Pawnee fire grows through the night; structures reported to have burned
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – A fire burning in the Spring Valley Lakes subdivision east of Clearlake Oaks since Saturday evening grew through the night, as more resources arrived and authorities continued evacuating residents from the fire’s path.
The Pawnee fire was first dispatched shortly before 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Firefighters from Cal Fire, Northshore Fire and other assisting agencies accessed the fire at the subdivision’s north end, off of Quail Trail, as Lake County News has reported.
By nightfall, the fire was estimated to have burned 400 acres, a size that was to nearly quadruple within several hours.
Cal Fire said 700 structures are threatened by the fire. Late Saturday, Cal Fire confirmed in a written update that one structure had burned, and later in the night it was reported over the radio that several more were on fire.
So far, no injuries have been reported.
Through the night, the fire – which radio reports indicated was being pushed by gusting north winds – continued to balloon in size. In addition to the winds, Cal Fire said factors causing it to grow included low relative humidity and high temperatures.
Raising concerns are the forecast for gusting north winds into the mid 20s to return on Sunday morning.
Early Saturday evening, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office had called for mandatory evacuations of all of Spring Valley Lakes, but not all residents left, according to Sheriff Brian Martin, who was at the scene.
At about 11 p.m. Saturday, Martin told Lake County News that his deputies had been making evacuation notifications for hours. “We’ve had some people who have refused to leave.”
Due to the fire activity, Martin said the deputies were making repeat visits to several homes in the area of Wolf Creek and Cache Creek roads.
He said Lake County Animal Care and Control’s Lake Evacuation and Animal Protection, or LEAP, also was out helping evacuate animals from Spring Valley.
At that point, the winds had died down and Martin said several structures were threatened, with engines staged nearby to protect them.
He also had received a size estimate of between 550 to 600 acres by that time.
With the entire Spring Valley community ordered to evacuate, an evacuation center was set up at Lower Lake High School at 9430 Lake St.
Martin said late Saturday that there were more shelter staff that people staying there at that time, noting he believed many people were waiting at the Clearlake Oaks Moose Lodge, which originally had been named as a location for evacuees to shelter.
Throughout the night deputies, firefighters and California Department of Fish and Wildlife officers were dispatched to help evacuate residents who hadn’t previously left.
Just before 11:30 p.m., residents in the 17000 block of Cache Creek Road reported that the fire was making a run at their home.
Minutes later incident command reported the fire was continuing to spread to the south and threatening new structures, with a request put out for five additional engines which couldn’t be supplied by local fire districts.
Then, just minutes before midnight, there were multiple 911 calls about a possible new fire start in the 1800 block of New Long Valley Road. One 911 caller reported a series of large booms before the spot fire started.
At 12:20 a.m., firefighters reported multiple structures on fire, and said the new spot fire was “significantly established.”
That report was followed up by a request for LEAP to rescue seven horses in the 2200 block of New Long Valley Road.
Just after 12:40 a.m., the fire’s overall size was put at 1,000 acres, according to incident command.
The firefighting situation continued to become more complex and dangerous, as it was then reported that power lines were down along Spring Valley Road.
At about the same time, a deputy working on evacuations reported seeing another spot fire cresting back toward Long Valley.
That prompted authorities to issue another mandatory call for evacuations for all of Spring Valley, with the sheriff’s office issuing its third Nixle alert for the fire just before 1 a.m. Sunday.
Due to the downed and live power lines, incident command also asked Pacific Gas and Electric to shut off power to the fire area.
Just after 1:45 a.m., incident command confirmed that power had been cut to all of Spring Valley Lakes, as well as New Long Valley and Old Long Valley.
PG&E’s online outage center showed the area where the power was turned off has 504 customers.
Incident command reported just after 2 a.m. that “branch five” of the fire, caused by the spot fire located between New Long Valley Road and Old Long Valley Road, was estimated to be 100 acres in size.
Less than 10 minutes later, incident command followed up by reporting that the Pawnee fire had burned a total of 1,500 acres, with zero containment.
Just after 3 a.m., incident command said all known requests for animal evacuations had been completed.
Cal Fire said the resources assigned to the fire included 21 engines, four water tenders, two helicopters, five hand crews, six dozers and 150 personnel, with incident command ordering a significant number of additional ground and air resources.
Assisting agencies include Lake County Fire, Lakeport Fire, Kelseyville Fire, South Lake Fire, Williams Fire Department and the United States Forest Service-Mendocino National Forest.
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