HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE — A third fire within a month”s time in the south county broke out inside the gates of Hidden Valley Lake subdivision at 3:45 Sunday afternoon and was quickly extinguished by firefighters from the region.
Lasting about an hour before being put out by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Safety (CDF), South County Fire Protection District and two crews from the Konocti Conservation Camp, the fire scorched about seven acres, according to Bill Klebe, Battalion Chief for Middletown Fire.
The fire broke out on Hidden Valley Road and went uphill to East Ridgeview by the Hidden Valley Country Club, Klebe said.
Although the grassland blaze was precariously close to homes in the area — one of the county”s most populated — there was no structural damage or burning, Klebe added.
But if not for a couple of “what-ifs,” said HVL General Manager Rick Archbold, there could have been devastating effects.
“If the people who live there hadn”t performed weed abatement by July 1, we would have lost most of the homes on Hidden Valley Road and probably up on Lakeridge Circle, as well as the country club,” he asserted.
Archbold noted that there wasn”t a heavy wind, and the breeze they did have kept the fire moving away from the houses.
“And we had an incredibly rapid response from the CDF and its helicopter. They just did a fabulous job,” Archbold added.
The CDF helicopter, a bulldozer and six engines were used in bringing the fire under control, according to a CDF report.
No cause for the fire has yet been determined, but the problems in the south county may be largely attributable to one of the hottest summers on record.
The brunt of the heat wave for Lake County has been over the past 13 consecutive days in which day-time highs have never been lower than 98 degrees.
The series of fires in the south county come at a time when the National Interagency Fire Center is reporting that this fire season is on pace to be the worst year for wildfires in this decade. Fires breaking out at various places throughout the state tended to provide a grim validation of this forecast.
As of Monday, flames in Cleveland National Forest in San Diego County, where temperatures have been as high as 115 degrees, had destroyed 6,000 acres, according to an Associated Press report. Firefighters were shuttled on boats to contend with a 700-acre blaze on Santa Catalina Island. Eight deaths in the broiling Central Valley are being attributed to the intense heat.
State energy officials are predicting rolling blackouts. To head them off as much as possible, the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state”s power grid, on Monday asked businesses to reduce their power usage. Some businesses voluntarily cut their power use.
The HVL fire followed closely on the heels of a more substantial conflagration that burned an estimated 550 acres 10 miles south of HVL and four miles south of Middletown last week. That fire, Kevin Colburn, a CDF information officer, said on Monday resulted from sparks flying from a vehicle”s catalytic converter on Highway 29.
“A catalytic converter spits out small pieces of material that can cause a fire,” Colburn said. “In this case, there were three spots along Highway 29 where fires started.”
The fire south of Middletown, in turn, followed a blaze that erupted in the northwest sector of Langtry Farms LLC, about five miles east of Middletown on June 29, destroying several acres. In this case, too, a quick and effective response by CDF and farm personnel kept the fire”s spread minimal in the 22,000-acre Langtry-Guenoc area.
Contact John Lindblom at jlwordsmith@mchsi.com.
