Containment of Pawnee Fire grows to 40%
Populated areas in Lake County no longer face immediate threat
Populated areas of Lake County no longer face an immediate threat from the Pawnee Fire, authorities said Thursday, allowing the remaining 200 residents under evacuation orders to return home as firefighters increased containment on the blaze to 40 percent.
The push to corral the fire came ahead of hot, dry and windy weather expected to set in Friday and remain through the weekend. Authorities across the North Coast re-issued red flag warnings about the predicted fire weather.
“We’re trying to get everything wrapped up before the weather changes around midnight, when the winds will be out of the north again,” said Brian Price, a battalion chief with the Fresno Fire Department who is working on the Pawnee Fire incident command team. “The last thing we want is for the wind to pick up an ember and slide it across the line.”
The total area burned by the fire, east of Clearlake Oaks, remained at 13,700 acres after winds remained calm Wednesday into Thursday. The perimeter of the fire was not expanding and active flames were reported only well within the perimeter, Price said.
More than 3,200 fire personnel from all over California were assigned to the fire and crews continued clearing brush and installing fire line Thursday.
About 200 residents of the Double Eagle Ranch subdivision east of the fire were permitted to return home starting Thursday morning. The bulk of evacuees, about 1,300 Spring Valley residents, were allowed back into their homes Wednesday.
An closure order remains in place for the Walker Ridge and Indian Valley Reservoir federal lands to ensure public safety while heavy equipment works in the areas, according Maxwell Fire Department firefighters clear excess brush for a wider fire break around a control tower for Indian Valley Dam near Clearlake Oaks on Wednesday.
to Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin.
“As far as fire activity goes, it’s not fully contained, but it’s no longer posing an immediate threat to the community,” said Martin. “But there’s always a danger of fires in the summer, particularly in Lake County, and we ask that the public be careful and be vigilant.”
A total of 12 homes in greater Clearlake Oaks were destroyed at the outset of the now six-day blaze, with another 10 structures claimed by flames. The sheriff’s office was asking
residents to use care when sifting through fire debris and dispose of waste appropriately in temporary collection zones for fireimpacted areas.
The American Red Cross continued to operate an evacuation shelter at Lower Lake High School in Clearlake and had nine people stay overnight Wednesday, down from 15 the night before.
The shelter will remain open until there is no longer a demonstrated need in the community, an American Red Cross spokeswoman said.
California lawmakers on Thursday adopted sweeping new rules that restrict the data-harvesting practices of Amazon.com, Facebook, Google and Uber, a move that soon could spur other states, and even the U.S. Congress, to take aim at the tech industry.
The so-called California Data Privacy Protection Act is one of the toughest U.S. regulations targeting Silicon Valley, where a series of recent privacy mishaps – many involving Facebook – have left consumers clamoring for greater protections online. The proposal would require tech giants to disclose the kind of data they collect about consumers, and it allows web users to opt out of having their information sold to third parties, including advertisers.
The new privacy rules only apply to residents in the Golden State, and they won’t take effect until 2020. The governor has yet to sign the measure.
California cities and counties won’t be allowed to tax soda for the next 12 years after Gov. Jerry Brown signed fast-moving legislation Thursday.
The bill, which was first unveiled Saturday evening, prohibits local governments from imposing new taxes on soda until 2031. It comes after a deal was struck between legislators and business and labor interests who agreed to remove an initiative from the Nov. 6 statewide ballot that would have restricted cities and counties from raising any taxes without a supermajority vote of local citizens.
In a signing statement, Brown said soda taxes “combat the dangerous and ill effects of too much sugar in the diets of children.” But he added that mayors across the state called him to support the deal because they were alarmed by the tax initiative.
– Appeal-democrat news services