LOWER LAKE, Calif. – While firefighters continue to progress toward fully containing the Clayton fire, Pacific Gas and Electric said it's still engaged in the process of restoring power to community members who live in the fire area.
 
Early Wednesday, PG&E reported that approximately 622 customers in the fire area remained without power.

Company spokesman Denny Boyles said many of those customers continued experiencing an outage because Cal Fire has asked the company to de-energize lines for firefighters' safety.

Boyles said PG&E completed its damage assessment in the fire area on Tuesday.

“The damage to our equipment is less than we expected,” he said. “We are working safely and as quickly as possible to make repairs.”

Overall, PG&E assessed 772 poles, finding that 77 of them needed to be replaced. So far, PG&E crews have replaced four of those damaged poles, Boyles said.

Boyles said the company also determined that 69 spans of wire need to be replaced.

He said PG&E expects to restore power to all customers who can be restored by this weekend.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – As firefighters continued their work to control the Clayton fire on Monday, the extent of the devastation in and around Lower Lake became clearer.

The air in the neighborhoods of this small town continued to be thick with the smells of smoke and propane gas. All around there were ashes of homes and businesses.

Law enforcement officers continued to comb the streets looking for people with no good reason to be there.

Hundreds of firefighters worked to corral the Clayton fire on the outskirts of Lower Lake Monday, while still more worked closer to the more populated areas putting out spot fires and flare ups as they found them.

At midday on Monday Cal Fire Chief Public Information Officer Daniel Berlant provided a status report for the fire and shared advice on how people should respond to remain safe during wildfires.

Lake County News captured Berlant's report and a driving tour of the town.

After Berlant's report the video is intentionally silent.

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Lower Lake, Calif -- Containment for the arson caused Clayton fire which started August 13 reached 35% Tuesday afternoon with full containment expected on Sunday August 21.

Suppression crews made good progress Tuesday and were able to construct additional control lines while acreage consumed by the fire remains at 4,000 acres.

Damage Inspection Teams continue to gather damage data in the affected areas. The inspection process is meticulous and ongoing. As additional information becomes available, the numbers of damaged or destroyed structures may change. 

Currently 380 structures remain threatened and 175 have been destroyed.

Today at 3PM, the mandatory evacuation order was lifted for the neighborhoods east of State Highway 53 from Polk Avenue, south to Cache Creek. This included the area of Clearlake referred to as “The Avenues”. 

Cancellation of additional evacuation orders are being evaluated based on a variety of factors including potential fire behavior and re-establishment of critical infrastructure.

Mandatory evacuations remain in place for Clayton Creek Road, all of Morgan Valley Road, North Spruce Grove Road to Jerusalem Grade.

Three evacuation centers remain open - Kelseyville High School Seventh Day Adventist Church Twin Pines Casino, 5480 Main St. 3500 Hill Rd E. 22223 Hwy 29, Kelseyville CA, 95451 Lakeport CA, 95453 Middletown CA, 95461

Total personnel fighting the fire are numberd at 2,372 while other resources assiged to the fire Tuesday included 248 engines, 19 water tenders, 9 helicopters, no air tankers, 61 hand crews and 36 bulldozers.

Agencies cooperating on the fire include California State Parks and Recreation, California Highway Patrol, Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Lake County Fire Protection District, Lake County OES, City of Clearlake, Lake Evacuation and Animal Protection, USFS, CDCR, PG&E, CHP, Red Cross, BLM, California Fish and Wildlife, ALS ground ambulance providers, and CAL-OES.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Konocti Unified School District's schools will remain closed for the remainder of the week while school officials plan for how to work around the impacts of the Clayton fire.

During community meetings on Monday, Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg gave updates on the school district's situation.

Falkenberg said Konocti Unified's first day of school was to have taken place on Monday.

However, with the safety of students, teachers and staff in mind, Falkenberg said schools will remain closed through Friday due to the close proximity of the Clayton fire, which fire officials said continues to actively burn around Lower Lake.

Schools included in the closure are Burns Valley Elementary, East Lake Elementary, Lower Lake Elementary, Pomo Elementary, Lower Lake High School, Lewis Center, Blue Heron School, Carlé High School, Highlands Academy, Konocti Education Center and Clearlake Creativity School, Falkenberg said.

While the district's schools were not destroyed due to the fire, there was definite damage to some of the facilities, Falkenberg reported.

In particular he mentioned Lower Lake Elementary, where he said six to seven portable classrooms sustained significant smoke damage.

Falkenberg said a plan for the continuance of school operations next week is expected to be released by, or on, Friday.

He also addressed a controversy that arose over the weekend regarding Middletown High School and the fact that the school was not opened as an evacuation center for the Clayton fire. It has served as a shelter in previous incidents.

The sheriff's office reported that the school had “declined” to open as a shelter, which stirred up criticism of the school, particularly on social media.

Falkenberg attributed the decision not to open the school as an evacuation center to a “misunderstanding,” and urged people not to use social media to participate in the kind of criticism that has been aimed at the school over the last several days.

He added that the school was ready to open as another evacuation center if needed. Three evacuation centers – at Kelseyville High School, Twin Pine Casino and the Lakeport Seventh-day Adventist Church – remain open.

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. – While firefighters around the state continued to work on the Clayton fire near Lower Lake, a new vegetation fire broke out in the north Lakeport area on Tuesday afternoon.

The fire was located in the 3000 block of Hill Road at around 1 p.m., according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Cal Fire air and ground resources and local fire units were among the responding units.

Just before 2:45 p.m., reports from the scene indicated that the fire's forward progress had been stopped, with two to three hours of mop up expected.

The Lake County Sheriff's Office reported that there were no evacuations or structures threatened, but people were asked to stay clear of the area while fire personnel were still on scene working.

Information on a cause was not immediately available.

At nearby Sutter Lakeside Hospital, operations were normal and the facility was fine, said spokeswoman Morgen Wells.

A 16-acre fire near that same area occurred on June 7, burning close enough to the hospital that some outlying clinics were evacuated temporarily, as Lake County News has reported.

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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake Transit Authority buses are expected to begin rolling back out onto their routes on Wednesday following a temporary suspension of services due to the Clayton fire.

General Manager Mark Wall said Lake Transit suspended all of its regular transit services as a result of the local emergency declared on Sunday during the Clayton fire, which began burning in the Lower Lake area on Saturday evening.

The approach of the Clayton fire led to Lake Transit evacuating its Lower Lake headquarters facility, located on Highway 53, Wall said.

Wall said that as Lake Transit buses were evacuated from headquarters yard, some buses were sent to help evacuate patients from St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake and transport them to Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport.

Buses and drivers also assisted with evacuating residents of the Avenues, the area of Clearlake east of Highway 53, moving them from the Highlands Senior Center – which closed due to a power outage – to the emergency center in Kelseyville and elsewhere, according to Wall.

At one point a spot fire began burning behind the transit facility, according to fire reports.

While the fire burned up to the clear area around the Lake Transit bus yard, Wall said the facility appears to be safe thanks to the efforts of firefighters who defended the perimeter.

However, the transit authority's headquarters have lacked land line and power service, which Wall said they have been working to restore.

Local officials reported at Monday evening community meetings in Clearlake, Kelseyville and Middletown that Highway 53 was fully reopened.

In addition to that development, Wall said the solving of logistical problems and getting electrical and phone service up and running will help Lake Transit restore most of its services on Wednesday morning.

Until then, he said the main Lake Transit phone line, 707-900-1114, has been forwarded to a cell phone, and the agency is fielding calls for information and critical paratransit needs.

“We are thankful for all of the hard work of firefighters, utility repair crews, and of our own Lake Transit staff, some of whom continue to work despite losing their homes,” said Wall. “We are sorry that some of our neighbors in Lower Lake have been lost their homes, cherished pieces of history and other belongings.”

Lake Transit is updating service information on its Web site at www.laketransit.org . Visit the site for service updates or call 707-900-1114 and leave a message. Wall said Lake Transit will respond to messages when possible.

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.