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- Written by: Lake County News reports
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – For the second day in a row, growth on the August Complex has been held to under 500 acres as a new team prepares to begin assessing the damage to lands in the northern portion of the incident.
The August Complex was up to 1,029,605 acres and 77 percent containment across all four of its management zones on Wednesday night, according to the US Forest Service.
Officials said 4,254 personnel remain assigned across all zones of the complex, burning since Aug. 17.
The Southwest Area Incident Management Team 1 and Cal Fire Team 5 are working to protect Covelo area, officials said.
The Forest Service said firefighters completed the dozer line in the Middle Fork of the Eel River area. Control efforts in this area remain a priority. Aerial resources will be used to support firefighters on the ground as needed, the Forest Service reported.
As fuels dry out, officials said smoke may be visible in some areas within the fire’s perimeter. Fire will also likely be visible at night as it’s expected to remain active with the dry conditions. Remote sensing data helps inform firefighters where heat exists, to help them focus their efforts.
Firefighters continue to mop-up and cold trail the fireline near Bloody Rock where heat was detected in dozer berms. The Forest Service said cold trailing is a method of controlling a partly dead fire edge by carefully inspecting and feeling with the hand for heat to detect heat, digging out that heat and mopping it up.
Fire personnel and equipment are clearing road hazards, including downed and standing hazard trees, on the southwest side of the fire. The Forest Service said this will allow access for heavy equipment in preparation for suppression repair activities.
The incident’s managers also are watching weather conditions, as the region is under a red flag warning that signals the potential for critical fire weather.
Also on Wednesday, the Forest Service said a Burned Area Emergency Response, or BAER, team has been assigned the task of assessing the northern portion of the burned areas for the
August Complex.
The team will be coordinating with the Shasta-Trinity, Six Rivers and Mendocino national forests as well as the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Weather Service, US Geological Survey, Trinity County, Tehama County, Mendocino County and other federal,
tribal, state and local agencies as they assess potential post-fire impacts to the burned watersheds.
BAER surveys are rapid assessments that evaluate the burned area to identify watersheds having increased potential for post-fire flooding, sediment flows, falling trees, and rockslides. The BAER survey assists land managers in preparing the burned area for rainstorms and wind events.
The teams focus on potential emergency impacts to life and safety on National Forest System lands and share the team’s findings with the responsible downstream agencies.
The BAER team reported earlier this week that it had completed an assessment of the complex’s south area, as Lake County News has reported.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
“COVID-19 continues to pose a severe risk and requires all Californians to follow necessary precautions to keep themselves and their communities safe,” said Dr. Erica Pan, acting state Public Health officer. “As a parent I know the difficulty of explaining the need to modify annual traditions because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that’s why the Department of Public Health is highlighting low-risk ways families can celebrate these holidays. Our ability to protect lives and limit the spread of COVID-19 depends on all of us taking the virus seriously. Wear a face covering, maintain physical distance and limit mixing with people outside your household.”
The guidance strongly discourages traditional trick-or-treating and encourages families to plan safer alternatives.
Suggestions include a candy scavenger hunt at home, scheduling online activities like pumpkin carving and costume contests, and car-based tours of Halloween displays.
The guidance also covers Día de los Muertos, a Mexican tradition celebrated in the Latino community honoring the deceased.
Día de los Muertos celebrations often include gatherings of extended family as well as cemetery visits.
Families are encouraged to place traditional indoor alters outside so others can view them from a safe distance, create virtual altars online and keep cemetery visits short in duration and limited to people within the same household.
Families and individuals are also urged to check in with their counties so they are aware of any local guidance that applies to both holiday celebrations.
For more information about what Californians can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19, visit www.covid19.ca.gov.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric said Wednesday evening that it is going forward with a public safety power shutoff that will impact nearly 53,000 customers across portions of 24 counties, including Lake.
The PSPS is taking place in response to a high-wind event with low humidity and dry vegetation that could result in critical fire danger.
The company said 82 Lake County customers, five of them in the medical baseline program, will be included in the shutoff. Mapping shows those customers are located in the south county, around Cobb, Lower Lake and Middletown.
“This program is really all about safety,” said Mark Quinlan, PG&E’s PSPS incident commander, in a Wednesday evening briefing.
Quinlan said the PSPS program is meant to stop catastrophic wildland fires.
Customer notifications about the possibility of the PSPS began on Monday afternoon. PG&E reported late Wednesday afternoon that it had made the decision to move forward.
In the Wednesday evening online briefing, Quinlan said 33,000 customers in Butte, Lake, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama, Yolo and Yuba counties are having their power turned off between 6 and 8 p.m.
Another 19,000 customers in Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Monterey, Nevada, Placer, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Sierra counties will have their power turned off from 8 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Quinlan said.
On Thursday at 4 p.m., PG&E anticipates cutting off power to an additional 700 customers in Amador, Calaveras, Humboldt and Trinity counties.
The areas impacted by the PSPS are also under a red flag warning called by the National Weather Service.
Once the weather subsides on Friday morning, PG&E will patrol and inspect the de-energized lines to ensure they were not damaged during the wind event and repair any damage found. PG&E will then safely restore power in stages and as quickly as possible, with the goal of restoring power to nearly all customers within 12 daylight hours after severe weather has passed.
PG&E anticipates power will be restored to essentially all customers affected by the PSPS event who can receive service by 10 p.m. on Friday (Oct. 16), weather and safety permitting.
Infrastructure improvements implemented this year has allowed the company to make PSPS events smaller. PG&E said without those improvements another 12,750 customers would have been deenergized.
Once the weather all-clear is called, PG&E will begin damage inspections of power equipment in order to meet its goal of restoring power within 12 hours of the weather event ending.
The all-clear is expected to occur on Friday.
PG&E is opening 40 community resource centers in impacted communities. Thirty-seven opened on Wednesday with another three to open on Thursday. No centers have opened in Lake County, according to the company’s website.
More information about the PSPS is available here.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The red flag warning is in effect from noon on Wednesday until 11 a.m. Friday, the National Weather Service said.
The forecast calls for a high-pressure ridge that will build across the area from mid to late week, bringing warmer and drier conditions along with gusty offshore winds to higher elevations.
Forecasters said upper slope and ridgetop winds from the northeast to east are expected to range from 15 to 25 miles per hour, with locally higher gusts to 35 miles per hour. The strongest winds will occur around sunrise on Thursday. Humidity will be low during the day and night.
The Lake County forecast calls for daytime temperatures topping out in the high 90s into the weekend, when temperatures are expected to drop into the 80s and then into the 70s early next week. Nighttime temperatures will reach the 60s before dropping into the 50s at week’s end and the 40s in the new week.
PG&E began notifying customers on Monday of the potential for a public safety power shutoff, and on Tuesday night said that it’s expanded the scope of the potential shutoff area from portions of 21 to 24 counties, with a total of 54,000 customers in the area.
The number of Lake County residents that would be impacted rose from a previous estimate of 50 to 82, with five of them medical baseline customers, PG&E said.
A map of the proposed outage area shows that Lake County residents to be impacted are in the Lower Lake, Middletown and Cobb areas.
Officials said they will make the decision on Wednesday whether or not to go forward with the shutoff.
If the shutoff goes forward, PG&E said the majority of customers should have power restored by the end of the day on Friday.
Email Elizabeth Larson at