Electrical fire damages Clearlake Oaks home; large marijuana grow found inside
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – An electrical issue in a marijuana grow house in Clearlake Oaks led to a fire on Sunday morning.
The fire at 14134 Chestnut Lane in the Orchard Shores subdivision broke out at 7:30 a.m., according to neighbor Michael O'Grady.
O’Grady said that he got onto his roof with hoses to protect his home, explaining that had the wind shifted his home would have burned.
Northshore Fire Chief Jay Beristianos said four engines and 23 fire personnel responded to the fire in the double-wide modular home.
Beristianos said the fire gutted the home and also damaged the garage of another neighboring property. There were no injuries.
O’Grady said neither the owner of the burned home nor the neighbor on the east side whose garage was damaged were home at the time of the fire.
Beristianos said the cause of the fire appeared to be electrical in nature.
Both Beristianos and O’Grady confirmed that the house contained numerous marijuana plants.
O’Grady said he could see several marijuana plants hanging upside down in the house, and when he looked in the window, he said there were wall-to-wall 5-gallon pots with marijuana plants growing in them. He said there were at least six grow lights per room that he could see.
Overall, no specific number of plants in the house was given, although O’Grady said a firefighter at the scene who had been inside the residence estimated there were more than 100 plants inside.
John Jensen contributed to this report.
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