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Containment on the 375,209-acre complex rose to 78 percent on Wednesday night, Cal Fire said.
Cal Fire said resources on the incident include 2,452 personnel, 221 engines, 56 water tenders, 19 helicopters, 46 hand crews and 63 dozers.
The Hennessey fire portion of the complex was up to 76 percent containment on Wednesday. Its 317,909 acres stretch across Colusa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Yolo counties.
In Sonoma County, the Walbridge fire west of Healdsburg is 54,940 acres and 87-percent contained, while the 2,360-acre Meyers fire north of Jenner was 100-percent contained as of Tuesday.
On Wednesday afternoon, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office helicopter “Henry-1” was dispatched to a remote area off of Stewarts Point and Skaggs Springs Road to rescue an injured National Guard firefighter who had slipped and fallen 100 feet down a hill in extremely steep terrain, officials reported.
The helicopter crew used a 200-foot-long line to rescue the man, who had a leg injury, the sheriff’s office said.
In Lake County, firefighters were working to burn off an island of vegetation within the burn area near Butts Canyon Road and Oat Hill Road on Wednesday night.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office sent out a Nixle alert to let community members know that smoke and flames might be visible from the Middletown area but that fire personnel were aware and monitoring it.
Cal Fire said the number of structures threatened on Wednesday totaled 2,693. Due to continuing damage assessments, the count of structures destroyed has risen to 1,464, with damaged structures at 231.
The number of structures destroyed in Lake County remains at nine, including eight homes and one other structure.
Evacuation warnings for parts of the southeast portion of Lake County as well as an evacuation order for an area south of Middletown remained in place on Wednesday night, Cal Fire reported.
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The excessive heat watch is in effect from Saturday morning through Tuesday afternoon.
Temperatures during that time period are expected to reach between 100 and 110 degrees, the National Weather Service said.
The Lake County forecast anticipates temperatures of up to 105 degrees on Labor Day.
On Wednesday, during a virtual community meeting on the August Complex in the Mendocino National Forest, incident meteorologist Chuck Redmond explained that a high-pressure system moving over the western United States will cause temperatures to rise to as much as 110 degrees in lower elevations and up to 95 degrees in higher elevations.
He said that the system also will bring very dry conditions and very low humidity.
This week, in addition to high temperatures, air quality remains a concern due to smoke from the area’s wildland fires.
The Lake County Air Quality Management District has issued an air quality alert in effect through Thursday night due to conditions rated as "unhealthy for sensitive individuals" to "unhealthy."
Air quality conditions are expected to be potentially unhealthy until the region’s wildland fires are fully contained, officials reported.
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The campaign will be run by the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, or BCSH, and kicks off with a new website and social media ads targeting vulnerable communities.
“Struggling tenants and landlords now have new protections and relief under the law – and it’s critical that all Californians learn their rights,” said Gov. Newsom. “It’s important that we reach renters across the state who might be one paycheck away from losing their homes and landlords who are short on their mortgages because of owed rent. Housing is Key will begin the public education campaign that will ramp up in the weeks to come and target vulnerable communities who have been hit the hardest by this pandemic.”
On Monday, Gov. Newsom signed AB 3088 to protect millions of tenants from eviction and property owners from foreclosure due to the economic impacts of COVID-19. These protections apply to tenants who declare an inability to pay all or part of the rent due to a COVID-related reason.
“Having a home is fundamental to all that we do,” said BCSH Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramírez. “During this pandemic and continued economic crisis it is more important than ever to provide people with the accurate, up-to-date information they need to connect to resources to stay housed or to access safe, stable, affordable housing.”
Tenants and landlords can learn more about the new Tenant, Homeowner and Small Landlord Relief and Stabilization Act of 2020 by visiting www.COVID19.ca.gov or going directly to www.HousingIsKey.com.
Later this week, BCSH will also launch a mobile and web-based app, available on the website, to help landlords and tenants. It will include a personalized, downloadable report that explains what protections or obligations apply under the new law by answering a few questions. The campaign will include targeted social media ads and digital materials in multiple languages to be rolled out in the coming weeks.
Under the new law, no tenant can be evicted before Feb. 1, 2021, as a result of rent owed due to a COVID-19 related hardship accrued between March 4 and Aug. 31, 2020, if the tenant provides a declaration of hardship according to the legislation’s timelines.
For a COVID-19-related hardship that accrues between Sept. 1, 2020, to Jan. 31, 2021, tenants must also pay at least 25 percent of the rent due to avoid eviction after Feb. 1, 2021, for the unpaid rent.
Tenants are still responsible for paying unpaid amounts to landlords, but those unpaid amounts cannot be the basis for an eviction. Landlords may begin to recover this debt on March 1, 2021, and small claims court jurisdiction is temporarily expanded to allow landlords to recover these amounts. Landlords who do not follow the court evictions process will face increased penalties under the Act.
The legislation also extends anti-foreclosure protections in the Homeowner Bill of Rights to small landlords; provides new accountability and transparency provisions to protect small landlord borrowers who request CARES-compliant forbearance; and provides the borrower who is harmed by a material violation with a cause of action.
Additional resources are on the way for struggling homeowners and renters.
Gov. Newsom and the Legislature made available $331 million from the National Mortgage Settlement for housing counseling, mortgage assistance and renter legal aid services.
A housing counseling program administered by the California Housing Finance Agency will launch this fall and mortgage assistance will be available to help distressed households next year.
The $31 million for renter legal aid services will be distributed by the Judicial Council to qualified legal aid organizations in the coming months.
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The name of the 41-year-old woman has not yet been released by officials pending notification of family.
Two other drivers – husband and wife Jesus R. Valdes, 53, of Novato and Elisha Valdes, 49, of Clearlake Oaks, who were in separate cars – also were injured in the wreck, the California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office reported.
The CHP said that at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, the Clearlake woman was driving her 2005 Mercedes ML350 northbound on Highway 53, north of Ogulin Canyon Road, at approximately 70 miles per hour.
The CHP said the Mercedes driver crossed a broken yellow center line, entering into the southbound lane, and was passing a large vehicle when she collided head-on with a 2016 Toyota Camry driven by Jesus Valdes, who was traveling southbound on Highway 53.
Elisha Valdes was following her husband in her 2015 Nissan Altima. The CHP said her vehicle collided with the driver's side of her husband’s Toyota.
All three vehicles sustained major damage due to the collision and were disabled in the roadway, causing Highway 53 to be closed for several hours in both directions, the CHP said.
The CHP said the Lake County Sheriff's Office, Caltrans, the Lake County Fire Protection District and Clearlake Police Department responded to the scene to assist.
The CHP said the driver of the Mercedes was not wearing her seat belt and died of her injuries at the scene.
Jesus Valdes suffered major injuries and was transported to Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center for treatment, while Elisha Valdes had minor injuries and was transported to Adventist Health Clear Lake, the CHP said. Both Jesus and Elisha Valdes were wearing their seat belts.
At this time, drugs or alcohol are not suspected to be a factor in this collision, the CHP said.
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