LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Residents of parts of the south county got the go-ahead to begin returning home after nearly a week of mandatory evacuations due to the LNU Lightning Complex.

Sheriff Brian Martin said Thursday evening that the mandatory evacuation orders for Hidden Valley Lake and a portion of the Lower Lake area have been reduced to evacuation warnings.

The sheriff’s office said the reduction from orders to warnings is for the areas east of Highway 29, north of Butts Canyon Road, south of Morgan Valley Road and west of the intersection of Morgan Valley Road and Rocky Creek Road, extending south to Butts Canyon Road.

The sheriff’s office said this includes all residences in the areas of Lower Lake, Spruce Grove Road, Hofacker Lane and Hidden Valley Lake.

Portions of the Jerusalem Valley are in the area that has been reduced from order to warning, officials said.

Earlier in the day, an evacuation warning for Spring Valley, Long Valley and Double Eagle Ranch east of Clearlake Oaks was lifted. It had been issued on Wednesday after the Hennessey fire jumped Highway 16.

The evacuation warnings for Middletown proper and other areas of the south county remain in place, Martin said.

“This decision was down to the wire,” he said during a Thursday evening community meeting.

Martin said the reduction from order to warning doesn’t ensure people returning home are safe when going into those fire-impacted areas.

The decision comes as Cal Fire reported that firefighters had a good day’s work and favorable weather conditions on the Hennessey fire, the portion of the complex burning in Lake County.

Chief Sean Kavanaugh of Cal Fire’s Incident Management Team No. 2 said the LNU Lightning Complex was up to 369,935 acres on Thursday night. That’s an increase of just under 1,100 acres during the day, one of the fire’s smallest days of growth so far. Containment edged up from 33 to 35 percent on Thursday.

Kavanaugh said the Hennessey fire’s acreage had grown to more than 312,000 acres on Thursday.

So far, nearly 1,100 structures have been destroyed and just under 300 damaged as the fire has made its way through Lake, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties.

Sheriff Martin said during the meeting that there has not been much damage to structures from the fire in Lake County.

Lake County Air Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart said air conditions were worsening on Thursday night due to shifting winds. He said the smoke and haze are expected to clear in the coming days as there are further directional changes in the winds.

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