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MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST – Firefighters from islands in the Pacific have joined the fight to contain wildland fires on the Mendocino National Forest.
When lightning storms came through Northern California on June 21, nearly 1,800 fires were sparked across the California, which stretched local and state resources thin.
On the Mendocino National Forest, the Mendocino Hotshots and initial attack crews had already worked nonstop to suppress the Whiskey Fire that had begun earlier on June 12, forest officials reported. Despite fatigue they were able to contain that fire and seven others that began by the lightning storm on June 21 before being required to take a mandatory rest break.
As resources wore thin fire officials called for assistance from out of the area.
On June 28, Rich Harvey’s Interagency Management Team from the Great Basin (Nevada, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming), coming off the Clover Fire in Lone Pine, Calif., was redirected to the Mendocino National Forest to take over the 23 fires burning in the Yolla Bolly Wilderness.
However, the Great Basin is not the furthest distance from which help would come.
On July 5, the Bear Divide Hotshots reported to the incident and brought another crew with them – a 20-person crew from the island of Saipan in the Pacific Islands, forest officials reported. The Saipan crew is available through a cooperative agreement between the Pacific Islands and Region Five of the US Forest Service.
According to Germaine Burrows, acting emergency coordination center manager for the Mendocino National Forest in Willows, the Saipan crew members are excited to be here working in California.
“This is the seventh year crews have come to California. The cooperative program began in 2000,” Burrows said. “Applicants compete to be on the fire team, have to pass our physical fitness requirements, and look forward to coming to the mainland to help with our wildland fires. This has been a very positive relationship for the past several years.”
Burrows said there are four fire crews – one each from Saipan, American Samoa, Guam and Hawaii. “We recruit crew members every year, with many returning each year. It is very popular and most years we have more people apply for the crews than we can accommodate.”
The crews are trained by a cadre of experts from the US Forest Service’s Region 5 fire professionals who go to the South Pacific Islands each April. They're put through the same standard “32 Hour Basic Wildland Firefighting” training as required for wildland firefighters working for the Forest Service.
Antony Babauta, superintendent of the Saipan crew, echoed the positive results of this program. “This gives the participants better experience and opportunities to compete for jobs,” said Babauta, who has brought crews to mainland United States for several fire seasons.
The cooperative program provides opportunity for the participants to gain wildland fire experience and is part of a grant offered by the US Forest Service, Region Five through its Fire and Aviation Management program. There also is a crew from American Samoa currently working with the Fulton Hotshots on fires in southern California.
After the crews have been paired with hotshot crews for 30 days, many are given the opportunity to continue on with hotshot crews or work with engine crews from around the state.
“We have had Pacific Island crews working with us in past years,” said Mike Alarid, superintendent of the Bear Divide Hotshots from the Angeles National Forest. “Last year we were able to keep two of the participants from the program on our crew all season.”
The Saipan crew will be with the Bear Divide Hotshots for the next 30 days, helping to suppress several of the many wildfires burning in California.
Harvey’s Type 2 Incident Management team, comprised of members from the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, States of Idaho, Nevada and Utah, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the cities of Reno and Carson City, Nevada, will be turning over management of the Yolla Bolly Complex to an incident management team from Alaska on Tuesday.
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Late last month, the district's board of trustees held a meeting in which they began discussing a proposal to charge fees for school bus ridership in order to help meet the district's skyrocketing fuel and transportation costs, as Lake County News has reported.
District Superintendent Korby Olson said the district is anticipating a 50-percent increase in its transportation budget in the coming year due to higher fuel costs.
That gave rise to a discussion about charging between $.50 and $2 a day for district bus service, which Olson said is seeing higher levels of use.
However, no parents came to share their views on the proposal at the board's June 25 meeting, Olson said, which could be attributed to the fact that summer meetings aren't as well attended due, in part, to vacations.
“We have to have parent input on this before we move forward,” Olson said.
He said the district board felt they couldn't take action until they have a better sense of what the district's parents want. So they'll plan on conducting surveys and continuing the discussion later in the year.
At the same meeting, the board held a discussion on raising developers fees, which are based on the square footage of a new home or commercial building. The district can only use fees for school building and construction.
No developers showed up at the meeting to dispute the proposal, which the board accepted, said Olson.
The district had last adjusted their rates two years ago to $2.63 for residential development and $0.42 for commercial development, said Olson.
In January the state adjusted the fees that a district can charge to $2.97 for residential development and $0.47 for commercial development, Olson added.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Capt. Kurt Smallcomb of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office reported that the 42-year-old man – whose name has so far not been released – suffered a superficial wound to the front of his groin area and a bullet hole in his pants.
Smallcomb reported that on July 3 at 1:20 a.m. the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Dispatch Center received a cellular 911 call of an accidental shooting that occurred at a residence in the 10000 block of Highway 20 in Potter Valley, near the Lake/Mendocino County line.
The caller reported that an adult female and adult male had been shot as a result of an accident, according to Smallcomb.
When deputies arrived, they found the 43-year-old female from Potter Valley, whose name also has not been released, lying partially inside and partially outside of a travel trailer, Smallcomb said.
The female had a through-and-through gunshot wound to her right knee, Smallcomb said. At the same time they also found the wounded man.
Based on statements and physical evidence gathered at the scene, it was determined that the female was carrying a .44 magnum single-action revolver in a holster under her left arm.
Smallcomb said she stepped into the small travel trailer and had the intent to shoot mice that were apparently scurrying around on the floor of the trailer.
When she went to draw the revolver from the holster, the revolver slipped out and fell to the floor. Upon impact with the floor, Smallcomb said the revolver fired one shot, which passed through her right knee cap, then continued upward and traveled across the front of the man's pants, where it struck a set of keys that were hanging from his belt loop.
Smallcomb said the bullet then glanced off the keys and tore a hole in the man's pants, and continued to travel between the pants and a pair of shorts he was wearing.
The bullet came to rest when it entered the coin pocket of the males pants, where it was recovered for evidence, Smallcomb said.
The female was transported by ground ambulance to the Ukiah Valley Medical Center for treatment, according to Smallcomb's report.
He added that the case was forwarded to the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office for review.
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The Soda Complex, which has two active fires remaining out of its original four, was at 74-percent containment, growing to about 300 acres to reach a total of 6,070 acres burned, according to forest officials. Containment is estimated to occur on July 15. The fires are located to the north and northwest of Lake Pillsbury.
Fire activity had increased Sunday, and is expect to remain elevated due to high temperatures, Forest Service spokesperson Phebe Brown reported.
The Yolla Bolly Complex, with 22 active fires – 15 of which are contained – has burned 7,484 acres and is 50-percent contained, according to the US Forest Service's Incident Information System. All of the fires are located in remote, steep terrain in the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness, and are centered about 20 miles west of Paskenta.
Crews were continuing burnouts on the fires Monday, as well as continuing to build lines around the fires within the complex.
Rick Harvey’s Great Basin Interagency Incident Management Team, is managing this complex. They will turn management of the fires to Wilcock’s Alaska team on Tuesday.
Brown reported that, to date, fire suppression efforts have cost $5.3 million on the Soda Complex and $1.2 million on the Yolla Bolly Complex.
On the Mendocino Lightning Complex in Mendocino County, total containment reached 60 percent on Monday, with the number of active fires down to 39. A total of 46,880 acres have burned, with 1,686 fire personnel assigned to the fires.
The fires in the forest and in neighboring Mendocino County also sent some more smoke into Lake County's air basin on Monday.
Lake County Air Pollution Control Officer Bob Reynolds said the county's air still remains in the “good” to “moderate” classifications based on Federal Air Quality Index measures. However, Reynolds said many people would agree the air isn't that good because of the smoke.
Cal Fire reported Monday that since June 20 there have been 1,781 fires in California, with 330 still active around the state. The fires have burned a total of 614,808 acres.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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THE LOCATION OF THE THERMOMETER HAS BEEN CORRECTED.
LAKE COUNTY – The National Weather Service in Sacramento issued a Special Weather Statement for Lake County and areas of Northern California that went into effect Monday, forecasting high temperatures in the upper 90s in Lake County.
However, they were wrong.
The high in Lakeport on Monday was 103, according to the thermometer at Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary on High Street. This writer's Subaru thermometer recorded a high of 106 degrees as she attempted not to melt upon entering her car after work.
The National Weather Service states that it could reach a high of 110 by Thursday – so now might be a good time to stock up on some ice and go swimming.
E-mail Terre Logsdon at
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The blazes are among more than 1,700 lightning-caused fires that began more than two weeks ago when a reported 8,000 lightning strikes hit the state.
The Soda Complex, located on the Mendocino National Forest's Upper Lake Ranger District in remote areas to the north and northwest of Lake Pillsbury, was 76-percent contained on Sunday, with 5,740 acres burned, officials reported.
Fighting the fire has cost an estimated $4.9 million to date, according to Forest Service spokesman Brian LaMoure.
Growth potential on the fire remains high but only two fires – the Mill, 890 acres and 45-percent contained, and the Monkey Rock, 1,060 acres at 15-percent containment – are still burning. Fire officials estimate the Mill will be contained on July 10, and the Monkey Rock on July 15.
The 7,484-acre Yolla Bolly Complex of fires – located 20 miles west of Paskenta in the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness – reached 50-percent containment on Sunday, with burnout operations continuing, according to Forest Service spokesperson Mary Christensen.
Estimated containment on the fires has been moved up to July 30. Fire suppression costs are estimated at more than $1.2 million, Christensen reported.
In neighboring Mendocino County, a complex of lightning fires reached 45-percent containment on Sunday, having burned 46,800 acres. Forty-three of 127 original fires remain active, with more than 1,700 firefighters assigned to the complex.
Officials reported that numerous evacuation warnings remain in place around the county, including for the Rockport, Cummings and Leggett communities.
Fire suppression costs to date total $21.2 million for the Mendocino Lightning Complex, Cal Fire reported.
There has been one fatality, 27 injuries and two residences destroyed in Mendocino County, according to Cal Fire. A total of 335 residences remain threatened.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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