Wildfires grow in Mendocino County
Two out-of-control wildfires burning in rugged terrain of Mendocino County pushed into Lake County on Saturday, leading authorities to issue mandatory evacuations for the rural communities on the western outskirts of the city of Lakeport and Upper Lake on Clear Lake’s northwest shore.
The 6,000-acre River fire, which ignited Friday near Hopland and forced hundreds to evacuate, was about 5 miles from Lakeport by Saturday afternoon, its ridgetop flames visible from the city as residents packed their cars to leave after a 1:30 p.m. evacuation order from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
And to the north, the 3,500-acre Ranch fire that started off Highway 20 near Potter Valley, also made an eastward run, leading to evacuations in rural communities outside Upper Lake including Scotts Valley, Bachelor Valley and Witter Springs and Elk Mountain Road.
“The fire is right on the county line by now — I can see it,” said Lake County Supervisor Rob Brown, who was standing outside the emergency operations center at the Lake County Jail in Lakeport. “The wind is picking up. The heat is picking up.”
Collectively, the growing fires have led authorities in Mendocino and Lake counties to order about 2,500 people to evacuate from rural communities in and around Hopland, Potter Valley in Mendocino County and enclaves outside Lakeport and Upper Lake in Lake County.
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman at 4:30 p.m. declared a local emergency due to the fires, which Cal Fire is calling the Mendocino Complex Fire.
Meanwhile, big fires also continued to burn outside Yosemite National Park and in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles near Palm Springs. As of Saturday afternoon, those fires had burned more nearly 100 square miles.
Yosemite Valley remained closed to visitors and won’t reopen until Friday.