CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Firefighters contained a Wednesday night wildland fire that burned in the hills above Clearlake near the site of a fire that occurred earlier this summer.
The Sulphur fire was first reported just minutes before 7:30 p.m. in the area of Lakeshore Drive and San Joaquin Avenue.
The first units arriving on scene from Lake County Fire reported over the radio that the fire had a slow rate of spread and was burning up the ridge to the area of Carter Lane, with no structures threatened.
It was in that same area that the Goose fire burned about six acres on June 20, as Lake County News has reported.
Lake County Fire Protection District Chief Willie Sapeta said his agency, along with Northshore Fire and Cal Fire, responded. Cal Fire sent both engines as well as tankers and helicopters.
Altogether, the three agencies supplied 10 engines, two medic units, four battalion chiefs, a chief, two dozers, four aircraft, a helicopter and several water tenders, Sapeta said.
The fire's forward progress was stopped just after 8:30 p.m., according to Sapeta's report from the scene.
At that point he had requested Clearlake Police officers temporarily close down San Joaquin Avenue to all vehicles except for fire units while the mop up was taking place.
While firefighters hadn't yet been able to walk the fire area late Wednesday, Sapeta told Lake County News that the fire was estimated to be between 10 and 15 acres..
At one point the fire jumped over Carter Lane, with that slop over site measuring about one acre, Sapeta said.
He said firefighters were able to tie the fire into the Goose fire burn area, noting that the Wednesday night incident was just to the southwest of that previous fire.
Sapeta estimated five hours of mop up would be required, and units at the scene reported that they were not expecting to be back in quarters until about 2 a.m. Thursday. One unit reported that it would be on the incident scene through the night.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, with Sapeta reporting Wednesday night that investigators were still processing the scene.
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Wednesday night wildland fire contained; incident near location of June fire
- Elizabeth Larson
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