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The August Complex has been burning since Aug. 16 on the forest’s Grindstone Ranger District in Glenn County.
The Hull fire was discovered on Aug. 19 four miles north of Lake Pillsbury on the Upper Lake Ranger District and has since prompted an evacuation warning for the Pillsbury Ranch community.
Officials said the Hull fire is now being managed as part of the August Complex.
As of Tuesday night, the fires had together burned 197,148 acres and were 17-percent contained, the Forest Service reported.
The Forest Service said the largest fire in the complex is the Doe, at 160,326 acres; followed by the Glade fire, 18,367 acres; the Tatham, 8,958 acres; and the Hull, 4,885 acres.
Forest officials said crews are continuing to utilize preexisting fuel breaks and roads to get around the southern edge of the Doe fire. Structure protection continues on the west side of the fire when fire behavior allows.
Crews working on the Hull fire are working in conjunction with crews on the Doe Fire to construct line on the southern portions of both fires, officials said.
The Forest Service said firefighters also are continuing to construct dozer lines on Tatham fire and are working with Cal Fire resources to contain the eastern flank.
On the Glade fire, crews will continue to go direct on the fires northern and western flanks, officials said.
Resources assigned to the incidents on Tuesday night included 476 firefighters and 152 overhead personnel, 37 engines, three helicopters, five bulldozers, 19 water tenders and eight crews, according to a Forest Service report.
The Forest Service said California Incident Management Team No. 15, which is overseeing the incident, will be transiting management of the August Complex to the Southern Incident Management Blue Team.
The incoming team will shadow California Incident Management Team No. 15 on Wednesday and will assume command at 7 a.m. Thursday, officials said.
Officials said light winds will cause smoke to linger over the complex the next several days. A slight chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms along with above-normal temperatures and low relative humidity could result in increased fire behavior.
Area residents are told to expect slight improvements in air quality as the Air Quality Index remains in the range of unhealthy to unhealthy for sensitive groups.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Firefighters were hard at work on Tuesday as the LNU Lightning Complex made runs across portions of southern Lake County.
The fire grew to 356,326 acres by Tuesday evening – increasing by approximately 3,413 acres during the course of the day – with containment remaining at 27 percent, according to Cal Fire’s report.
Cal Fire said the number of structures destroyed has risen to 978, with 256 damaged.
The Hennessey fire, on the east side of complex in Lake, Napa, Solano and Yolo counties, has burned 299,463 acres and is 29-percent contained, Cal Fire said.
On the Sonoma County side of the complex, the Walbridge fire west of Healdsburg has burned 54,503 acres and is 17-percent contained, while the Meyers fire north of Jenner remains at 2,360 acres and 97-percent containment.
The number of personnel increased by about a dozen during the day, for a total 2,207, while the number of engines decreased by nearly the same amount to 293. In addition, 66 water tenders, 11 helicopters, 18 hand crews and 56 dozers are assigned to the incident.
In recent days, the firefighting force assigned to the complex has held its growth to far smaller amounts than the tens of thousands of acres it scorched in its first days.
However, officials said the situation remains challenging.
Cal Fire said Tuesday evening that extreme fire behavior with short and long-range spotting are continuing to make firefighting efforts difficult.
On Tuesday afternoon, radio traffic indicated firefighters were busy in the Guenoc Ranch area, and Paul Duncan, a Cal Fire division chief from Cobb, reported on Facebook that the Hennessey fire had crossed a containment line in Guenoc Ranch and was moving west, with air and ground resources actively working it.
Duncan said to expect heavy ash and smoke in Hidden Valley Lake and the Ranchos.
He reported that the portion of the fire south of Middletown “is still presenting suppression challenges, moving to the north and east.”
With the fire remaining active and still continuing to grow, officials said evacuation orders and warnings for the south county remain in effect.
In his Facebook posts, Duncan said there is no estimated time yet for repopulation of the south county’s evacuated areas, adding that he understands the frustration and apologizes for the inconvenience, “but we can’t repopulate if the fireline is not secured.”
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Fire officials on Monday discussed the challenges they’re facing in their efforts to contain the LNU Lightning Complex, which is burning across five counties and now one of the largest wildland fire incidents in California’s history.
Cal Fire joined with county officials in a virtual community meeting on Monday night.
The fire – burning since Aug. 17 – had grown to 351,817 acres and 25-percent containment by evening, Cal Fire reported.
Firefighters kept the fire’s growth to just under 1,800 acres on Monday.
It’s now the second-largest wildland fire complex in recorded state history, said Chief Sean Kavanaugh, the complex’s incident commander and the head of Cal Fire’s Incident Management Team 2.
The largest remains the 459,123-acre Mendocino Complex that raged through Lake, Mendocino, Colusa and Glenn counties two years ago.
The LNU Lightning Complex includes the Hennessey fire – burning in Lake, Napa, Solano and Yolo counties – which was up to 294,602 acres and 29-percent containment on Monday evening.
On the Sonoma County side of the complex, the Walbridge fire west of Healdsburg reached 54,503 acres and 7-percent containment and the Meyers fire north of Jenner remained at 2,360 acres and edged up to 96-percent containment.
Evacuation orders and warnings issued late last week remained in effect on Monday, with Kavanaugh reporting that the various portions of the fire were about five to six miles from the communities of Hidden Valley Lake, Lower Lake and Middletown.
New damage assessments led to updated numbers regarding the complex’s impact on property. As of Monday evening, 908 structures have been destroyed and 248 damaged, with 30,500 still threatened. So far, Cal Fire has not reported on where the damaged and destroyed structures are located.
More than 300 firefighters and about 50 additional engines joined the incident on Monday. Cal Fire said the assigned resources include 2,194 personnel, 304 engines, 50 water tenders, 12 helicopters, 18 hand crews and 41 dozers.
Cal Fire said firefighting resources continue to be stretched statewide as more than 14,000 firefighters continue to battle more than two dozen major fires and lightning complexes across California.
Kavanaugh said that on previous fires they have relied heavily on hand crews, which this year are in short supply. He said they have requested assistance from the National Guard and have received information that they may get that help by the end of the week.
‘Lightning siege’ sparks fires across the state
Since the lightning siege that started on Saturday, Aug. 15, Cal Fire said there have been more than 13,000 lightning strikes.
As a result, there have been more than 625 new wildfires, which have now burned over 1.2 million acres. In this siege, there have been seven reported fatalities and more than 1,200 structures destroyed, Cal Fire said.
Cal Fire officials said that California has experienced a significant increase in the number of wildfires and acres burned in 2020 when compared to 2019.
The agency said 2,700 more wildfires have occurred this year than last, with an additional 1.4 million acres burned year to date when compared to 2019.
During the Monday evening virtual community meeting, Cal Fire Sonoma Lake Napa Unit Chief Shana Jones said that, for comparison, by this time last year 55,000 acres had burned.
She said statewide firefighting resources have been drawn down by 96 percent, with only 4 percent remaining available for initial attack fires. In addition, Cal Fire has responded to 13,800 separate emergency incidents.
Additionally, Jones reported that all six of Cal Fire’s incident management teams are now assigned to incidents throughout California.
The view from the fire lines
Kavanaugh and his team also were assigned to the Mendocino Complex as well as the Rocky and Jerusalem fires in 2015. The LNU Lightning Complex is burning into the Rocky and Jerusalem fire scars, he said.
During the virtual community meeting on Monday evening, Kavanaugh said this is the third time in six years that his team has been deployed to Lake County for a major wildland fire incident.
Chris Waters, operational section chief on the complex, said the northwest side of the Hennessey fire – from Calistoga to the scars of the Jerusalem and Rocky fires – continues to be active. “It’s actually our top priority,” he said.
Waters said they’ve been moving dozer line, engines and other equipment north on the incident.
He said every day at around 2:30 p.m., they’ve seen an increase in fire behavior and the same was true on Monday.
While the fire is not moving extremely fast, “it continues to move at a steady pace,” Waters said.
Firefighters on Monday were building control lines and planning firing operations that would send up smoke, he said.
Despite the fact that the complex is burning in areas that already have burned, Waters said firefighters are still having difficulty getting the fire under control.
Smoky conditions have hampered using aircraft on the fire, but on Monday south county residents reported seeing aircraft – including very large air tankers – flying the fire.
Kavanaugh reported that a DC-10 very large air tanker worked on the fire on Monday.
Deputy Operations Officer Nick Brown said during the meeting, “We are doing everything we can to halt the spread of this fire.”
To that end, they’re continuing to fight it with air tankers. Brown said they’re using large air tankers and very large air tankers, or VLATs.
Three VLATs are available for the complex, Brown said. In addition to two DC10s, which each carry 10,000 gallons of retardant, they have a 747 which has the capacity for 19,000 gallons.
Brown said they’re using that air power to build contingency line at the Lake and Napa County line.
Authorities said the overnight conditions late Sunday and into early Monday were more favorable for the firefighting effort. There was light rain across the county and lightning was not reported locally.
However, Cal Fire said there were nearly 300 lightning strikes across California overnight, and so firefighters have continued to monitor for additional lightning strike wildfires and the potential for additional lightning.
Local help for animals
The county’s Lake Evacuation & Animal Protection, or LEAP, disaster response group was activated last week.
Since then, LEAP has taken more than 110 calls for assistance for more than 800 animals, according to Lake County Animal Care and Control Director Jonathan Armas.
Armas said 38 evacuated animals are in their care and another seven have been returned to their owners.
He said they are starting to see an increase in calls from people asking to have animals checked on in the evacuation areas.
The team can go into evacuated areas, check on animals, evacuate them if necessary or care for them in place, Armas said.
Those who need help with evacuating or caring for animals can call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278. Armas said phone calls are being answered daily.
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The August Complex on the Grindstone Ranger District increased to 181,051 acres as of Monday night, with containment at 11 percent, the US Forest Service reported.
Ten structures have so far been destroyed, officials said.
Resources assigned on Monday included 433 firefighters and 153 overhead personnel, 32 engines, three helicopters, seven bulldozers, 11 water tenders and seven crews.
On Monday, crews worked on structure protection – including removing fuels around structures and improving defensible space – on the west side of the Doe fire, the largest of the fires within the complex, the Forest Service said.
Officials said firefighters continued to construct dozer lines on the Tatham fire and are working with Cal Fire resources to contain the eastern flank, while crews worked on the northern and western flanks of the Glade fire.
The Incident Management Team assessed wilderness fires such as the Hopkins fire for
long term fire behavior and expected growth, officials said.
On the forest’s Upper Lake Ranger District, the Hull fire grew to 3,500 acres by Monday night, the Forest Service reported.
The Forest Service said 108 personnel are assigned to the incident, located four miles north of Lake Pillsbury.
An evacuation warning for the Pillsbury Ranch area that the Lake County Sheriff’s Office issued over the weekend remains in effect.
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