LAKE COUNTY >> Exactly one year ago today, the day-old Valley Fire became an inferno, a voracious monster eating its way through everything in its path, not only brush and timber but houses, apartment buildings and businesses.
In the overnight hours of Sept. 12, 2015, a slow burn erupted into a monster. By the early morning of On Sept. 13, , emergency, mandatory evacuation orders were issued for thousands of people living in or around Cobb, Middletown, Hidden Valley Lake, Loch Lomond, Hoberg’s Resort, Harbin Hot Springs and Seigler Canyon.
For many, it was too late as the fire had already taken their houses, vehicles and possessions.
Many people never received evacuation orders and left as flames were already on their properties. First responders going house to house to make sure people had evacuated could not keep up with the unprecedented rapid spread of the blaze, with winds whipping embers more than a mile ahead of the fire lines.
Chaos erupted on and around Cobb Mountain and surrounding areas as hundreds of people clogged the main road, Highway 175, and neighborhood streets, some people escaping with flames on both sides of the road.
Some people evacuated so quickly, their pets and livestock got left behind.
The fire was first reported as a wildland fire in the 8000 block of High Valley Road near Bottle Rock Road just outside Cobb at 1:24 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015. The first fire units on scene reported a two-acre fire burning at a moderate of speed in oak and grass woodland.
As with any large wildfire locally, Lake County’s limited amount of firefighting assets were quickly overwhelmed, with first responders focusing much of their efforts in the first few hours of the fire on evacuations. Mutual aid requests went out to fire agencies in nearby counties and fire crews responded in force, including crews from Napa, Cloverdale, Petaluma and Sacramento.
Veteran firefighters said they could recall only one other blaze that moved so quickly, so erratically and that burned as fiercely at night as during the day: the Rocky Fire three months earlier that destroyed 70,000 acres to the southeast of the Valley Fire.
In the first 30 minutes after the Valley Fire started, Cal Fire reported 10 engine companies, eight air tankers, three helicopters and 139 fire personnel were assigned to the blaze.
Four hours later, the fire was reported at 400 acres and no additional resources had yet reached the scene. The evacuation area expanded well beyond the area of High Valley and Bottle Rock roads to Cobb, Hidden Valley Lake, Harbin Hot Springs and Big Canyon Road near Middletown.
Cal Fire issued an update at 6 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 13, 2015 and it made clear that a wildfire of epic proportions for Lake County was burning completely unchecked. It was now at 40,000 acres, burning to the southeast from Cobb towards Middletown and Hidden Valley Lake and northeast towards Loch Lomond and Seigler Canyon Road. More than 1,000 firefighters were on scene with 125 engine companies, four air tankers and 16 bulldozers. Official evacuation centers had opened in Kelseyville and Calistoga.
Nine hours later, the fire was at 50,000 acres with zero containment. Additional firefighting resources from throughout California were headed into Lake County as Cal Fire reported an undetermined number of structures — mostly houses — had been destroyed. Also, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) reported 5,000 customers in the fire area without electricity.
By 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14, 2015, Cal Fire incident commanders reported the fire at 62,000 acres with 10 percent containment. Nearly 1,800 firefighters were battling the conflagration that had destroyed 585 houses and hundreds of other structures.
Over the next few days, firefighters finally were able to build a containment line around the blaze and it was fully contained by Oct. 5, 2015. As evacuation orders were gradually lifted, residents returned to nightmarish scenes of devastation, withe entire neighborhoods gone.
When it ended, the fire had destroyed 76,000 acres, including an estimated 7.5 million trees, along with 1,322 houses, 27 apartment buildings and nearly 100 businesses. Four civilians who did not evacuate died in the blaze and another person remains missing.
During the first half-hour of the blaze, four firefighters assigned to Copter 104 from it helicopter attack base in Kelseyville were caught in a firestorm and suffered serious burns. They were taken by a Cal Fire helicopter to the UC Davis Medical Center Burn Unit.
Cal Fire arson investigators determined the fire was caused by allegedly faulty and illegally installed electrical connections to an outdoor hot tub. The case has since been turned over to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for possible criminal charges. A family associated with the property disputes Cal Fire’s claim.
There are a number of heroes — many unsung — of the Valley Fire. The veterinarians and volunteers at the Middletown Animal Hospital cared for burned, injured and lost animals 24 hours a day, for example. But two examples of profiles in courage are first responders Jim Wright and Timothy Little.
Cal Fire Division Chief Jim Wright was at his home in Cobb when he heard the Sept. 12 distress call from the Copter 104 crew and drove to their location, braving heavy smoke and flames to reach them.
After picking up the four uninjured firefighters, he found the other four nearby in the emergency fire shelters they deployed before being overrun by flames. The severely burned firefighter were loaded in the back of the pickup truck and taken to the waiting Cal Fire helicopter.
Wright’s superiors credit him with saving the lives of the Copter 104 crew.
State wildlife Warden Little was helping with evacuations in Anderson Springs when he heard police radio reports of an elderly woman trapped in her Cobb house. He rushed to the address and found the woman and her infant grandchild. He got them out of the house and into a waiting neighbor’s car, following them down the mountain to safety.
After resuming his help with evacuations, it wasn’t long before he heard another radio call of an elderly woman trapped in her house with no first responders available to help her. Little again went into the fire to rescue her.
