire said total resources assigned on Friday included 382 personnel, 13 engines, 12 dozers, nine water tenders, seven fire crews and one helicopter.

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.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials said Thursday that the agency has photographic evidence of five gray wolf pups and two adults in Siskiyou County.
 
After trail cameras recorded a lone canid in May and July in Siskiyou County, CDFW deployed additional cameras, one of which took multiple photos showing five pups, which appear to be a few months old, and others showing individual adults.

Because of the proximity to the original camera location, it is likely the adult previously photographed in May and July is associated with the group of pups, officials said.
 
"This news is exciting for California," said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham. "We knew wolves would eventually return home to the state and it appears now is the time."
 
CDFW has designated this group – comprised of two adults and five pups – the Shasta Pack.

As for where the wolves originated, “We think that they are part of an Oregon pack, only because that seems most likely, but we will not know for certain until analysis is done on their scats. We are collecting scats for further monitoring,” CDFW spokesperson Jordan Traverso told Lake County News.
 
Wild wolves historically inhabited California, but were extirpated, wildlife officials said.

Aside from these wolves and the famous wolf OR7 who entered California in December 2011, the last confirmed wolf in the state was here in 1924.

OR7 has not been in California for more than a year and is currently the breeding male of the Rogue Pack in southern Oregon.

 
In June 2014, the California Fish and Game Commission voted to list gray wolves as endangered under the California Endangered Species Act.

The gray wolf is also listed as endangered in California, under the Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973.

Gray wolves that enter California are therefore protected by the ESA making it illegal to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect wolves, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct in California.
 
CDFW is completing a Draft Wolf Management Plan and will release it soon.

Throughout the plan's development, CDFW has held numerous meetings with stakeholders. Currently, CDFW is incorporating comments from a stakeholder advisory group, and considering revisions due to implications of this news, before releasing the draft plan to the general public.

Public meetings will be scheduled to receive public comment on the draft plan.
 
In addition to the trail cameras, CDFW relies on help from the public to glean information about wolves in California.

The public can report wolf sightings on CDFW gray wolf Web site at www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Gray-Wolf/Sighting-Report .
 
Though wolves rarely pose a direct threat to human safety, CDFW recommends that people never approach, feed or otherwise disturb a wolf.

For more information about staying safe in wolf-occupied areas, including what people should do if they encounter a wolf, please visit www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Gray-Wolf/FAQ .

This extraordinary bubble, glowing like the ghost of a star in the haunting darkness of space, may appear supernatural and mysterious, but it is a familiar astronomical object: a planetary nebula, the remnants of a dying star.

This is the best view of the little-known object ESO 378-1 yet obtained and was captured by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in northern Chile.

Nicknamed the Southern Owl Nebula, this shimmering orb is a planetary nebula with a diameter of almost four light-years. Its informal name relates to its visual cousin in the northern hemisphere, the Owl Nebula.

ESO 378-1, which also is cataloged as PN K 1-22 and PN G283.6+25.3, is located in the constellation of Hydra (The Female Water Snake).

Like all planetary nebulae, ESO 378-1 is a relatively short-lived phenomenon, lasting only a few tens of thousands of years, compared to a typical stellar lifetime of several billion years.

Planetary nebulae are created by the ejected and expanding gas of dying stars. Although they are brilliant and intriguing objects in the initial stages of formation, these bubbles fade away as their constituent gas moves away and the central stars grow dimmer.

For a planetary nebula to form, the aging star must have a mass less than about eight times that of the Sun. Stars that are heavier than this limit will end their lives in dramatic fashion as supernova.

As these less massive stars grow old they start to lose their outer layers of gas to stellar winds.

After most of these outer layers have dissipated, the remaining hot stellar core starts to emit ultraviolet radiation which then ionizes the surrounding gas.

This ionization causes the expanding shell of ghostly gas to begin to glow in bright colors.

After the planetary nebula has faded away, the leftover stellar remnant will burn for another billion years before consuming all its remaining fuel.

It will then become a tiny – but hot and very dense – white dwarf that will slowly cool over billions of years.

The Sun will produce a planetary nebula several billion years in the future and will afterwards also spend its twilight years as a white dwarf.

Planetary nebulae play a crucial role in the chemical enrichment and evolution of the Universe.

Elements such as carbon and nitrogen, as well as some other heavier elements, are created in these stars and returned to the interstellar medium.

Out of this material new stars, planets and eventually life can form. Hence astronomer Carl Sagan's famous phrase: “We are made of star stuff.”

The picture above comes from the European Southern Observatory Cosmic Gems program, an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes for the purposes of education and public outreach.

The program makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations.

All data collected may also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to astronomers through European Southern Observatory's science archive.

European Southern Observatory is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organization in Europe and the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far.

It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The lawsuit filed against a county supervisor in his capacity as a bail bondsmen over a property foreclosure and a physical confrontation has been dismissed.

The case, filed by Robert and Jan Sanders of Clearlake against Rob Brown of Kelseyville, his wife Kim and their bail bonds company, was dismissed by Judge Andrew Blum in Lake County Superior Court on Wednesday.

Attempts to reach attorney Susan Feeney, who represented the Sanderses in the case, were unsuccessful.

Calls to Feeney's offices in Lakeport and Half Moon Bay yielded no results, as those numbers apparently have been disconnected, and she did not respond to an email sent to the account included in her State Bar listing.

Attorney Steven Brown – son of Rob and Kim Brown – represented them in the matter, and called the case dismissal a vindication.

In January 2009, the Sanderses used the Browns' bail bonds company to bail their son Christopher Sanders out of jail after he was arrested for molesting his stepdaughter.

Given the large amount of the bail, a deed of trust against the Sanderses’ residential real property was used to secure the debt.

While Christopher Sanders’ criminal case lasted several years, in May 2011 he was convicted by a jury of five felonies – a count of committing a lewd act with a child, two counts of lewd act with a child by duress, and one count each of continuous sexual abuse of a child and statutory rape.

The following January, he was sentenced to 41 years in state prison, as Lake County News has reported: www.bit.ly/1U5AbHV . In August 2013, an appellate court upheld the sentence: www.bit.ly/13BX7dE .

Steven Brown said Rob and Kim Brown spent several years attempting to collect the debt for the bail premium owed by the Sanderses, but they refused to pay.

As a result, given the large amount owing, the real property secured by the deed of trust was foreclosed on and the Browns subsequently became the owners of the property, Steven Brown said.

Steven Brown said that in August 2012, Rob and Kim Brown went to the residence on Buckeye Street in Clearlake to serve a notice of inspection on the Sanderses, who were refusing to vacate the property.

During Rob Brown’s attempted service, he was physically assaulted by Robert Sanders, who he punched one time in self defense. 

The case was investigated by the Clearlake Police Department, www.bit.ly/Sr6Ig5 .

In October 2012 District Attorney Don Anderson concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Brown for assault.

Anderson also said at that time that Robert Sanders had refused to cooperate with police, including not providing video evidence he claimed to have and refusing to sign a medical release in order for his claims about his injuries to be investigated: www.bit.ly/SWMmfg .

When the Sanderses continued to refuse to vacate the property, the Browns filed an unlawful detainer action to obtain physical possession of the property. When the court granted the Browns possession of the property, they identified the property had significant interior damage, Steve Brown said.

In June of 2014, the Sanderses filed a lawsuit against Rob and Kim Brown and their bail bonds company, asserting 14 causes of action including assault, battery, elder abuse, intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud, breach of contract, animal cruelty and various causes of action related to ownership of the real property as they contended that the foreclosure was illegal. 

Steven Brown said he filed several motions which resulted in 12 of the 14 causes being dismissed due to lack of any facts to support the causes of action. 

He said a trial was set on the remaining two causes of action for battery and assault as a result of Rob Brown having punched Robert Sanders.

After many delays, Steven Brown said the matter came to trial on Wednesday. At that point, facing the prospect of having to present evidence that he had been assaulted and battered, Robert Sanders and his wife requested the court dismiss the remaining causes of action of assault and battery. 

Steven Brown said he told the court he was prepared for the trial and wished for it to proceed, but Judge Blum ultimately dismissed the causes of action asserting the Sanderses right to dismiss.

While advocates for the Sanderses have made numerous public comments contending Rob Brown took advantage of the couple, Steven Brown said Rob and Kim Brown have not provided public comment out of respect for the process. 

Steven Brown said his clients are pleased with the outcome and are grateful to finally be cleared of all of the false allegations.

During the proceedings, sanctions were issued against Feeney for a total of $1,350 for failure to comply with a court order to provide information in the suit and for not showing up to a scheduled court appearance.

Because the sanctions total more than $1,000, Feeney must report them to the State Bar or face discipline from the organization.

Steven Brown also is filing an order seeking that the Sanders pay $2,900 in costs.

Feeney has filed a motion for reconsideration of the sanctions against her, claiming that her clients lied about having paid her, and that they have made false allegations that the problems with the case that led to the subsequent sanctions and dismissal were her fault.

LUCERNE, Calif. – A fire that began in a minivan led to a Wednesday afternoon wildfire that burned two travel trailers and two other vehicles in the hills above Lucerne.

Northshore Fire, Cal Fire and US Forest Service firefighters from the Mendocino National Forest responded to the blaze, which was dispatched just after 2:15 p.m. at the top of Bartlett Springs Road.

Cal Fire's Copter 104 from Boggs Mountain arrived on scene first, followed by Northshore Fire Chief Jay Beristianos.

Air resources worked the fire as ground resources arrived, according to the reports from the scene.

Beristianos said the incident began when a white minivan near two travel trailers caught fire. The fire quickly extended into the oak and pine litter on the ground before moving into the fuel supply for generators being used for the travel trailers.

The fire then burned the travel trailers, one of which was being lived in, with the second being used for storage, Beristianos said.

Altogether, the two travel trailers, two pickups, the minivan and about an acre of ground was burned, according to Beristianos.

“We're very fortunate it was on the top of the hill,” Beristianos said, explaining that fires at the base of hills tend to run upslope.

He said the main fire sent out spot fires but they were going down the hill and not doing much, so firefighters were able to knock them down quickly.

The fire scorched several large pine trees from top to bottom, and also burned into a very large oak tree.

With the fire still burning inside the badly damaged oak, it was decided that the tree needed to be taken down.

That task fell to Cal Fire dozer operator Mike Walton, who knocked the flaming tree down quickly and safely.

Beristianos said the resources that responded to the incident included two engines, two command officers and a water tender from Northshore Fire; three engines and two chiefs from the Mendocino National Forest; and two helicopters, three air tankers, an air attack plane, a dozers, four engines and two chiefs from Cal Fire.

Units remained on scene past 8 p.m. Wednesday, radio reports indicated.

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.