News

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday morning issued an advisory evacuation notice for residents in the Middletown area due to the approach of the Tubbs fire.

The sheriff's office is currently monitoring fire activity from the Tubbs fire in Napa County and the agency said it has become necessary to issue an advisory notice due to the fire’s proximity.

An evacuation advisory is not a mandatory evacuation, but it is strongly recommended.

Residents are advised to gather their medications, pets and important papers, and should be prepared to leave the area with little notice.

If the situation worsens the sheriff’s office will issue a mandatory evacuation notice.

Cal Fire said the Tubbs fire, which began late Sunday night, has so far burned 28,000 acres and more than 570 homes.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Firefighters tripled the amount of containment on the Sulphur fire on Tuesday, with some residents of the city of Clearlake allowed to return to their homes on Tuesday night.

Cal Fire said the Sulphur fire, burning since early Monday in and around Clearlake Oaks and Clearlake, remained at 2,500 acres, with containment up to 30 percent.

The growing containment allowed city of Clearlake officials allowed to lift some of the mandatory evacuations in effect in the city since Monday, as Lake County News has reported.

City, county and fire officials on Tuesday began the process of assessing damage due to the fire.

Sheriff Brian Martin said he did not yet have firm numbers, but estimated as many as 150 homes were destroyed by the fire, with most of burned structures in the city of Clearlake.

One area where the damage was reported to be minimal is the Elem Indian Colony in Clearlake Oaks, near where the fire had started shortly before 1 a.m. Monday.

None of the more than 20 homes on the tribe’s 80-acre rancheria were damaged, according to a statement from the tribe on Tuesday. 

City officials also held another town hall on Tuesday night to answer questions and share information.

At that point, Clearlake Mayor Russ Perdock said there had been no loss of life due to the fire.

Elsewhere around the region, the fire-related death toll grew.

The Sonoma County Coroner’s Office raised the number of dead in its jurisdiction to 11, while Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said there were three dead in the Mendocino County Complex. Two other deaths have been reported in Napa County.

In response to questions at Tuesday night’s town hall about the fire’s movement, Lake County FIre Chief Willie Sapeta explained, “The fire isn’t going in any one direction.”

He said the fire was located primarily on the back side of Eastlake Drive, all the way up to the top of Sulphur Bank Drive where there is a hard closure at 18th, Bush and Sulphur Bank, as well as past Mendocino Street off of Lakeshore Drive on the gooseneck, and just on the east side of Windflower Point.

As firefighters increased containment on the Sulphur fire, conditions in Napa and Sonoma counties on Tuesday afternoon remained critical, with new fire incidents, erratic fire activity and new rounds of evacuations.

At various points, officials reported having little or no resources to respond to the new incidents.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the California Highway Patrol closed Highway 29 over Mount St. Helena at Western Mine Road in Middletown as well as on the Napa County side while firefighters worked in the area, as Lake County News has reported.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office later said firefighters were in the area working on the Tubbs fire.

Clear Lake Area CHP Officer Kory Reynolds told Lake County News on Tuesday evening that the closure was to remain in effect overnight. He did not know at that time when it might reopen.

Sheriff Martin was in the south county on Tuesday evening to assess the situation.

He told Lake County News he was monitoring the activity on the 28,000-acre Tubbs fire on the opposite side of Mount St. Helena, noting that the fire was at that time moving toward Lake County.

Martin said there were no immediate threats and he had not called for evacuations or advisories for southern Lake County.

Nonetheless, residents in the south Middletown area were encouraged to prepare for the possibility that evacuation might be necessary by gathering medications, important papers, and having a plan to move your pets and animals.

Other progress in relation to the fire was made on Tuesday, with President Trump approving a major presidential disaster declaration requested by Gov. Jerry Brown on behalf of Butte, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Sonoma and Yuba counties due to ongoing wildland fires.

Brown had declared a state of emergency in Lake and other counties on Monday.

Sheriff Martin also declared a local emergency due to the Sulphur fire on Monday, with the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday to unanimously ratify the declaration.

Supervisor Rob Brown also told community members at the Tuesday night town hall that the county is committed to helping the city, and the agencies already are working together on the path forward.

“Recovery started yesterday,” he said.

Brown also reported that work is under way to establish a local assistance center in the city to help fire survivors begin the recovery process.

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.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved the sheriff’s declaration of a local emergency due to the Sulphur fire, and got updates on conditions.

The fire began shortly before 1 a.m. Monday on Sulphur Bank Drive near Clearlake Oaks before burning over the hill and into the city of Clearlake.

Sheriff Brian Martin on Monday declared a local emergency, and during the brief special Tuesday morning meeting the board unanimously approved a resolution to ratify the declaration.

Firefighters on Tuesday continued to hold the fire at 2,500 acres, raising containment to 30 percent by nightfall.

Board Chair Jeff Smith called for a moment of silence for the fire victims across the state at the start of the meeting.

It would later emerge that Smith and his wife lost their Clearlake home of 31 years to the fire.

Martin acknowledged how well Smith was handling his own loss in the midst of the wider community tragedy.

In his update to the board, Martin explained, “This fire quickly grew, driven by high winds.”

He said the winds were up to 50 miles per hour, and he experienced them himself while on his way to the scene.

“We’re dealing with this fire with some limited resources,” Martin said.

He said more than 18 fires started in a 24-hour period throughout the state.

Martin said Cal Fire’s Incident Management Team 4, which managed the Rocky and Valley fires in 2015, is overseeing both the Sulphur fire and the 26,000-acre Mendocino County Complex. The team is headquartered at the fairgrounds in Ukiah.

He said both the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army are involved in the emergency response, with the Red Cross managing the shelters and the Salvation Army preparing meals.

“As with previous fires that this county has experienced, our main concern is public safety,” Martin said.

“We need to make sure the areas are safe enough for people to return to their homes,” he said, adding that considerations include hazardous materials, downed power lines and hazardous trees.

Regarding the danger from fire-damaged trees, Martin said he had been informed that a piece of Cal Fire equipment had been destroyed by a tree in the Sulphur fire area.

Martin also reported that Pacific Gas and Electric is continuing its efforts to get power restored in unburned areas.

He said that Gov. Jerry Brown declared a statewide emergency in response to the fires that originally did not include Lake County. That’s because Lake County at that time was still in the process of making its own disaster declaration.

Once the county’s declaration was completed, Martin said Lake County was added to the statewide emergency. The governor’s office reported declaring a state of emergency for Lake County on Monday.

Martin said during the meeting that the city of Clearlake did its own separate disaster declaration.

Gov. Brown’s request for a presidential major disaster declaration included Lake County, Martin said.

Just a few hours after the meeting, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said that President Trump had approved the declaration, making federal disaster assistance available to California in the wildland fire recovery.

Martin said he had toured the fire area, and while he didn’t yet have a definitive number of homes destroyed, he estimated it could be as many as 150.

At that time, the Community Development Department has put together four damage assessment teams that were going to move through the fire area to get a more accurate county, according to Martin.

The vast majority of the burn area is in unincorporated county, in very rural and unpopulated areas, Martin said.

He said it appeared to him that most of the structures that burned were within the city of Clearlake, where most of the evacuees also live.

Supervisor Smith said the fire jumped around in strange ways. He said there are clusters of homes where one home in the middle is burned and others are untouched.

He said it also took out homes built five years ago with stucco and metal roofs that were thought to be fire safe.

The board voted 5-0 on the resolution ratifying Martin’s emergency declaration.

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.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Officials hosted a second town hall to update the community on the Sulphur fire on Tuesday evening.

The hourlong event was held at the Clearlake Senior Center.

Representatives from the city of Clearlake, the county of Lake and Cal Fire gave the latest on the fire, which has burned 2,500 acres since it began early Monday morning.

During the meeting it also was announced that some residents who had been forced to evacuate would be allowed to return home.

The full meeting can be seen above.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The National Weather Service is warning of more critical fire weather potential this week due to the arrival of more strong winds and low humidity.

The agency has issued another red flag warning for parts of Northern California, including Lake and neighboring counties, from 11 a.m. Wednesday to 5 p.m. Thursday.

A red flag warning – a combination of strong winds, low humidity and warm temperatures – means that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now or will shortly.

The National Weather Service said increasing north to northeast wind and low humidity will generate critical fire weather conditions again over Interior Northern California beginning on Wednesday.

Although wind is not expected to be as strong as the Sunday to Sunday night event – which whipped up devastating fires around the region – the forecast warns that more dry, offshore winds could rapidly spread current and any new wildfires.

The specific Lake County forecast predicts winds of up to 10 miles per hour in the fire area, with wind speeds into the mid-20s in southern Lake County.

The forecast also calls for daytime temperatures into the high 70s into early next week and nighttime temperatures down into the 40s.

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.

THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED.

CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – One of Lake County’s tribes, which was in the path of the Sulphur fire, said it’s rancheria has largely been unscathed by the incident.

The Sulphur fire began early Monday near the 80-acre rancheria that’s home to the Elem Indian Colony of Pomo Indians.

While the rancheria was touched by the fire, tribal officials said that none of the twenty-plus homes located there were damaged by the Sulphur fire.

There were reported to be some evacuations.

When the fire hit, it knocked out a local transformer leaving the residents without power, the tribe said.

“Tribal leadership is working with Lake County Tribal Health to provide water and breathing masks to members,” said Tribal Chairman Agustin Garcia, who does not live on the reservation.

Garcia said the tribe also is working with the California Office of Emergency Services to coordinate the delivery of generators to reservation residents.

Tribal leadership will also contact the Central California Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for assistance.

Those wishing to provide assistance to the tribe can call Garcia at 707-533-6347.