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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Several structures were destroyed and hundreds of people were left without power due to a late Thursday night fire in Clearlake.
The fire on Mullen Avenue at Palmer and Emory avenues was first reported at about 11:50 p.m. Thursday, according to radio reports.
Altogether, a studio apartment, a single family dwelling and three outbuildings were destroyed, said Lake County Fire Chief Willie Sapeta, the incident commander.
Lake County Central Dispatch received multiple reports from people stating that the fire had been immediately preceded by a very loud explosion.
Lake County News received reports of the explosion shaking nearby homes and waking people. Numerous other people also posted on social media, describing the explosion.
Sapeta said the explosion was heard throughout the main part of Clearlake.
Firefighters from Lake County Fire Protection District who arrived on scene found a fully involved dwelling with other structures threatened.
A short time later, firefighters reported over the radio that the fire had spread to a second structure as well as a 500-gallon kerosene tank.
Sapeta requested mutual aid from Cal Fire, Northshore Fire and Kelseyville Fire.
He reported over the radio that there were multiple wires down in the intersection and danger to nearby transformers, and firefighters needed to use extreme caution when responding to the incident.
The Clearlake Police Department also issued a Nixle alert warning people to stay out of the area.
Notifications were sent to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. which responded, as well as to Highlands Water Co. due to the large amount of water that firefighters needed to use, according to reports from the scene.
Shortly before 1 a.m. Friday the fire was reported to be contained, according to reports from the scene.
As a result of the fire, incident command ordered power be temporarily shut off to nearby residences.
PG&E said that the outage went into effect just before 12:50 a.m. Friday and impacted 421 customers.
Power to that area was expected to be restored by 4:15 a.m., PG&E said.
Sapeta said that, as of 2:30 a.m., there were no injuries reported. At that point they were continuing to make sure there were no victims.
Five engines, a water tender, a rescue unit, two medic units and three chief officers were involved in the response, Sapeta said.
Fire units are reported to be staying on scene until mid-morning Friday as part of mop up and overhaul, according to Sapeta.
He said they didn’t yet know what had caused the explosion and were continuing to work through the scene, noting there was “a ton of debris everywhere.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at
HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE, Calif. – An event to help south county community members be ready in case of wildland fire will take place in Hidden Valley Lake on Saturday.
The third annual Wildfire Community Preparedness Day event will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hidden Valley Lake campground, located at Hartmann and Hidden Valley roads.
The local event is part of the National Wildfire Community Preparedness Day sponsored by State Farm and the National Fire Protection Association, according to State Farm-Northern California spokesman Sevag Sarkissian.
Sarkissian said the preparedness day will feature individuals, small groups, and neighborhood or community-based organizations implementing projects to reduce wildfire risk, advance general wildfire preparedness or minimize post-fire impacts from a recent wildfire.
Phil Bayles, a South Lake Fire Safe Council Board member who is organizing the local preparedness event, said participating agencies include the Red Cross, California Highway Patrol, Cal Fire, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and REACH, along with and State Farm.
There will be free hot dogs and popcorn, a “kids corner” booth including face painting, a visit from Smokey Bear, fire prevention videos and other information for community members about how to be fire safe, Bayles said.
“It should be pretty fun,” he said.
Visitors will learn about weed abatement requirements and creating defensible space, and get advice on landscaping in Lake County’s unique environment, according to Bayles.
Bayles said there also will be an explanation of what to expect during an evacuation, how to sign up for NIXLE alerts, insurance information, evacuation maps, signups for REACH helicopter services, and details of how emergency response is coordinated between Hidden Valley Lake Security, Cal Fire and the Lake County Sheriff.
Originally, there had been plans to demonstrate six new emergency sirens to be located around Hidden Valley Lake, however Bayles said the sirens – which will be located on the top of telephone poles – haven’t yet been installed.
Bayles retired to Hidden Valley Lake after a career in the U.S. Forest Service. Over the years he had worked across the Western United States in a variety of roles, including forester, firefighter and timber marker.
Three years ago, he got involved with starting the preparedness event. “It was something I felt a personal interest in.”
That first event was held not long before the September 2015 Valley fire, which swept through the south county, burning more than 1,300 homes and leading to a weeks-long evacuation for residents. The Valley fire is the third most damaging fire in California history.
Bayles said about 70 homes were lost in Hidden Valley Lake, where some rebuilding and a lot of remodeling of existing homes is taking place.
He said his hope is that if there is another fire, events like the one slated for Saturday will help people be better prepared.
“All of us were pretty traumatized by the Valley fire and anything we can do to make it safe for everybody, that’s our goal,” he said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Friday, the members of Congress who represent Lake County as well as state legislators and officials had harsh words for the action by Republican lawmakers to pass a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
The American Health Care Act, or AHCA, repeals key provisions of the Affordable Care Act, or ACA.
It passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 217-213, with no Democrats voting for the bill. Republicans had only one vote to spare in passing the bill before breaking for an 11-day recess.
The AARP, the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and numerous other patient advocacy groups have opposed the AHCA.
Earlier this week, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that health care costs across California’s Fifth Congressional District would rise by an average of over $4,000 per year by 2020 for Covered California enrollees if the AHCA passed.
The AHCA also is expected to take $75 billion from Medicare; cut funding for Planned Parenthood and prohibit people from using their tax credits for plans that cover reproductive health, which means that plans in California would not be eligible for a tax credit; and raise the average annual premium for a 60-year-old to $17,500 per year.
The two Democrats who represent Lake County in the House of Representatives, Congressman John Garamendi (CA-03) and Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-05), both voted against the bill, which they strongly condemned.
Thompson said the bill previously was introduced in March, when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost 24 million Americans their health coverage.
Since then, Thompson said Republicans added provisions to let insurers price people with pre-existing conditions out of the marketplace and allow states to bring back lifetime limits on care and gut essential health benefits like hospital stays, ambulance services, and prescription drug coverage.
Republicans did not wait for the Congressional Budget Office to score the amended bill before rushing it to the floor, Thompson said.
“This was a terrible bill in March, and it is a worse bill today,” said Thompson. “We already knew it would leave millions of Americans out in the cold and cause health care costs to skyrocket. Now, Republicans want to break their promise to protect people with pre-existing conditions by allowing insurers to price them out of coverage. That’s not protection, it’s extortion. Americans deserve better.”
He added, “I’ve spoken with thousands of my constituents who overwhelming oppose this bill. Republicans ought to listen to the people they serve, not a President who wants to make good on a campaign slogan despite what it will cost hardworking men and women across the country.”
Garamendi called the bill “atrocious.”
“It is cruel. I simply cannot believe that something this bad could pass the House of Representatives, but it has,” he said.
Garamendi said that, in addition to stripping health insurance from millions of people, it is a “crushing age tax for Americans of 50 to 64 years of age, and will force them to pay up to five times as much as what a 30-year-old would pay for the same coverage.”
He said it also will destabilize funding for Medicare, taking $75 billion out of the trust fund, and blow a $10 billion annual hole in Medi-Cal.
“It will practically eliminate the guarantee of coverage for pre-existing conditions, which could affect over 300,000 people in my district. But it will provide a massive, $600 billion tax cut to America’s richest,” said Garamendi.
He added, “It is an outright assault on the poor and the sick, and a huge transfer of wealth to the rich.
“I served for eight years as the Insurance Commissioner of California,” he said. “I know exactly what insurance companies will do under policies that gives them free rein, and that’s what this bill does. The amendments that were put on this bill at the last second do nothing to reduce the devastation it will impose on America’s most vulnerable. It is a sad day in Congress.”
State Sen. Mike McGuire called the “Trumpcare” bill “downright dangerous. He said 3.2 million Californians are dependent on the Affordable Care Act for their health care coverage and Friday’s vote will drop millions from their health care, increase costs for millions more and cost the state of California billions.
California has one of the most successful statewide Affordable Care Act programs in the nation. The ACA has dropped California’s uninsured rate from approximately 17 percent to 7.2 percent, an all-time low in the Golden State’s uninsured rate, McGuire’s office reported.
In addition, according to Consumer Reports, personal bankruptcy filings due to unpaid medical bills have been slashed in half since the ACA’s passage.
“Our national health care system is under attack, and the time has come for California to advance the critical conversation about implementation of single payer health care,” Senator McGuire said.
McGuire is a co-author of SB 562 – The Healthy California Act – which would create a single payer health care system in California.
Other state officials weighing in on the AHCA’s passage included Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, who said taking away people’s health care “is tantamount to a death sentence for some patients who depend on coverage to manage serious and chronic medical conditions.”
He added, “The president and House Republicans have nothing to be proud of today as they work to take health care coverage away from millions of Americans who will be harmed by their actions.”
In addition to permitting the sale of insurance policies that do not cover many essential health benefits, Jones said the AHCA also weakens existing prohibitions against annual and lifetime limits, which protect Americans from catastrophic medical costs.
“This bill would permit charging sick people prohibitively high premiums, depriving people of the ability to buy coverage. High-risk pools have failed patients in the past and this bill does not provide sufficient funding to make them work,” Jones said.
California Treasurer John Chiang said that in less than 24 hours, Congress had left 7.5 million Californians “careening toward an impoverished retirement” and four million Californians at risk of losing their health care.
“While President Trump and Congressional Republicans style themselves as populist champions of everyday Americans, they have just cast votes to make us poorer, sicker and less secure,” Chiang said.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra promised to fight to protect health care, noting that he believes health care is a right.
"As a member of Congress, I was proud to help expand health coverage and lower costs for hardworking Americans. Every member of Congress who voted for today's bill must answer why it is good to take away an American's access to his or her doctor. Would they do this to themselves or their family?” Becerra said.
"As California's attorney general, I will use every legal tool at my disposal to safeguard the health care the people of our state depend on,” Becerra said.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Health Services is urging all pregnant women to get immunized against whooping cough – also known as pertussis – at the earliest opportunity.
Expectant mothers should get the vaccinations between 27 and 36 weeks’ gestation, even if they received immunization in the past, according to the Lake County Public Health Department.
It’s crucial that every pregnant woman get immunized as early as possible in her third trimester,” said Dr. Karen Tait, local health officer of Lake County. “By getting the whooping cough vaccine, called Tdap, during pregnancy, women are passing on protective antibodies needed to greatly lower their babies’ risk of developing pertussis in early life.”
Despite this recommendation, a recent survey conducted by the California Department of Public Health shows that Tdap immunization coverage among pregnant women is suboptimal.
In 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, self-reported Tdap immunization rates for pregnant women in California were low at just 49 percent.
Low Tdap immunizations rates in pregnant women are a contributing factor to the high whooping cough rates among infants.
In 2015, 326 whooping cough cases among infants less than 4 months of age were reported to the California Department of Public Health.
Thus far, 99 pertussis cases among infants less than four months of age have been reported statewide to CDPH for 2016 and two babies died.
Whooping cough is a cyclical disease that peaks every 3-5 years. Given that the last whooping cough epidemic was in 2014, health officials are concerned the next peak will occur as early as this year.
“Getting Tdap during pregnancy is very safe and our best shot at protecting babies before the next epidemic hits,” said Dr. Karen Tait.
Studies have shown that as many as nine out of 10 babies will be protected against whooping cough if their mothers get a whooping cough vaccine while pregnant.
Even if babies get whooping cough, the transferred antibodies can help protect them from dangerous complications and hospitalization.
Pregnant women are encouraged to contact their prenatal care providers, clinics or pharmacies about obtaining the Tdap vaccine.
Medi-Cal now offers Tdap and other adult immunizations as a pharmacy benefit. If their prenatal care provider does not immunize in the clinic, pregnant women can locate an in-network pharmacy by calling the member services number located on the back of their Medi-Cal or Partnership Health Plan Benefits Identification Card.
For patients enrolled in Medi-Cal Fee-For-Service (or pregnancy-only Medi-Cal), call 1-800-541-5555 (or if calling from a cell phone with an out-of-state area code, call 916-636-1980).
Tdap vaccines are also available at Public Health. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call Public Health at 707-263-1090 or 800-794-9291.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture Feed and Livestock Drugs Inspection Program has reached a settlement with animal feed manufacturer Western Milling LLC involving their manufacturing facility in Goshen, Tulare County.
In September 2015, the facility produced horse feed that was adulterated with Monensin, a livestock drug that when fed to horses is known to be fatal.
The adulterated feed resulted in a number of deaths. In 2016 the same facility improperly mixed the same livestock drug into medicated cattle feed, which contributed to the deaths of several dairy calves.
Per the settlement agreement, Western Milling has discontinued the manufacturing of horse and specialty feeds for species such as rabbits at the Goshen facility.
The firm will implement extensive process improvements and acquire new state-of-the-art equipment for precision mixing and improved documentation, product identification, and traceability in the handling of medicated feeds.
Western Milling will pay a cash fine of $526,500 and is required to implement $200,000 of new equipment at the Goshen facility to ensure that feed safety measures over and above industry standards will be met.
CDFA’s Feed and Livestock Drugs Inspection Program is responsible for the enforcement of the state law and regulations pertinent to the manufacturing, distribution, and labeling of commercial livestock feed in California while preventing adulterated feed from being consumed by livestock.
The program maintains registration of livestock drugs, their proper use and safe handling procedures, and issues Restricted Livestock Drug Licenses to retail stores selling restricted livestock drugs in California.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – Caltrans reports that the following road projects will be taking place around Lake County and the North Coast during the coming week.
Included are Mendocino County projects that may impact Lake County commuters.
LAKE COUNTY
Highway 20
– Curb and sidewalk repairs from Sayer Avenue to Ogden Road will continue. Traffic will be reduced to one lane in both directions from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate minor traffic slowdowns.
Highway 29
– Emergency culvert repairs from Spruce Grove Road to Hofacker Lane will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
Highway 175
– Emergency highway repairs from Grouss Springs Road to Emerford Road will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
– Emergency highway repairs from east of Forest Lake Road will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
MENDOCINO COUNTY
Highway 1
– AT&T has been granted a Caltrans Encroachment Permit for utility repairs near Pacific Wood Road through Friday, May 5. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate 5-minute delays.
– PG&E has been granted a Caltrans Encroachment Permit for utility repairs from Signal Port Creek Road to Iverson Road beginning Thursday, May 11. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
– Caltrans will perform routine maintenance from Kinney Road to Elk Creek. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate 10-minute delays.
– Emergency slide removal near Leggett will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
Highway 20
– Bridge deck repairs at the East Fork Russian River Bridge will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect overnight from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate 20-minute delays.
Highway 101
– Routine maintenance near Frog Woman Rock will continue. Northbound traffic will be restricted to one lane 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists should anticipate minor traffic slowdowns.
– Emergency slide repairs on the westbound Route 20 to southbound Route 101 connector ramp will continue. Intermittent ramp closures will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Motorists should anticipate 10-minute delays.
– Emergency slide removal near Hermitage Vista Point will continue. Northbound traffic will be reduced to one lane 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate minor traffic slowdowns.
– Emergency slide removal near the Dora Creek Bridge will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists should anticipate 30-minute delays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, and 10-minute delays at other times.
– Emergency slide removal near Piercy will continue. Traffic will be reduced to one lane in both directions 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists should anticipate minor traffic slowdowns.
– Roadway repairs west of Yorkville will continue. One-way traffic control with a temporary traffic signal will be in effect 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
Highway 162
– Emergency storm damage repairs near The Middle Way will continue. One-way traffic control with temporary stop signs will be in effect 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
– Emergency storm damage repairs near Sand Bank Creek will continue. One-way traffic control with a temporary traffic signal will be in effect 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
Highway 175
– Emergency storm damage repairs at various locations from Buckman Drive to the Lake/Mendocino County line will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. seven days per week. Motorists should anticipate 30-minute delays.
Highway 222
– PG&E has been granted a Caltrans Encroachment Permit for utility repairs near Burke Road on Monday, May 8. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
Highway 253
– Emergency roadway repairs from Booneville to Ukiah will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate 10-minute delays.
The Caltrans Traffic Operations Office has reviewed each project and determined that individual project delays are expected to be less than the statewide policy maximum of 30 minutes, unless noted otherwise above.
For information pertaining to emergency roadwork or for updates to scheduled roadwork, please contact the California Highway Information Network (CHIN) at 1-800-GAS-ROAD (1-800-427-7623).