LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Tuesday afternoon, 24 days after it roared to life on Cobb, the Valley fire – one of the most damaging fires in California history – was finally, and fully, contained.
The 76,067-acre fire was reported to be at 100-percent containment in an early Tuesday evening report from Cal Fire.
The agency said 248 firefighters, 15 fire engines, 10 fire crews, three helicopters and two dozers remained assigned to the patrol, mop up and landscape rehabilitation activities expected to continue in the 118-square-mile fire area in the days to come.
Since it began on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 12, the fire has created a vast path of devastation that is still difficult for many to comprehend, leading local officials to dub it the worst disaster in Lake County's history.
Four deaths have been confirmed as a result of the fire. Additionally, there were four serious injuries when, within a short time of the fire's dispatch, Cal Fire firefighters on the Copter 104 crew were burned while responding to the incident.
Thousands of structures were threatened, approximately 1,958 structures were destroyed, of those just over 1,300 homes. Another 93 structures were damaged.
“If your home is still standing, you're one of the lucky ones,” Battalion Chief Mike Smith, a member of Cal Fire's Incident Management Team 3 – which had command of the fire for much of its life – told Lake County News in a recent interview.
At its height, close to 20,000 people – roughly a third of Lake County's population – were evacuated from the communities of Anderson Springs, Clear Lake Riviera, Cobb, Hidden Valley Lake, Loch Lomond, Twin Lakes and Middletown. It also burned into Napa and Sonoma counties, sparking evacuations there as well.
Among the thousands who lost their homes were more than two dozen firefighters who were engaged in battling the blaze. Several sheriff's deputies and county employees also were reported to have lost homes while working to help others.
The fire's sheer speed also appeared to have confounded the county's emergency warning system and the technology on which it's based.
Sheriff Brian Martin said authorities used phone calls, Nixle messages and door-to-door contacts to notify community members of the need to evacuate.
He said that, in some cases, phone lines burned before the messages could be delivered, and spotty cell service in areas like Cobb also delayed or prevented the messages from being delivered in time.
On a given Saturday, Martin said his agency has about half a dozen deputies on duty countywide. That was the case on the Saturday the fire started, when his staff mobilized as quickly as they could to begin evacuations.
“I don't think people understand how rapid and how violent this fire was,” Martin said.
Add to all of that the fact that the Valley fire followed by a little over a month two other devastating wildland fires – the Rocky, which began July 29, near Lower Lake and burned 69,438 acres; and the Jerusalem, sparked near Lower Lake on Aug. 9, burning 25,118 acres.
Cal Fire has listed the Valley fire as No. 3 in its top 20 list of the most destructive fires in the state's history, behind the 1991 Oakland Hills fire and the 2003 Cedar fire. Among that top 20, the Valley fire ties for the sixth deadliest.
As for Lake County's history, the Valley fire is second in size only to the 1996 Fork fire, which burned more than 83,000 acres. It burned primarily in the Mendocino National Forest, where it destroyed about 40 structures, many of those reported to be hunting cabins.
Understanding 'megafires'
On Sept. 13, Gov. Jerry Brown's declared a state of emergency due to the Valley fire.
On Sept. 21, Brown appealed to President Barack Obama for a presidential major disaster declaration, which Obama granted the following day, opening up federal aid to fire victims.
Congressman Mike Thompson, who was on the ground for the first week of the fire, also wrote to Obama to ask for federal assistance.
In his letter to the president, Thompson wrote, “I've been on the ground and seen the lives and livelihoods destroyed. People have lost everything – houses, possessions, family items that can never be replaced. A once beautiful land has been decimated. Fields turned black. Cars are melted to pavement. Houses have been reduced to piles of ash. Farmers and ranchers have seen untold losses of livestock, grazing areas and vineyards. Our community has been left heartbroken and many families have been left with nothing.”
He added, “I committed to the impacted families that I would help them recover and rebuild. I hope you will join me in keeping that promise. It is our government's responsibility.”
In his letter to the president, Brown noted, “Given this fire's rate of spread, size, and intensity, scientists consider it to be a 'megafire,' which behaves differently than typical wildfires. Megafires expand quickly and unpredictably, thriving on dead trees, dry vegetation, and wind conditions. Winds propel burning embers far ahead of the existing fire, accelerating fire growth at a pace that is very difficult to control. Four years of extreme drought conditions have parched our landscapes and created millions of dead trees that have increased California's vulnerability to these types of fires.”
Smith said “megafire” is a relatively new term used to describe the much larger, faster, more destructive wildfires that have been occurring more often in recent years.
He said megafires are influenced by a number of factors, from the fourth year of drought conditions cited by the governor to a greater number of people moving into what's called the “wildland interface,” primarily more remote, forested areas.
“This is creating some complications for firefighters,” who as they try to protect people and homes are dealing with a changing environment, Smith said.
Until this year, Lake County didn't have many of these larger fires, he said.
Smith explained that the majority of the larger wildland fires have burned in heavier fuels – the term the fire service uses to describe vegetation such as trees, brush and grass.
Seasonal shifts also are occurring. As an example, Smith, who hails from Southern California, said the state's southern portion has had to deal with heavy winds in September and October for many years, but now those winds are kicking up later – in December and January.
“We are faced by a year-round fire season as a result of the changes we're seeing on the ground in California's historically Mediterranean climate,” Smith said.
He encouraged people to continue to keep defensible space around their homes. “We know defensible space works,” he said, referring people to www.readyforwildfire.org for more information.
During a visit to Lake County in September, Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott said his agency had been talking about the potential for such big, destructive fires for some time.
Even so, Pimlott said no one has seen rates of spread like that seen in the Valley fire, which in the first 24 hours burned 50,000 acres.
He said Cal Fire's No. 1 message to state residents is to heed evacuation orders and leave when officials say it's necessary to do so.
In the case of the Valley fire, he said it spread miles in just a few hours, and firefighters had to be diverted from the work of fighting the fire to getting people out of the fire's path.
Todd Derum of Cal Fire, who was the Valley fire's operations chief in its early hours, also reported at a recent community gathering that the fire moved so fast that the focus turned to evacuations, not firefighting.
“We're not out of fire season yet,” said Derum, who added that he's not sure the 2012 fire season ever ended.
From response to recovery
With the firefighting response now coming to an end, the recovery phase is getting into full swing, and is a mixture of the efforts of local, state and federal government officials and programs.
Some key parts of the rebuilding already has taken place or is well under way.
Almost immediately after the fire began, utility companies led by Pacific Gas and Electric and AT&T were involved in the response.
They began rebuilding the utility infrastructure the fire damaged or destroyed, placing several hundred new poles and more than 100 miles of new transmission lines in the effort to restore power to thousands of south county customers.
State officials also are beginning the massive debris removal process. California Office of Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci last week asked FEMA for assistance to pay for the cleanup for both the Valley and the Butte fires. He estimated that $66 million in costs for both fires are eligible for federal help.
As Smith noted, all major fires start and end local, and many of the major decisions going forward will be in the hands of local leaders who must grapple with the challenges of rebuilding communities – with a goal of rebuilding them better – with available resources and in light of residents' expectations.
At its Tuesday meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved a resolution to take more stringent action – in the form of a fine of up to $20,000 – for landlords who raise rents more than the 10-percent allowed during an emergency or evict tenants in order to rent to fire victims at higher rental costs.
As a result of a gubernatorial executive order issued last week expediting placement and processing of temporary housing for Valley fire victims, action that the board had planned to consider on Tuesday regarding an interim urgency ordinance deferring provisions for permitting new RV parks to be used specifically for housing people who lost their homes in the fire became a moot point.
The board also put off deciding on rules for allowing fire victims to live in RVs on properties one acre or larger during the rebuilding phases.
Also on Tuesday, the Lakeport City Council voted to waive for 90 days the maximum 30-day stay allowance for transient housing at local hotels and other similar establishments, as well as the initial service and deposit fees for new sewer and water connections for fire victims seeking temporary rental housing in the city.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.