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LAKEPORT, Calif. – After weeks of fire update meetings, on Thursday night local, state and federal officials participated in a meeting focused on recovery from the Mendocino Complex.
The county of Lake hosted the meeting at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport on Thursday evening.
The 42-minute meeting can be seen in its entirety above.
Speakers included County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson, Cal Fire Incident Management Team 2 spokesman Jeremy Rahn, Paul Gibbs of federal Incident Management Team 1, Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin, Supervisor Jim Steele, Public Health Director Denise Pomeroy, James Scott of Lake County Environmental Health, Lake County Water Resources Director David Cowan, Rachel Elkins of the University of California Cooperative Extension, Lakeport Mayor Mireya Turner and Lake County Recovery Coordinator Nathan Spangler.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service announced on Thursday a new strategy for managing catastrophic wildfires and the impacts of invasive species, drought, and insect and disease epidemics.
Specifically, a new report titled “Toward Shared Stewardship across Landscapes: An Outcome-based investment Strategy,” published below, outlines the USFS’s plans to work more closely with states to identify landscape-scale priorities for targeted treatments in areas with the highest payoffs.
“On my trip to California this week, I saw the devastation that these unprecedented wildfires are having on our neighbors, friends and families,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. “We commit to work more closely with the states to reduce the frequency and severity of wildfires. We commit to strengthening the stewardship of public and private lands. This report outlines our strategy and intent to help one another prevent wildfire from reaching this level.”
Both federal and private managers of forest land face a range of urgent challenges, among them catastrophic wildfires, invasive species, degraded watersheds, and epidemics of forest insects and disease. The conditions fueling these circumstances are not improving. Of particular concern are longer fire seasons, the rising size and severity of wildfires, and the expanding risk to communities, natural resources, and firefighters.
“The challenges before us require a new approach,” said Interim USFS Chief Vicki Christiansen. “This year Congress has given us new opportunities to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with state leaders mitigate to identify land management priorities that include mitigating wildfire risks. We will use all the tools available to us to reduce hazardous fuels, including mechanical treatments, prescribed fire, and unplanned fire in the right place at the right time, to mitigate them.”
A key component of the new strategy is to prioritize investment decisions on forest treatments in direct coordination with states using the most advanced science tools.
This allows the USFS to increase the scope and scale of critical forest treatments that protect communities and create resilient forests.
The USFS will also build upon the authorities created by the 2018 Omnibus Bill, including new categorical exclusions for land treatments to improve forest conditions, new road maintenance authorities, and longer stewardship contracting in strategic areas.
The agency will continue streamlining its internal processes to make environmental analysis more efficient and timber sale contracts more flexible.
The Omnibus Bill also includes a long-term “fire funding fix,” starting in FY 2020, that will stop the rise of the 10-year average cost of fighting wildland fire and reduce the likelihood of the disruptive practice of transferring funds from Forest Service non-fire programs to cover firefighting costs.
The product of more than a decade of hard work, this bipartisan solution will ultimately stabilize the agency’s operating environment.
Finally, because rising rates of firefighter fatalities in recent decades have shifted the USFS’s approach to fire response, the report emphasizes the agency’s commitment to a risk-based response to wildfire.
Toward Shared Stewardship across Landscapes: An Outcome-based investment Strategy by LakeCoNews on Scribd
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Fire officials on Thursday evening said containment is up and more evacuation orders have been lifted on the Ranch fire portion of the Mendocino Complex.
The Mendocino Complex reached 370,294 acres and 76-percent containment on Thursday evening, Cal Fire said.
Cal Fire’s report said that includes 321,374 acres and 72-percent containment on the Ranch fire. The River fire was fully contained on Monday at 48,920 acres.
Increased containment on the incident Thursday afternoon coincided with authorities lifting the mandatory evacuation orders for all residences with driveway access south of 16000 Mid Mountain Road, north of Pine Avenue, west of the Mendocino National Forest and east of Eastside Potter Valley Road in Mendocino County, and in Lake County for all residences on Bartlett Springs Road, north of Highway 20 to the Mendocino National Forest boundary.
Both areas remain in advisory evacuation status, Cal Fire said.
Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin on Thursday urged people returning to evacuation areas to use caution and to be mindful of the dangers that exist in the fire area.
The Ranch fire, which has grown by another 6,000 acres in 24 hours, is continuing to burn actively in steep and rugged terrain, according to Cal Fire.
Due to temperatures rising and relative humidity dropping, Cal Fire said fire activity increased in the early afternoon. The fire continues to remain active in the Mendocino National Forest as well as threatening communities that reside north of the fire perimeter.
Fire crews on Thursday continued to construct control lines, tying together pre-existing
containment barriers, especially north of the Snow Mountain Wilderness, and to do structure defense in communities threatened by the fire.
During a Mendocino Complex virtual recovery meeting hosted by the county of Lake on Thursday evening, Cal Fire Incident Management Team 2 spokesman Jeremy Rahn said fire crews are making suppression repairs in the River fire area, which means fixing areas where there was damage from equipment and the firefighting process.
The southern portion of the Ranch fire near the Northshore communities looks good, with a lot of containment line in place, he said.
Rahn also thanked the community and local agencies for showing its support on Wednesday when the body of Draper City Fire Battalion Chief Matt Burchett – who died on Monday fighting the ranch fire – was taken home to Utah. The procession went from Ukiah to Santa Rosa before he was flown to Salt Lake City, as Lake County News has reported.
Federal Incident Management Team spokesman Paul Gibbs said that on Thursday a lot of work was going on in the fire’s western portion, just east of Potter Valley.
He said firefighters have had issues with the fire in an S curve of the Eel River on the north side of the fire, where the fire keeps spotting across the river.
That area – where the fire was heading up Grapevine Creek to the northwest – was the source of a large smoke column seen on the Ranch fire on Thursday evening, Gibbs said.
Gibbs said crews have also been doing burning operations along the fireline west of Lodoga.
Officials said several mandatory evacuations remain in place:
– Lake County: East of the Lake-Mendocino County line, south of the Lake-Mendocino-Glenn
County line, west of the Lake-Colusa County line, north of the fire perimeter and the Mendocino National Forest boundary.
– Mendocino County: South and East of Eel River Road, west of the Mendocino-Lake County line, north of the 16000 block of Mid Mountain Road.
– Colusa County: Areas west of Lodoga Stonyford Road including Fouts Springs Road (Forest Road M10), Goat Mountain Road, Cooks Spring Road, Walker Ridge Road and Brim
Road.
– Glenn County: Mendocino National Forest boundary west to the Lake County line, south to the Colusa County line and north to Forest Road 20N07 also known as County Road 308.
Resources assigned to the incident on Thursday include 3,569 personnel, 209 engines, 91 water tenders, 21 helicopters, 73 hand crews and 63 dozers.
Firefighters still anticipate the complex being fully contained by Sept. 1.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The body of a veteran firefighter who lost his life this week on the lines of the Mendocino Complex was transported home to his family in Utah with honors on Wednesday.
Draper City Fire Battalion Chief Matthew Burchett, 42, died on Monday evening after being fatally injured on the Ranch fire portion of the complex, as Lake County News has reported.
On Wednesday, his body was transported home, with the procession beginning in the afternoon at Eversole Mortuary in Ukiah, driving past the Mendocino Complex base camp in the city before proceeding down Highway 101 to the Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa.
The Cal Fire Honor Guard which kept vigil with Burchett’s body around the clock accompanied him on the journey, as did his wife, brother and a family friend who flew to Ukiah on Wednesday morning on Utah Gov. Gary Herbert’s private plane, according to Draper City Fire. Members of the Utah Air National Guard also accompanied him,
Draper City Fire also sent an honor guard to Ukiah, as did the Salt Lake City Unified Fire Authority, where Burchett had worked for 20 years before joining Draper City Fire in May.
At the airport in Santa Rosa, Burchett’s US flag-draped casket was placed in a California Air National Guard C130-J plane, which flew him on the final leg of the journey to Salt Lake City. Draper City, which has a population of about 42,000 residents, is located about 20 miles to the south.
When the plane arrived at the Utah National Guard Base Wednesday night, two fire trucks shot water in an arc over the plane as it taxied in.
Once the plane arrived, Draper City Fire and Police, Unified Fire Authority, Utah Highway Patrol and Unified Police Department escorted the hearse bearing Burchett’s body to the mortuary.
Videos posted on this page document the portions of the journey.
A decorated career
Burchett died Monday evening after he was hit by a falling tree while working on the fire lines, as Lake County News has reported.
Few details have so far been made available about the incident that took Burchett’s life, but Draper City Mayor Troy Walker has confirmed some new information, explaining that it occurred near Lake Pillsbury.
Walker said that firefighters gave Burchett immediate aid and within 40 minutes he was airlifted out of the fire area.
Radio reports on the day of the accident stated that Burchett’s fellow firefighters had used cardiopulmonary resuscitation in an effort to save his life. A medivac unit was directed to land at Drop Point 15, about six miles southwest of Lake Pillsbury, to transport him.
Burchett was flown to Ukiah Valley Medical Center, where he later succumbed to his injuries, Walker said.
For any line of duty death, there is an investigation, and Walker said Cal Fire has a team working on this case.
Burchett, who had been in the fire service for two decades, came to California earlier this month with four of his fellow firefighters from Draper City, jumping at the chance to help in California, according to Draper City officials.
Unified Fire Authority Chief Dan Petersen said Burchett had worked with the agency for more than 20 years, where he had a decorated career.
He started as a seasonal wildland firefighter in the authority’s wildland division in 1995, working his way up to squad boss. He became a full-time firefighter with the agency in 1999, promoting to wildland specialist in 2000 and paramedic in 2004, Petersen said.
Petersen said in 2003 Burchett deployed to the space shuttle Columbia disaster as part of the recovery effort with his work as a crew boss, and earned a promotion to captain in 2009 working in an engine company. From 2011 to 2015, he worked in the training division, training more than 50 new firefighters.
In 2016, he took an assignment with the emergency management division, helping prepare for disasters countywide, a role in which Petersen said Burchett also excelled.
“His true love and passion and what he really was known for was wildland firefighting,” said Petersen. “He possessed an incredible knowledge and wealth of experience in this area.”
Burchett’s journey to California this month wasn’t his first trip to the state to help with wildland firefighting. Petersen said that in 2017 Burchett came to California to be a liaison for all the Utah resources sent there to assist with the wildland fires, and did a “miraculous job” in coordinating those efforts on his first deployment.
Whether he was on the front lines or in administration, the agency, the communities he served and his coworkers are all better off for his efforts, Petersen said.
“We are truly missing a great man who’s given his life to the communities that he took an oath to service,” said Petersen.
Fellow fire officials said Burchett had saved the lives of many other firefighters during the course of his career, and Walker called him a hero.
Burchett’s funeral is planned for Monday in West Valley City, officials reported.
The Utah Firefighters Emerald Society is raising funds to assist Burchett’s family. Donations can be made at the society’s Web site at http://www.utahfes.org/, with 100-percent of proceeds to benefit the Burchett family.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Mendocino Complex was held to a small gain in acreage on Wednesday as it continued to burn actively on its Ranch fire portion, while the firefighter killed on the lines this week was returned home to Utah.
The incident reached 364,145 acres with containment up to 67 percent by Wednesday night, an increase of 300 acres and three percent, respectively, since the morning, according to Cal Fire.
The complex is composed of the Ranch and the River fires, the latter Cal Fire said was fully contained on Monday at 48,920 acres.
Meantime, the Ranch continues to grow, reaching 315,225 acres and 67 percent containment by Wednesday evening, Cal Fire reported.
The Ranch fire became deadly on Monday when it claimed the life of a firefighter, Battalion Chief Matthew Burchett of the Draper City Fire Department in Draper City, Utah.
Burchett’s body was escorted in a procession from Ukiah to Santa Rosa on Wednesday, then flown back to Utah on a California National Guard plane.
The complex has been destructive in other ways as well. The Cal Fire damage assessment totals on Wednesday remained at 265 structures destroyed and 36 damaged.
Cal Fire said the Ranch Fire continues to burn actively in the Mendocino National Forest as well as threaten communities that reside north of the fire perimeter, including Lake Pillsbury.
The firefighting effort continues to be challenged by the steep and rugged terrain, dry fuel, and hot weather continue, fire officials said.
Two large smoke columns rose from the incident on Wednesday afternoon, visible from north Lakeport and the Northshore.
Cal Fire said crews continued to construct control lines and implemented new dozer lines, tying together preexisting containment barriers, especially north of the Snow Mountain Wilderness.
Firefighters also have continued to work on structure preparation and defense in the communities threatened by the Ranch fire around Pillsbury and Stonyford to the east, according to fire reports.
Officials said operations overnight were focusing on the northwest and northeast edges of the Ranch fire, while continuing to prepare for controlled firing operations to improve containment lines as conditions allow.
On the fire’s south side, near the Northshore communities, Cal Fire said crews continue to do suppression repair work and patrol status.
On Wednesday at around 6:30 pm., a structure fire was reported off Bartlett Springs Road – halfway between Indian Valley and Bartlett Springs – in the Ranch fire area.
The fire in the doublewide mobile home threatened other structures and was being worked by a helicopter and crews that came both from the Ranch fire and Northshore fire.
It was not clear from initial radio reports what started the fire.
Cal Fire said assigned resources on Wednesday included 3,483 firefighting personnel, 225 engines, 90 water tenders, 33 helicopters, 64 hand crews and 61 dozers.
Cal Fire continues to anticipate the complex will be fully contained by Sept. 1.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The county of Lake will host a Mendocino Complex virtual recovery meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 16.
Contributors to the meeting will include state and local fire agencies and other first responders, the city of Lakeport, federal and state legislators, the California Office of Emergency Services and National Forest personnel.
County agencies are invited to provide updates on roads, health advisories, air quality and more.
“The purpose of this meeting is to help Ranch and RIver Fire survivors begin taking essential steps of recovery,” said County Administrative Officer Carol J. Huchingson. “This will include updates on what resources may be available from local, state and federal agencies, and also essential information for affected property owners: how to clean up properties safely; prevent erosion from washing into streams and the Lake; what to do with burned and felled trees. We encourage all concerned community members to watch and participate.”
As with previous virtual county meetings, a live stream will be posted at http://www.facebook.com/lakecountycagov/, and viewers will be able to submit questions to the panelists via Facebook.
This meeting will be facilitated by River/Ranch (Mendocino Complex) Fires Recovery Coordinator Nathan Spangler, and Huchingson, who previously worked together during the Valley fire recovery effort.
“Nathan will take the lead in this new recovery effort, and we are fortunate that he has stepped up and embraced this opportunity,” said Huchingson.
Recently, Spangler has worked as a staff services analyst in the Lake County Department of Social Services, and he welcomes the opportunity to guide County residents through the journey of recovery in his new role:
“You can never really know how you will respond to a significant event like losing your home to wildfire until it happens,” said Spangler. “Each individual’s experience is so different. For many, finding a new sense of normalcy is a challenging process. I have been privileged to help individuals and families navigate previous disasters, and look forward to helping Lake County residents take orderly steps to recover from the Ranch and River Fires.”
To best serve Ranch and River Fire survivors, Spangler plans to hold office hours in each of the burn areas in the weeks to come. Information on specific locations and hours will be shared as soon as possible.
Contributors to the meeting will include state and local fire agencies and other first responders, the city of Lakeport, federal and state legislators, the California Office of Emergency Services and National Forest personnel.
County agencies are invited to provide updates on roads, health advisories, air quality and more.
“The purpose of this meeting is to help Ranch and RIver Fire survivors begin taking essential steps of recovery,” said County Administrative Officer Carol J. Huchingson. “This will include updates on what resources may be available from local, state and federal agencies, and also essential information for affected property owners: how to clean up properties safely; prevent erosion from washing into streams and the Lake; what to do with burned and felled trees. We encourage all concerned community members to watch and participate.”
As with previous virtual county meetings, a live stream will be posted at http://www.facebook.com/lakecountycagov/, and viewers will be able to submit questions to the panelists via Facebook.
This meeting will be facilitated by River/Ranch (Mendocino Complex) Fires Recovery Coordinator Nathan Spangler, and Huchingson, who previously worked together during the Valley fire recovery effort.
“Nathan will take the lead in this new recovery effort, and we are fortunate that he has stepped up and embraced this opportunity,” said Huchingson.
Recently, Spangler has worked as a staff services analyst in the Lake County Department of Social Services, and he welcomes the opportunity to guide County residents through the journey of recovery in his new role:
“You can never really know how you will respond to a significant event like losing your home to wildfire until it happens,” said Spangler. “Each individual’s experience is so different. For many, finding a new sense of normalcy is a challenging process. I have been privileged to help individuals and families navigate previous disasters, and look forward to helping Lake County residents take orderly steps to recover from the Ranch and River Fires.”
To best serve Ranch and River Fire survivors, Spangler plans to hold office hours in each of the burn areas in the weeks to come. Information on specific locations and hours will be shared as soon as possible.