Fatal New Year’s Day fire in Willits

One person was killed and at least three others injured in a fire east of Willits on New Year’s morning.

A request for three ambulances was made to Cal Fire shortly before 9 a.m. Friday for a residence on Eastside Road near Mitomka Way, according to Capt. Jim Horton.

Of the three ground ambulances dispatched, one took a victim directly to a waiting air ambulance for transport to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

Scanner traffic during the incident suggested that someone was trapped in the home and that one victim was an 18-month-old child with burns to the back and chest, according to the social media site Mendocinosportsplus.

Horton said the other ambulances took two patients to Howard Memorial Hospital in Willits, which requested another helicopter that took a second patient to UC Davis.

Horton said he understood coroner’s office personnel were dispatched.

Few details about the fire were available by press time.

The fire chief of Little Lake Fire District, Carl Magann, declined to comment, and no one at the Willits Police Department or the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office could be reached for comment.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.