UPDATE (6 p.m.): CAL FIRE reports the Pawnee Fire at 10,000 acres and is now 5-percent contained. This latest information comes from the Pawnee Fire Community Meeting held Monday, June 25 at 6 p.m.
CLEARLAKE OAKS >> A fire initially reported at 100 acres on Saturday afternoon is now burning at over 8,000 acres in the Spring Valley area, northeast of Clearlake Oaks, with evacuations expanding and no containment reported.
The blaze, dubbed the Pawnee Fire, is at 8,200 as of Monday afternoon and has already caused an estimated 3,000 residents of Spring Valley, including those on Old Long Valley and New Long Valley roads, to abandon their homes, some with pets, and flee to two available shelters: the Moose Lodge in Clearlake Oaks and Lower Lake High School. Mandatory evacuations expanded to residents of the Double Eagle Ranch area on Monday afternoon as “significant fire activity threatening the area,” due to a wildfire near Flintlock Road, was reported via a Nixle alert by the Lake County Sheriff’s Department.
According to the latest from CAL FIRE, a total of 22 structures have been destroyed, and an about 600 remain in threat. No fatalities have been reported. Since Saturday, road closures in New Long Valley and Old Long Valley roads at Highway 20 remain in place. Pawnee Fire, started just before 5:30 p.m. Saturday in the 2500 block of Pawnee Trail.
Hundreds of firefighters from in and around Lake County have since been battling the fire that showed a slower rate of spread Monday, a scene different from that of Saturday night when “erratic winds” and high temperatures doubled the size of the fire.
Via scanner reports, firefighters described a devastating scene — one all too familiar to Lake County residents — as they communicated an eruption of multiple spot fires, homes wholly engulfed in flames and residents and pets yet to escape the fast-moving blaze.
With several fires reported across the state, additional resources have been scares, but the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci said Sunday a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had been secured to help ensure the availability of vital resources to suppress the Pawnee Fire.
A Pawnee Fire community meeting with updates from CAL FIRE, the LCSD, and the Northshore Fire Protection District was scheduled for Monday evening. Officials offered a briefing, highlighting the current actions that firefighters are taking on the fire.
The LCSD reminds all that evacuations remain in place. The Lower Lake High School evacuation center is located at 9430 Lake St. and an animal evacuation center at the Social Service Center is at 15975 Anderson Ranch Pkwy. Animal control can be reached at 707-263-0278.
