How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – With California entering what is traditionally one of its worst fire months, state fire officials said a burn permit suspension remains in effect for Lake and neighboring counties, with residents urged to be cautious as the fire season continues.
The 2012 fire season has so far been particularly active. Cal Fire reported that the season to date has shown a 20-percent increase in fire activity compared to the five-year average, with 150 new fires burning nearly 3,000 acres during the past week alone.
Dry weather conditions are continuing to cause high fire danger, with the fire season far from over, according to fire officials.
“October is often the time when the state experiences the largest, most devastating wildfires,” Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said in the agency’s weekly “Fire Situation Report” on Monday.
As if to illustrate the point, on Monday afternoon, the Flynn Fire near Comptche in Mendocino County was sparked, burning 200 acres and five structures by nightfall, as Lake County News has reported. As of Monday night the fire was only 5 percent contained.
Due to the continuing fire concerns, the Cal Fire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit reported that residents in its coverage area – including Lake, Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Colusa and Yolo counties – must continue to abide by the burn permit suspension the agency issued on Aug. 15 due to concerns for increased fire activity.
At the same time, a burn ban remains in effect in Lake County.
Although the fire season’s activity has been reduced, Cal Fire said the wildland fuels are still at record levels of dryness, with the Energy Release Component, or ERC – which is a measure of the intensity with which a wildland fire will burn – at a critical level.
As the ERC is a good measure of seasonal drought, it will not become less critical until the first significant rain, Cal Fire said.
Cal Fire said its permit suspension affects all burning on lands within the State Responsibility Area as well as those lands protected by Cal Fire by contract.
The suspension includes all burning requiring permits, including dooryard, agricultural, forest management, hazard abatement, fire training and industrial burning. Cal Fire said campfires within organized campgrounds or on private property are allowed in designated sites which prevent the fire from spreading.
In addition to keeping the burn ban suspension in place, Cal Fire asks area residents to use caution when using power equipment such as mowers, weed eaters, tractors, chainsaws or ATVs in the wildland.
Suspicious activity can be reported to the Cal Fire Arson Hotline at 1-800-468-4408.
For more fire safety tips visit www.readyForWildfire.org or the Cal Fire Web site at www.fire.ca.gov .
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The winner of a $14 million lottery ticket purchased last week in Clearlake Oaks is set to be announced on Tuesday afternoon.
The California State Lottery will hold a Tuesday news conference in Sacramento during which the lucky ticket holder, so far not named publicly, will be introduced.
The individual purchased the SuperLotto Plus ticket at the Red and White Store, located at 12580 Highway 20 in Clearlake Oaks, as Lake County News has reported.
During the Saturday night SuperLotto Plus drawing, only two tickets matched all five numbers – 3, 4, 27, 30, 39 – plus the Mega number of 3.
The Clearlake Oaks ticket and a second purchased in Milpitas are splitting the $28 million jackpot. The second ticket holder has so far not come forward.
Lottery officials said each ticket is worth an estimated cash option amount of $10.3 million.
Thanks to selling the lucky ticket, the Red and White Store will receive $70,000.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A stabbing was reported to have occurred Monday night at Austin Park in Clearlake.
The incident was first reported just after 10 p.m., when firefighters were dispatched to the lake side of the park, which is located at 14077 Lakeshore Drive.
There were no details immediately available about the identity of the stabbing victim, who had been wounded in the chest, according to reports from the scene.
Several Lake County Fire Protection District units responded to the scene, with an air ambulance being requested to respond to transport the victim, radio reports indicated.
A landing zone was set up at Austin Park, across from the Clearlake Police Department, with REACH 1 landing at about 10:45 p.m., according to radio reports.
REACH 1 reported lifting off at approximately 11:07 p.m., en route to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.
Five minutes after REACH had departed, firefighters were dispatched back to Austin Park, to the same location where the stabbing victim had been located, on the report of a person having an asthma attack.
Paramedics reported leaving the scene shortly before 11:40 p.m., with the patient being released to the Clearlake Police Department.
Additional details about the incident will be published as they become available.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
NORTH COAST, Calif. – A fire that began burning Monday afternoon in a rugged part of Mendocino County had burned a few hundred acres and several structures by nightfall, and sent large amounts of smoke into Lake County’s air basin.
The Flynn Fire began burning along Flynn Creek Road in Comptche at approximately 2:13 p.m. Monday, according to an evening report from Cal Fire.
The fire was at 200 acres and 5 percent containment Monday night, Cal Fire said.
Cal Fire said the blaze had destroyed five structures and was threatening 70 more, but no evacuations had taken place.
The Flynn Fire is burning to the east into commercial timber property, with Cal Fire reporting that the fire’s behavior is moderate to extreme with long range spotting.
By Monday night 33 fire engines, 14 fire crews, five bulldozers, six airtankers, two helicopters and 444 firefighting personnel had been assigned to the incident, according to Cal Fire.
Late Monday afternoon a significant amount of smoke was making its way into Lake County, with Lakeport Fire Chief Ken Wells attributing it to the Flynn Fire.
At one point Lakeport Fire personnel were dispatched to a smoke check in the area of Crystal Lake Way, with firefighters concluding that the Flynn Fire was the source.
Cal Fire said the incident also was having a significant smoke impact on the Ukiah Valley area.
In addition to Cal Fire, cooperating agencies included the fire departments of Comptche, Anderson Valley, Mendocino and Albion, Mendocino County Sheriff”s Office and California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, with Ukiah Ambulance on standby.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – A fire damaged a Kelseyville home late Monday afternoon.
The fire was first reported at about 3 p.m. at 9335 Chippewa Trail.
Kelseyville Fire Capt. Dave Carter said Kelseyville Fire, Lakeport Fire and Cal Fire all responded to the incident.
Within minutes of firefighters’ arrival the fire was contained to the living room and its contents, although there was smoke and heat damage throughout the single-story structure, Carter said.
Radio reports indicated the incident command at the fire was terminated just after 4:30 p.m., however Carter said firefighters remained at the scene just before 5 p.m.
He estimated total damage to the structure amounted to $50,000.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
In space, they say, no one can hear you scream.
Nobody ever said anything about singing, though. A NASA spacecraft has just beamed back a beautiful song sung by our own planet.
“It’s called chorus,” explained Craig Kletzing of the University of Iowa. “This is one of the clearest examples we’ve ever heard.”
Chorus is an electromagnetic phenomenon caused by plasma waves in Earth’s radiation belts. For years, ham radio operators on Earth have been listening to them from afar.
Now, NASA’s twin Radiation Belt Storm Probes are traveling through the region of space where chorus actually comes from – and the recordings are out of this world.
“This is what the radiation belts would sound like to a human being if we had radio antennas for ears,” said Kletzing, whose team at the University of Iowa built the “EMFISIS” (Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science) receiver used to pick up the signals.
He’s careful to point out that these are not acoustic waves of the kind that travel through the air of our planet.
Chorus is made of radio waves that oscillate at acoustic frequencies, between 0 and 10 kHz. The magnetic search coil antennas of the Radiation Belt Storm Probes are designed to detect these kinds of waves.
“Chorus emissions are front and center for the Storm Probe mission,” said Kletzing. “They are thought to be one of the most important waves for energizing the electrons that make up the outer radiation belt.”
In particular, chorus might be responsible for so-called “killer electrons,” high-energy particles that can endanger both satellites and astronauts.
Many electrons in the radiation belts are harmless, with too little energy to do damage to human or electronic systems. But, sometimes, these electrons can catch a chorus wave, like a surfer riding a wave on Earth, and gain enough energy to become dangerous – or so researchers think.
The Radiation Belt Storm Probes are on a mission to find out for sure.
“The production of killer electrons is a matter of much debate, and chorus waves are only one possibility,” noted the Storm Probes’ mission scientist Dave Sibeck.
Launched in August 2012, the two probes are orbiting inside the radiation belts, sampling electromagnetic fields, counting the number of energetic particles, and listening to plasma waves of many frequencies.
“We hope to gather enough data to solve the mystery once and for all,” said Sibeck.
At the moment, the spacecraft are still undergoing their 60-day checkout phase before the main mission begins. So far, things are checking out very well.
“One of things we noticed right away is how clear the chorus sounds in the recording,” said Kletzing. “That’s because our data is sampled at 16 bits, the same as a CD, which has not been done before in the radiation belts. This makes the data very high quality and shows that our instrument is very, very healthy.”
Eventually, Kletzing hopes to release unprecedented stereo recordings of Earth’s chorus.
“We have two spacecraft with two receivers,” he said, “so a stereo recording is possible.”
Such a recording would not only sound wonderful, but also have real scientific value. “One of the things we don’t know is how broad the region is over which chorus occurs. The widely-separated ‘stereo capability’ of the Storm Probes will give us the ability to figure this out,” he explained.
With a two-year mission planned for the Storm Probes, the chorus is just getting started.
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.