LAKE COUNTY — How good is Lake County”s air quality? The answer, apparently, is blowing in the wind.
Air quality has remained in the “good” range this week, while Northern California fires pouring smoke into Lake County come under control. Lake County Deputy Air Quality Control Officer Doug Gearhart said smoke from the now 100 percent contained Mendocino Lightning Complex and fires farther north may still take a toll.
“Control of the Mendocino Complex of fires has significantly improved our air quality, and the weather is half of it, depending on conditions. If we start getting northwest winds we will see a significant amount of smoke back in the basin. We”re not expecting strong northwest winds, but we can”t say it won”t happen,” Gearhart said.
On the federal Air Quality Index, Lake County”s air has ranged from 13 to 39 since Sunday. Anything above 50 is considered unhealthy for medically sensitive individuals, and an unhealthy alert is issued at 101. Northwest wind is predicted through Saturday night, according to the National Weather Service.
The prevailing northwest wind in the area serves to clear out Mendocino”s air basin and bring the smoke to Lake County”s, according to Gearhart. He said the majority of the smoke still degrading the county”s normally exemplary air quality is coming from the lightning fires in the Soda Complex in the Mendocino National Forest and the Lime Complex in Trinity and Tehama counties.
The Soda Complex was 79 percent contained Friday morning, according to U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Phebe Brown. The blaze scorched 8,360 acres of Mendocino National Forest in Lake and Mendocino counties.
“From the beginning, there were 57 throughout the national forest, most of them in Lake and Mendocino counties. Some burned together, and some were put out right away because they were smaller,” Brown said.
Of the four large fires that resulted, the only one left burning is the Mill Fire in Lake County. It burned 2,751 acres and was 64 percent contained Friday morning, according to a U.S. Forest Service update. The U.S. Forest Service and CAL Fire were jointly managing the fire, using aircraft Friday and building containment lines around the fire.
Within the originally 22-fire Lime Complex is the Yellow Fire, the closest of three still burning. According to Brown, the Yellow Fire burned 12,800 acres in the Yolla Bolly ? Middle Eel Wilderness as of Friday, and was not contained. A Friday update said the complex had burned 33,103 acres in Trinity and Tehama counties.
The Mendocino Complex burned 53,300 acres between 129 fires before it was fully contained Thursday, according to a Friday morning CAL Fire update. Firefighters will monitor all fires for several weeks while aircraft continue to extinguish the fires, according to the update.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
