More than 1,000 unsafe conditions found by PG&E as they inspected their power equipment across the state which was mandated by a court. The utility company admits to as many as 1,200 issues on hundreds of thousands of power distribution poles, nearly 50,000 transmission structures and 222 substations covering more than 5,500 miles of transmission line and 25,200 miles of distribution line. The company says they’ve fixed every problem that was considered an “immediate safety risk” and about 97% of the conditions on poles. The utility company saying they needed to do better. It comes a day after they announced a one billion dollar settlement for the 2017 and 2018 wildfires in Calif, including the Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive in state history which Cal Fire says was sparked by a PG&E transmission line.
A resolution’s been approved by the Lakeport City Council declaring it a public nuisance for homeowners to have dry weeds or brush or other dried out vegetation. It’s added to the city’s municipal code to reduce possible wildland fires in the city limits. But it has to be determined, before a citation or fine, that the weeds are a nuisance to the city. The city sending out notices in May to homeowners, giving them until June 1st to clear everything away. Anyone found in violation has 10 days to abate hazardous weeds after getting notice, then if they don’t comply, they get a citation and a $100 fine.
Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit is doing a prescribed burn along Highway 128 between the Monticello Dam and Winters. The burning was set for all week, last week but was canceled because of the Sand Fire that started in Yolo County. So now Cal Fire has decided to go for it today during morning hours thru next Friday, June 28th. They looking to burn about 65 acres so expect to see some smoke for the next week if you’re in the area or driving nearby. There will also be traffic control in the area. There’s been five big fires in the area over the last five years, so the burn is to protect the area from another large fire in the future.
One of the two men blamed in the Ghostship Warehouse fire in Oakland still testifying at their murder trial. Max Harris and Derick Almena are accused of 36 deaths after a fire broke out during a concert in December of 2016. Prosecutors say the place was so packed with art, old furniture and other debris, that it became a deathtrap. The prosecution questioning Harris this week who calls himself the executive director of the artist collective at the space, but says it wasn’t a serious title. He says all exits were clear and says he tried to put out the fire as he escaped. The master tenant of the space Almena’s wife Micah Allison will testify in her husband’s defense next week.
The new superintendent of schools in Lakeport is set to take over. The School District is getting ready for new leadership as the new fiscal year begins next month. Lake Co News reports there are also several new school administrators coming aboard at the same time the interim Superintendent Patrick Iaccino has his last meeting next week. Iaccino was hired in January to help find a new superintendent who was hired last month. Jill Falconer, the Clear Lake High School principal is taking over July 1st. Iaccino says he and Falconer have been meeting to go over work, staffing and recruitments.
A lightning sparked fire in the Mendocino National Forest has grown over the last day, tripling in size. Lake Co News reports the fire in the Yolla Bolly Wilderness dubbed the East Fire has charred 125 acres. It’s reported about 43 miles west of Red Bluff and was first spotted Monday afternoon from the Anthony Peak Lookout. Firefighters reportedly watching the fire and areas of concern, its potential growth and the weather forecast. Yesterday they were working to remove dry brush and build containment lines. Another fire, pretty small, southeast of the East fire, the Haynes fire has burned ten acres.
The name of another Camp Fire victim has been released. The fire last year killed 85 people, but apparently not all of them have been identified publicly. Now the Butte County Sheriff’s Office releases the name of yet another victim. 72 year old Phyllis Salazar of Paradise. That brings the number of those positively identified to 78. 5 more have been tentatively identified, and two are still unknown.
One of the transmission lines believed to have started the Camp Fire has been permanently de-energized by PG&E. The Caribou-Palermo transmission line was turned off permanently as the utility company inspected lines, finding it as one of the riskiest in its coverage area. It runs along the Feather River and had been off since the fire broke out last December. But more problems were found on the line along with hundreds more determined to be an “immediate safety risk” with the same problem with a so called C-hook found on the line that started the Camp Fire.
A singer in Malaysia in trouble with the law for keeping a bear as a pet, even though she said she thought it was a dog. The sun bear was living with Zarith Sofia Yasin. She told Asia One in an interview that she had found the animal a couple weeks before, on the side of the road and wanted to nurse it back to health. She says she wasn’t intending to break the law, knowing it can’t be kept as a pet, she just wanted to save it. She named it Bruno and wanted to help it get well and give it to a zoo. Her apartment in Kuala Lumpur was raided after a video was seen of the bear crying from a window.
Calif. residents will be able to give their opinion on a plan for state health officials, not doctors, on medical exemptions for vaccinations. The Assembly Health Committee having a hearing which is expected to pack the room at the Capitol to discuss vaccines. Last month there was controversy at a meeting of the Senate with some in attendance shouting, “we will not comply” during a vote on the measure. But major changes have been made to the bill after the Gov. signaled he wasn’t a fan of the legislation. Now the bill says the public health department would only look over exemptions from doctors who have more than five in one school year at schools with vaccination rates of less than 95%. And the Gov. has said if it passes, he’ll sign it into law. It comes after measles started to spread again, reaching a 25-year high in the U.S. earlier this year.
Regulations are being worked on for a retrieval program for lost or abandoned commercial Dungeness crab gear. A public hearing of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife set for next Tuesday in Monterey on the matter. There was already one public hearing in April and a public comment period ends Monday. Right now all commercial Dungeness crab traps have to be removed from the water by 11:59 p.m. on the last day of the commercial Dungeness crab season. Any lost gear after the close of the season can be retrieved after the official closure. The state agency looking to reduce lost or abandoned trap gear in the ocean as they can become entangled to marine life and create navigational hazards to other boaters.
