LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The quick work of Mt. Konocti’s fire lookout volunteers and a large number of fire resources – including a passing strike team on its way home from the August Complex – led to the quick containment of a fire along Highway 20 on Friday.
Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mike Wink said the fire was dispatched at 11:42 a.m., just east of New Long Valley Road, east of Clearlake Oaks.
Wink credited the sharp-eyed volunteers of the Mt. Konocti Lookout for spotting the fire early on.
While the volunteers are no longer in the lookout tower due to safety issues, they continue to have a presence on the mountaintop to look for fires, he said.
And on Friday, “Their determination and hard work paid off,” Wink said.
That early report was particularly important because the fire was located in an area without cell phone service, said Wink.
Another fortunate factor: “Just by random coincidence there was a strike team of engines that were passing through the area of Highway 20,” Wink said.
Following the fire’s dispatch, Wink said a strike team of five engines from Cal Fire’s Amador-El Dorado Unit happened to be traveling along Highway 20, on their way home from an assignment in Covelo, where they had been working on the north zone of the August Complex.
That group of firefighters, monitoring the radio traffic, stopped and joined the firefighting effort, which Wink said included a wildland dispatch of five Cal Fire engines and local fire agencies, as well as another five engines from Mendocino County fire districts that has been staged in the city of Clearlake due to the red flag conditions.
Wink said tankers and helicopters – including Copter 104 from Boggs Mountain, plus another copter that had been staged there due to the red flag warning – were part of the response.
All of them “pounced” on the fire, which Wink said burned in grass along the highway.
Although the fire had a northwest wind on it, “Luckily, it didn’t jump the highway,” Wink said.
The firefighters held the fire to three acres and contained it very quickly, he said.
Radio reports indicated Highway 20 was closed for a short time as firefighters were working in the area.
Wink said the fire started on private property.
“The property owner is cooperating with the investigation and it is not suspicious,” Wink said of the fire’s cause.
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.