THOUSANDS FLEE PAWNEE WILDFIRE
State of emergency declared as blaze, which has burned 10,500 acres, advances toward areas still charred from previous fires
Thousands of Lake County residents were forced to flee their homes Monday as a major wildfire encroached on a charred area of Northern California still recovering from severe blazes in recent years, sparking concern the state may be in for another destructive series of wildfires this summer.
With the Pawnee fire toll at 10,500 acres burned and 22 structures destroyed — and five percent containment — Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency Monday. The declaration cuts through bureaucratic red tape to free up resources faster and enables the county to recover some of the costs of fighting the fire.
Last year, the county was among those ravaged by a string of fires that ripped through Northern California wine country.
“I think we’re all just so traumatized and overwhelmed with all these fires year after year, this whole community is at a breaking point,” said Terri Gonsalves, 55, who evacuated her home around midnight Sunday.
She put four goats into her truck after she looked out her home’s back window and saw a big hill aflame. She is staying with her daughter in nearby Middletown, a small city where dozens of homes were destroyed in 2015. “When this stuff
“The fuels over the last five years — even though we had a wet winter a year ago — the fuels are still very dry and very drought stressed.”
— Jordan Motta, a captain with Cal Fire
happens, we rally around each other.”
Fire Battalion Chief Jonathan Cox said more than 230 firefighters along with two water-dropping helicopters were battling the fire in a rugged area that made it difficult to get equipment close to the blaze. Firefighters from the Alameda County, Fremont, Oakland, Hayward and Berkeley fire departments were deployed Sunday as part of designated strike teams to help battle the blaze, said Aisha Knowles, a spokeswoman for the Alameda County Fire Department. The fire is about 120 miles north of San Francisco and is threatening 600 homes and structures.
Crews were stationed along the blaze’s southern and southwestern edges to protect homes, said Jordan Motta, a captain with Cal Fire.
The blaze is being fed by erratic winds, low humidity and above average temperatures that have left the parched brush and vegetation vulnerable to fast-moving flames. “The fuels over the last five years — even though we had a wet winter a year ago — the fuels are still very dry and very drought stressed,” Motta said. “This fire is an example.”
A mandatory evacuation order remained in place for residents of the Spring Valley community. A shelter was established at Lower Lake High School, at 9430 Lake St., according to the sheriff’s office. The fire is centered near Pawnee Road and New Long Valley Road, northeast of Clearlake Oaks. Both New Long Valley Road and Old Long Valley Road were closed at Highway 20, Cal Fire said. Lake County has been repeatedly hit by fires in recent years. More than 150 homes were destroyed in October when multiple brush fires broke out in Northern California’s wine country and communities to the north. In 2015, more than 500 homes were destroyed in the Valley fire, which injured four firefighters and burned 76,000 acres. Jim Lake Steele County said Supervisor the county is impoverished and its fire-fighting equipment antiquated. He said the county has just a few roads into and out of the region, which can hinder
response time. Steele said that the area has been susceptible to fire for many decades because of dense brush and trees in the sparsely populated area, but that the severity of the latest blazes is unexpected.
“What’s happened with the more warming climate is we get low humidity and higher winds, and then we get a fire that’s worse than it’s been in those 50 years,” Steele said.
The Pawnee fire is the largest of about six wildfires burning Monday in Northern California.
The Lane fire in Tehama County has burned more than 3,000 acres and was only 20 percent contained.
The Stoll fire, also in Tehama County, has burned 300 acres and was 60 percent contained.
The Bascom fire in Shasta County has burned about 328 acres and was 90 percent contained.
Authorities on Monday afternoon lifted evacuation orders in Tehama County. Multiple homes and businesses in the city of Red Bluff were destroyed.
A Red Bluff police officer helping residents evacuate lost his home, authorities said. Red Bluff police Lt. Matt Hansen said people had donated about $10,000 in cash along with furniture and clothing to the family as they search for a rental home.
While the weekend’s blazes were the first major ones of the season to hit California, others have raged throughout the west for weeks.
A wildfire in Colorado this month forced residents of more than 2,000 homes to evacuate. The last evacuees returned home last week.
The fire north of Durango was in the Four Corners Region where Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah meet — the epicenter of a large Southwest swath of exceptional drought, the worst category of drought.
Moderate to extreme drought conditions affect those four states plus parts of Nevada, California, Oregon, Oklahoma and Texas, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.