NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – As it continues to burn additional forestland, the August Complex on the Mendocino National Forest has now become one of the biggest fires incidents in California’s history.
On Wednesday, the US Forest Service said the complex – which has been burning for three weeks – had grown to 372,012 acres, with containment remaining at 24 percent.
The Forest Services said that acreage total does not reflect the 49,887-acre Hopkins fire in the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness, which on Wednesday transitioned to the management of the California Type 1 Incident Management Team No. 5.
The August Complex is now the third-largest wildland fire in California history, behind the 2018 459,123-acre Mendocino Complex – which burned across Lake, Mendocino, Colusa and Glenn counties, including acreage in the Mendocino National Forest – and the 396,624-acre SCU Lightning Complex now burning on the Central Coast, according to state fire records.
The complex is among the wildland fires sending massive amounts of smoke into Lake County’s air basin, where the sky was a dark sepia tone on Wednesday.
The Forest Service said the high temperatures and gusty winds on Tuesday increased fire activity throughout the complex, moving the fire beyond the Government Flat and Mendocino Pass areas east of the Black Butte River.
Structure protection operations were conducted for many homes on Tuesday. On Wednesday, firefighters were staged to protect more structures due to the continuing winds. Crews also worked on a spot fire detected on the northeast side of the complex in the Riley Ridge area.
Because of the complex’s steady growth, officials said evacuation orders remain in effect for areas in Glenn, Lake and Mendocino counties.
In Lake County, the evacuation area covers Pillsbury Ranch and the entire Lake Pillsbury basin.
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.
The August Complex in Northern California as mapped on Wednesday, September 9, 2020. Map courtesy of the US Forest Service.
The smoke from fires in California and Oregon is covering not just the West Coast but moving out over the Pacific Ocean, as shown in the satellite image from the NASA EOSDIS Worldview on Wednesday, September 9, 2020. The red dots indicate fires and thermal anomalies. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As hundreds of thousands of acres of land burn across California and Oregon, more smoke and haze have moved into the Lake County air basin, continuing hazardous air conditions for residents.
The Lake County Air Quality Management District said all areas of Lake County are forecast to have air quality conditions ranging from “unhealthy for sensitive groups” to “unhealthy” and “very unhealthy” through Thursday.
Overall conditions should remain in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” range with periods of “unhealthy” air quality until the smoke plumes shift, the district reported.
The air district said the smoke impacts in Lake County and the rest of the state are coming from the August Complex in the Mendocino National Forest, which was up to 372,012 acres on Wednesday; the 863-acre Oak fire near Willits; the 252,163-acre North Complex burning in the Plumas National Forest; the Red Salmon Complex, which has burned 71,610 acres in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest; and any other fires in Northern California and Oregon.
Officials said areas in Lake County that are closer to the fires, including Lake Pillsbury, Spring Valley and areas north of the Highway 20 corridor, should use additional caution as localized smoke impacts may be significant until the fires are completely out.
The LNU Lightning Complex in Colusa, Lake, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties, is nearing full containment, which has significantly reduced the smoke impact, the air district said.
On Wednesday, the smoke impacts colored the sky over Lake County an orangish-brown, with air quality and visibility so poor that drivers were using headlights early in the afternoon and streetlights came on hours earlier as if it were already evening.
The National Weather Service’s Sacramento office said Wednesday that the thick smoke across Northern California resulted in temperatures being as much as 30 degrees cooler than forecast in some locations.
In Lake County, the National Weather Service said temperatures were up to 14 degrees cooler than expected.
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.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Area Town Hall this week will get updates from two county officials and discuss changing its format.
MATH will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, via Zoom. The meeting is open to the public.
To join the Zoom meeting click on this link; the meeting ID is 872 2935 2332. Call in at 888-788-0099.
At 7:20 p.m., MATH will get an update from District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon.
At 7:35 p.m., Scott De Leon, Lake County’s director of Public Works and Community Development, will address the group.
In an item set for further discussion at 7:55 p.m., the group will continue discussing the pros and cons of changing MATH to a town hall format with no county oversight.
The MATH Board includes Chair Tom Darms, Vice Chair Sally Peterson, Secretary Paul Baker, and at-large members Rosemary Cordova and Lisa Kaplan.
MATH – established by resolution of the Lake County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 12, 2006 – is a municipal advisory council serving the residents of Anderson Springs, Cobb, Coyote Valley (including Hidden Valley Lake), Long Valley and Middletown.
For more information email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric said Wednesday night that it has restored power to 97 percent of its customers who were part of a public safety power shutoff activated on Monday night.
The shutoff – which impacted customers across 22 counties, including Lake – was enacted due to red flag weather conditions.
At daybreak on Wednesday – after the all-clear was given for weather conditions – PG&E said it began to patrol equipment and facilities, including more than 10,750 miles of transmission and distribution power lines, for damage or hazards as a result of the high winds.
PG&E said the patrols took place by ground and by air. Due to thick smoke and haze across the region because of numerous wildland fires, the company said it had to pause air inspections initially due to unsafe flying conditions. However, by noon on Wednesday, about half of PG&E’s aircraft were flying patrols.
By Wednesday night, PG&E said it had restored power to nearly 150,000 customers in areas where no wind-related damage was found.
That included all customers in Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Kern, Lake, Lassen, Mariposa, Nevada, Placer, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Tehama and Tuolumne counties.
In Lake County, PG&E said approximately 24 residents – none of them medical baseline customers – were impacted by the shutoff. Power to those customers was cut off early Tuesday morning.
As for those whose power hadn’t yet been turned back on as of Wednesday night, PG&E said they included a group of customers mainly in the Northern Sierra, where the company hasn’t been able to restore electric service due to ongoing threats from wildfires, smoke impeding air patrols and requests from first responders to keep power lines off to assist in firefighting efforts.
PG&E said it will resume its patrol, repair and reenergizaton efforts in those areas as soon as its granted access to do so.
Another 5,000 customers in Butte, Humboldt, Napa, Plumas, Sierra, Trinity and Yuba counties are expected to have power restored by noon on Thursday, once PG&E said it can patrol those areas via helicopter.
Last fall, Lake County was included in two overlapping public safety power shutoffs that left power off to the county for nearly a week.
Since then, PG&E said it was refining its shutoff planning and procedures to reduce both the length of time and the number of customers impacted.
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said it is investigating the homicide of a local man whose remains were found last month in the Mendocino National Forest.
The remains of John Turner Dickerson, 48, of Nice, were discovered on Aug. 9, according to Lt. Corey Paulich.
On that day, Lake County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to an area in the Mendocino National Forest related to possible human remains being found, Paulich said.
Paulich said detectives from the Major Crimes Unit also responded to the location and determined the remains were human and badly decomposed.
The remains were recovered and an autopsy was conducted later that week. Paulich said the autopsy revealed that the remains belonged to a male who was the victim of a homicide.
Detectives were able to positively identify the victim as Dickerson, Paulich said.
Paulich said the cause of death is not being released at this time.
Detectives have been investigating several leads related to Dickerson’s death, Paulich said.
The Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone who may have information related to the circumstances of Dickerson’s death to contact Det. Richard Kreutzer at 707-262-4233.
Due to unprecedented and historic fire conditions throughout the state, the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region is announcing a temporary closure of an additional 10 National Forests – including the Mendocino National Forest – meaning all 18 National Forests in California are now closed.
The closure of the additional 10 forests will be effective at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9.
These additional forests include the Eldorado National Forest, Klamath National Forest, Lassen National Forest, Mendocino National Forest, Modoc National Forest, Six Rivers National Forest, Plumas National Forest, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Tahoe National Forest and Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.
This decision will be reevaluated daily as conditions change, officials said.
The Forest Service had closed eight National Forests on Monday evening. Explosive growth of fires throughout California during the day and late evening of Tuesday led to this updated decision.
“The number of large fires and extreme fire behavior we are seeing across the state is historic," said Regional Forester Randy Moore. "These temporary closures are necessary to protect the public and our firefighters, and we will keep them in place until conditions improve and we are confident that National Forest visitors can recreate safely. I ask all Californians and visitors to take these closures and evacuations seriously for their own safety and to allow our firefighters to focus on the mission of safely suppressing these fires."
The Forest Service thanked its partners and the public for their cooperation and understanding “of this monumental fire threat.”
Officials said it is critical that all Californians and National Forest visitors follow these important closures and restrictions for their own safety and the safety of our firefighters. Citizens with specific questions within their area may call their local forests for more information.
The Forest Service manages 18 National Forests in the Pacific Southwest Region, which encompasses more than 20 million acres across California.
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