A new head for the Ukiah Police Dept. sworn in. Former chief Chris Dewey was on hand as Capt. Justin Wyatt was sworn in Wednesday as the new chief. Wyatt said he was humbled and proud to get the job as he got pinned with his new badge Wednesday.
The Hopland Research Center survives the River Fire. The fire got within a half mile of the research center and surrounding homes where staffers live. Land around the center burned and some animals had to be moved out of the path of the flames, but Cal Fire built lines around the Center. Some trees will need to be removed after being damaged by the fire. No word of smoke damage inside. They reportedly lost some fencing used for animals and a couple of research structures. They also report damage to pipes after water boiled inside them, rupturing them. Some other equipment was destroyed, but there are no totals yet.
A new public access area has opened to view the Mendocino Coast. The Pelican Bluffs Coastal Trail south of Point Arena on Highway 1 goes for a couple of miles. Members of the California Conservation Corps fashioned the trail after land was purchased in a partnership between the California Coastal Conservancy, the California Coastal Commission and the Mendocino Land Trust. The Trust will own and manage the trail as part of its goal for a California Coastal Trail that would span 15 counties from the Oregon to Mexico borders.
There’s a red flag warning for areas of the North Coast with winds expected to reach up to 30 mph, with higher temperatures and very low humidity. The National Weather Service has announced the red flag warning for this morning at 11 a.m. until tomorrow night at 11 p.m. The River and Ranch fires which make up the Mendocino Complex have already destroyed 16 homes and 17 other buildings. The fire’s now blackened more than 125,000 acres. The River Fire is 50% contained and the Ranch Fire’s at 33%. Evacuations ordered for Long Valley, High Valley and Spring Valley, while mandatory evacuations for south Lakeport were downgraded to advisory.
There are still evacuation orders in place for large chunks of Mendocino and Lake counties, including Upper Lake, Bachelor Valley, Nice and North Lakeport. A big section of the Mendocino National Forest is closed to traffic and visitors from Lake Pillsbury in the north to Bartlett Springs in the south.
The Mendocino Complex fires have grown 15,000 more acres to reach more than 125,000 acres burned. The fires together are 39% contained. The Ranch Fire headed to Bartlett Springs had burned almost 84,000 acres alone and is at 33 percent containment, blowing up another 9,000 acres from Wednesday night. The River fire added another 6,000 acres yesterday and is 50-percent contained. It’s burned more than 41,000 acres.
The Mendocino Complex making new runs and also burning out in some areas allowing some folks to go home…but there are new mandatory evacuations for Long Valley and High Valley, as well as for Spring Valley. An advisory order for those east of Paradise Valley and west of Sulphur Bank Road on Highway 20 – including all residents in Glenhaven and Clearlake Oaks. Upper Lake and Nice were already under a mandatory evacuation, and Lucerne with an advisory evacuation. The fire’s threatening 8,200 structures.
Some residents have been able to return home after the Carr Fire took down more than 1,000 homes. The fire in Redding, the biggest of the Calif. fires burning currently. Tens of thousands of residents are still evacuated. The fire’s also killed six people, including two firefighters. It’s now the sixth most destructive wildfire in state history.
The fire burning near Yosemite National Park has new evacuation orders for Wawona inside the park. Less than 200 people live there. The park’s been closed since July 25th to tourists due to thick smoke from the Ferguson Fire which has burned about 69,000 acres. Its 41% contained.
The Mendocino Complex fires are mostly in rugged, rural terrain and not impacting Lake County’s major winegrowing areas with report so far of minimal damage to vineyards on smaller parcels. Grower’s said to be proactively monitoring the status of vines and are going to start testing fruit soon.
A woman from Napa who’s charged with setting nearly a dozen fires by Lake Berryessa over a two year period has pleaded no contest to three counts of arson. 60 year old Debra Ann Windholz in court this week in the case, and is set for sentencing in September. She was arrested in December for 11 fires set between Oct. of 2015 and Aug. of 2017. She’s admitted she tossed lit cigarettes and matches where several of the fires ignited. She now has to register as an arson offender, she’ll be on probation for four years and has to go to jail in Napa for up to six months.
As some evacuations happened for the Carr Fire in Redding, some residents were accidentally sent from their homes. The Shasta County Sheriff says the area of Shasta Lake were as many as 10,000 people live north of Redding, were not supposed to be under a mandatory evacuation order. The Sheriff says there was an overreach. The office decided to leave the evacuation in place instead of creating confusion rescinding it. Residents were allowed to go back home Monday, after a weekend out of their homes. A Cal Fire release had the evacuation order on it, but apparently city and county officials were not calling it mandatory.
Evacuation orders lifted by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office for areas affected by the River Fire. An advisory was canceled for areas east of Highland Springs Road, west of Soda Bay Road, and north of the Lake/Sonoma County line and south of Clear Lake. All of Kelseyville, Buckingham, Clearlake Riviera, Loch Lomond and areas of Red Hills Road, Hwy. 175, Cobb and Bottle Rock Road that were previously under advisory are safe to repopulate.
