WEST SIDE OF LAKE ALMANOR EVACUATES AS BLAZE GROWS
LAKE ALMANOR >> Rows of boats and RVs filed down Highway 32 as evacuation orders hit the west side of Lake Almanor on Wednesday morning.
In the wake of the evacuation, the Chester Memorial Hall became an interim evacuation site for those forced to leave their homes.
Debbie Long, who was the only person at the Chester evacuation site late Wednesday morning, said the news she would have to evacuate wasn’t surprising.
“I had my bags ready to go in the case that it came to this. It’s sad, but it also isn’t something out of the ordinary,” Long said. “I’m impressed by how quickly they were able to set this up before the Red Cross gets here.”
Inside the memorial hall, tables and chairs had been
set up, indoors being the only place safe from the smoke.
“I have respiratory problems,” said Dan Childers, of Chico. “Every year it seems like there’s a stretch where going outside is a hazard for me.”
Childers, who was in the midst of packing up from a vacation rental on the shores of north Lake Almanor, said he had discussed leaving early with his family on Monday.
“We talked about leaving, mainly because of the
air quality, but we just kept hoping they’d get a handle on things. We tried to stay positive thinking it’d get under control,” Childers said. “As you know, it didn’t turn out like we had hoped.”
Jessica Larson, of Chico, said she was disappointed that her families vacation had been cut short but was more concerned about the safety of the firefighters.
“It’s disappointing our vacation ended like this. The kids had really been looking forward to it. They don’t yet understand how quickly things can change with a wildfire,” Larson said. “We’ll be safe but I always worry about the people out there trying to stop the fire from spreading.”
Despite evacuations being left to the west shore, multiple north side businesses, restaurants and campgrounds continued to close throughout the day.
At the North Shore Campground, all camp sites had been vacated while a handful of seasonal workers finished wrapping up business.
“We’re evacuating right now,” said Theresa Bluth, owner of North Shore Campground. “Just about everyone that was staying here is out. The only thing is, some of the seasonal workers won’t have time to get all of their stuff. But everyone that was staying
here is gone.”
Despite the threat of the fire, Marty West of Chester said he wasn’t planning to leave.
“I’m not leaving. I think it’ll be alright,” West said. “It’s just like the Chips Fire. As long as they’re able to get in there while it’s coming out of the canyon, they’ll get it.”
West who grew up in the area, said he had just moved back home after living in Oregon for a number of years.
“We just moved back here, and it feels like you just can’t escape the fires. They’re all over the West
Coast now. It used to not be this way,” he said. “Worst comes to worst, I’ll just get in my boat and wait it out in the lake.”
Cal Fire-Butte County Public Information Officer Rick Carhart said Wednesday that Cal Fire just received nearly 1000 additional people to help.
“We have close to a thousand more people we’ve brought in. The number of resources we had on the fire yesterday was around 2,400 and we now have more than 3,300. A huge number of those are boots on the ground firefighters,” Carhart said. “We’re deploying a lot of them because the Lake Almanor area is the biggest area of concern so we’re putting a lot of resources in that area now that we’ve got more ability to do more work in a wider area.”
As for the threat to additional parts of Lake Almanor, Carhart didn’t rule anything out.
“It’s moving in that direction,” he said. “But as of our map (Wednesday) morning, the fire hadn’t yet reached the Butt Valley reservoir. That’s at least a good couple miles away.”
The closest end of the Butt Valley reservoir is roughly 3.5 miles from Prattville. Carhart said that the fire would have to make its way through the reservoir area to continue moving towards Lake Almanor.
“It would have to get through and around that before it would get to the shores of Lake Almanor,” Carhart said. “We now have a whole group of resources focused on structure protection and that’s going to be a big focus now that the fire is getting closer to communities and places people live or vacation. Our focus is making sure those structures are safe and protected and strengthening those control lines.”
Carhart added that because of the location, there is some additional help coming from past fires.
“The fire is moving through the same area that had the Chips Fire. There are still dozer lines that were established during that fire that we’ve been able to tie into and sort of widen and remake,” Carhart said. “Now that the fire’s moving out of the Chips Fire area, it’s moving into areas that maybe haven’t burned in decades, and so the fuel in there is going to be a lot thicker with fully grown trees. Then again, it’s moving into places that there are more communities meaning it’s moving out of some of those extremely steep canyons. That will give us better ability to get resources to the fire scene.”