CLEARLAKE— The latest wildfire to break out this early fire season was a vegetation fire which burned in the city of Clearlake, described by fire officials as “displaying a moderate rate of spread” Monday. According to the LNU Fire Scanner and scanner traffic, units were dispatched to the area of Dam Road, behind Walmart on Monday as multiple structures were threatened.
The fire reportedly started with a vehicle fire which spread into the vegetation prompting immediate need form five local engines and mandatory evacuations for Wilkinson to 18th Avenue. An in county “strike team” was ordered up for an immediate response, but several agencies from out of the area assisted. The Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit via CAL Fire LNU dubbed the incident the “Wilkinson Fire.”
The incident triggered response from fire personnel from all of Lake County Fire Departments and Fire Districts, Mendocino U.S. Forestry and even Colusa Fire sent one water tender and four fire engines. In all 21 engines were on the scene of the fire along with three dozers, two water tenders and one ambulance. The Clearlake Police Department, LCSO, Northshore Support Team, State Parks, Calif. Fish and Wildlife Dept. 4 Retardant Fixed Wing Bombers, one spotter plane and two helicopters were all cooperating. Evacuation orders were given for East of Dam Rd. but did not include the stores and fast food restaurants near and around Wal-Mart. All residents living south of 18th Ave. were told to evacuate as well. At 7 p.m. Monday night the fire had reached 20 acres in size and containment was 75%.
Sheriff Brian Martin reported via Facebook a lot of people would be affected by power outages since the fire occurred right where the PG&E lines go through so the utility had to de-energize them for safety reasons. Power went out from Tractor Supply located at 5930 Dam Rd and McDonalds all the way down south to Hidden Valley Lake and some residents were left without power for several hours.
Photos by Bob Minenna Photography and Coral Pratt.
