How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
COBB, Calif. – Due to hazardous conditions caused by the Valley fire, Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest is closed to public access indefinitely, Cal Fire reported Friday.
Cal Fire said the closure is necessary to ensure public health and safety and is in accordance with Public Resource Code Title 14 § 1439.
The Valley fire burned through the entire forest and has created hazardous conditions including dead and damaged trees near roads and trails that could fall at any time, authorities said.
The process of rehabilitating the forest has been initiated and salvage logging of the dead trees has begun to reduce the fuel loads and to allow replanting of the burned areas, Cal Fire reported.
Tree felling and tree removal will create dangerous conditions on roads and trails, officials said.
Only Cal Fire personnel and authorized logging and reforestation contractors are allowed access to the demonstration state forest unless written permission has been granted by the state forest manager.
SOUTH LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Officials on Friday released new damage assessment numbers on the Valley fire, and said they anticipate the incident will be fully contained early next month.
On Friday evening, the Valley fire remained at 76,067 acres, with containment up a few points to 92 percent, according to Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mike Smith.
The fire began on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 12, on High Valley Road in Cobb before burning down into Middletown and Hidden Valley Lake.
Cal Fire estimated on Friday that the fire will be fully contained on Oct. 5.
At a Friday afternoon briefing, Smith said the investigation into the fire's cause is continuing.
He said Cal Fire investigators began working on determining what sparked the fire early in the incident.
However, Smith cautioned, “It may take months to find the exact cause of this fire.”
Also on Friday, Cal Fire issued an update on structures damaged and destroyed in the fire after it said damage inspection teams completed primary and secondary assessments.
Approximately 1,958 structures have been destroyed, including 1,280 homes, 27 multi-family structures, 66 commercial properties, and 585 other minor structures such as outbuildings and sheds, Cal Fire said.
In addition, Cal Fire said 93 structures have been damaged including 41 homes, seven commercial properties and 45 other minor structures.
The number of confirmed fatalities remains at four, Cal Fire said.
The Valley fire's toll places it in the No. 3 spot among California's most damaging fires, behind the Oakland Hills fire of 1991 and the Cedar fire of 2003, according to Cal Fire.
The extent of the fire's damage also has prompted local, gubernatorial and presidential disaster declarations, as Lake County News has reported.
Sheriff Brian Martin said Friday that the fire is the worst disaster Lake County has experienced.
He's crunched the numbers and estimated that more than 3,600 people – or close to 6 percent of Lake County's population – have possibly been displaced by the loss of homes.
Cobb remains under mandatory evacuation due to the ongoing work of repairing utilities and removing hazards, officials said.
While the evacuation order is remaining in place, Martin said that all traffic access restrictions to Cobb are to be lifted as of 5 p.m. Saturday.
“There have been hundreds of phones calls coming in from people that want to get in,” and as of 5 p.m. Saturday they will be able to do so, he said.
“Please do not take this as a repopulation. For many there won't be a repopulation for a long time as so many homes were lost. It is simply a lifting of the traffic restrictions,” Martin said.
Martin warned of the continued presence in the Cobb area of hazards – including asbestos-laden debris, smoldering trees and ash pits – left behind by the fire.
“Anybody that enters is cautioned that they are doing so at their own risk because there are so many hazards present,” he said.
Utility and cleanup crews will continue working in the area, and Martin urged people who will be accessing the area to be aware of their surroundings.
Martin said the Lake County Office of Emergency Services will make masks, gloves and water available free of charge to people returning to the Cobb Mountain area at two locations: at the fire station in Loch Lomond, 10331 Loch Lomond Road, and Middletown fire station at 21095 Highway 175.
Mop up activities and strengthening perimeter lines, along with rehabilitating the impacts of firefighting operations on the landscape, are ongoing, Cal Fire said.
Hot spots also have continued to be an issue throughout the fire area.
On Friday afternoon, firefighters responded to a report of a wildland fire south of Lower Lake off of Highway 29. Units arriving on scene found a tree burning within the fire perimeter, according to radio reports.
The resources assigned to the incident were rolled back further on Friday, with the total personnel assigned down to 1,849, along with 140 engines, 47 hand crews, 16 dozers, six helicopters and four water tenders, Cal Fire said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Hundreds of south county community members came out to Middletown High School on Thursday evening to learn about services and assistance available to help them through the process of recovering from the Valley fire.
The fire, which began Sept. 12, is the third most damaging fire in California's history.
To date it has burned more than 76,000 acres and 1,250 homes, claimed four lives and left a reported 3,000 people homeless, officials reported.
The county of Lake hosted the nearly 70-minute meeting with support from Calpine, and many agencies and organizations – including United Policyholders and North Coast Builders Exchange – that sent representatives to answer questions from community members.
Supervisor Rob Brown said the goal was to let the community know what the recovery process was going to look like.
Referring to the normal process of building and dealing with permits, “This is not going to look anything like that,” said Brown, noting that there are many policies with regard to the recovery that they are still working to finish.
“Winter's coming. We've got a lot of work to do, a lot of cleanup to do, and a lot of erosion control to accomplish before winter sets in,” Brown said, explaining that rebuilding may not happen right away.
Sue Piper, a United Policyholders board member, said the nonprofit consumer advocacy group was founded after the 1991 Oakland Hills fire – which she survived. They have a presence at the Local Assistance Center at the Middletown Senior Center, 21256 Washington St., this week.
“I'm here to tell you that there is light at the end of the tunnel, even though right now it doesn't seem so,” Piper said.
She assured those impacted by the fire that they are not alone, that they have many people prepared to help them.
Keith Woods, North Coast Builders Exchange's chief executive officer, said they are there as a resource when people are ready to rebuild.
He said that on Oct. 1 they are launching a Web site, www.rebuildinglakecounty.com , which will list all the licensed contractors and those offering services who can help community members in the rebuilding process.
Community Development Director Rick Coel said the county is developing a south county permit center which will be located in Hidden Valley Lake.
The county also is contracting with a company for plan and permit checking so when building permit applications start to ramp up in the spring they will be ready. Coel said the county also will work to streamline the permitting process and work with other agencies to get permit approval.
Regarding the cleanup process, Coel said that in most situations it won't be an option for people to live in RVs on their properties while rebuilding due to hazardous materials and hazardous trees, as well as the small size of some of the lots.
He said the county is looking at places where they can set up temporary RV sites for people to stay while keeping the parcels clear for cleanup.
Coel emphasized the need to conduct cleanup properly and to not spread the ash and other burned materials around.
He said the county is encouraging people to fill out right-of-entry permits, which serve as demolition permits and allow state officials to go in and clean up the properties.
One of the most encouraging moments of the night came from the state official who will oversee the massive debris removal effort to be carried out by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, or CalRecycle.
Todd Thalhamer is the senior waste management engineer who in 2007 created CalRecycle's debris removal program, which has removed hazardous waste from fires around the state including the Angora fire of 2007 and the Boles fire that destroyed much of the city of Weed last year.
The program also has been part of the cleanup effort for the Rocky and Jerusalem fires, he said.
For Thalhamer, the road ahead for Middletown has great significance – he grew up there and is a graduate of Middletown High School. He said he played football on the field where the meeting took place on Thursday evening.
“I'm going to tell you, there's hope coming,” Thalhamer said, his voice breaking as he spoke to the hundreds of residents sitting in the bleachers.
Thalhamer said residents have options in the cleanup: they can either do it themselves and follow state-mandated standards, or they can sign right-of-entry agreements with CalRecycle, which will then conduct the cleanup.
For those without insurance, the cleanup will be at no cost, he said. For those with insurance, it will cost what their policies will cover.
The debris removal process will start with the schools, and work out from there. Thalhamer said he is going to ask adjacent property owners to sign agreements immediately in order to get the cleanup process under way.
Thalhamer said homes built before 1980 are likely to contain asbestos, which is one of the hazardous materials his teams can remove safely.
He said he plans to drop 10 crews in Middletown next week to start the cleanup process, eventually increasing that number to 20 and then to 40.
At the same time, Thalhamer said he's got four other debris removal projects going elsewhere in the state.
“I ask for patience, I ask for commitment,” he said, promising to bring everything he had to the effort.
The cleanup starts first with population centers, he said, then moves to areas of environmental concerns, such as along creeks.
Thalhamer said his goal – which he acknowledged is a big one – is to get all of the ash and debris from the Valley fire cleared from the impacted areas by Christmas.
As part of the cleanup, he'll be training hundreds of local workers and contractors to do debris removal the right way, with safety a priority.
He also lauded Pacific Gas and Electric for doing a “phenomenal job” in rebuilding utility infrastructure.
Lake County has had three major fires in a row. “Nobody has ever had that happen,” he said.
Thalhamer said the debris cleanup process is thorough. Teams will dig down deep into the soil, removing all layers of ash, and taking out even the concrete footings, leaving a depression in the ground that likely will need to be replaced with clean soil.
That will be followed by soil testing, removing hazardous trees and implementing erosion control, Thalhamer said.
He asked that community members report the presence of underground tanks and any old military ordnance that might be present at home locations.
“It has been a little tough when you see this much destruction from where you've lived. But you know what? It's called 'Middletown Strong' and I'm proud to be right here,” he said, wiping his eyes.
He said a hazardous materials sweep is going to move through the community first, with the cleanup process to follow.
Community members also heard about the utility repairs that have been taking places around the south county.
Preston Dickinson of AT&T said the company has 60 technicians going street to street, with more on the way in from all over Northern California.
Dickinson said 200,000 feet of cable and 360 poles have been replaced so far. In some areas, they also are replacing copper with fiber-optic line.
He said an AT&T hotline is available from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 877-920-0362. In addition, AT&T has a presence at the Local Assistance Center at the Middletown Senior Center.
They're making available call forwarding, waiving the install fee for that service and offering a free month of the service, Dickinson said.
Carl Schoenhofer, PG&E senior division manager, said the first priority for the company has been to safely restore power, and that it plans to maintain a strong presence throughout the recovery.
The PG&E force on the ground includes 1,000 people, he said. There were 7,000 customers without power after the fire occurred, a number that has dropped to 2,000, Schoenhofer said.
PG&E crews have replaced 700 poles and installed 100 miles of new electrical lines.
“We still have work to do but we'll see it through to the end,” Schoenhofer said.
Officials from the California Office of Emergency Services, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration also were on hand to encourage people to register for assistance.
To apply, call 1-800-621-3362; those with a speech disability or hearing loss and use TTY should call 1-800-462-7585 directly; for those who use 711 or Video Relay Service, call 1-800-621-3362); apply online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov or via smartphone at m.fema.gov.
To apply for SBA assistance, call 800-659-2955. Applications for assistance must be made within 60 days of an emergency declaration; in this case, by Nov. 23.
A variety of very low interest loans are available for businesses, nonprofits and individuals. Once approved, funds often are disbursed within 18 to 21 days.
In other news, Brown said there will be a job fair from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, at Kelseyville High School.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Firefighters on Thursday kept the Valley fire acreage from growing and continued mop up while thousands of Cobb residents remained under evacuation due to continuing utility repairs and hazard removal.
Cal Fire said the fire size remained at 76,067, with containment up again to 87 percent.
The tally of destroyed structures remained at 1,910 on Thursday, including 1,238 single-family residences, 23 multi-family residences, 64 commercial properties and 585 other minor structures, according to a California Office of Emergency Services report.
Cal OES also reported that an additional 37 single-family residences were damaged, along with six commercial properties and 47 other minor structures.
On Thursday evening, residents of Anderson Springs were able to return home. Approximately 17 homes out of 200 survived, according to community resident Voris Brumfield, whose own home made it through.
She said her neighbors have expressed their plans to rebuild in the close-knit community.
With Anderson Springs' repopulation, Cobb remains the only community whose thousands of residents have not been able to go home.
Approximately 2,953 homes there remain threatened, according to Cal Fire, with Cal OES reporting that the ongoing evacuations are impacting more than 9,000 residents.
At a Thursday briefing on the fire, a Cobb resident asked local and state officials why community members there couldn't yet go home.
“The Valley fire is much, much more than a fire,” but rather a disaster in scope, said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mike Smith.
As such, Smith said there is a lengthy check process involving many partners – agencies at various levels and utilities companies – that ensures that when people go home it will be safe.
Smith noted that part of the challenge is having to rebuild 100 years' worth of infrastructure in seven to 10 days.
Supervisor Rob Brown also said at the briefing that the process of making repairs to utilities and removing hazards would take longer if crews had to work around residents returning to their homes.
Total fire personnel assigned on Thursday totaled 2,520 – down from more than 4,400 firefighters at its height – plus 186 engines, 69 hand crews, 33 water tenders, 19 dozers and seven helicopters, Cal Fire said.
While Smith said there is a massive demobilization in place as crews are released from the incident, “There will still be firefighters on scene in the weeks ahead.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The 36th annual Clear Lake Splash In arrives in Lakeport this weekend.
Almost two dozen planes will be on display at Natural High School, 810 N. Main St. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
Meet with and talk to the pilots of these great flying machines which have traveled from around California – from San Diego to Chico and many cities in between – as well as from Phoenix, Las Vegas and other locations in Nevada.
A contingent will do a flyover at the beginning of the Kelseyville Pear Festival Parade at approximately 9:20 a.m.
They will also conduct some water bombing and spot landing exercises offshore of Library Park beginning at 2 p.m.
The Clear Lake Modelers Club will have some of their planes on display in the school building. They also will be demonstrating the building of a model plane in that room. There will be food available during the day.
For those wishing to take a ride in a seaplane, there will be two planes available for that purpose. Information will be available at the admission gate at the field.
Admission to the field is $3 per person for ages 13 and up. Proceeds will be used to pay the rent for the use of the grounds and the insurance coverage.
The splash in is produced by the Lake County Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with the city of Lakeport, the county of Lake and the Lakeport Main Street Association.