Two wildfires force evacuations in Clearlake

More than 50 homes were evacuated in Lake County on Friday as a pair of wildfires burned through grassland on the hills east and northeast of Clearlake, Cal Fire officials said.

The first fire broke out just after 1 p.m. Friday. Dubbed the Extension fire, the 7-acre blaze east of St. Helena Hospital was 75 percent contained Friday night. Residents of about 50 homes along 18th and 19th avenues were told to evacuate, though the hospital was not - orders that were lifted about 4:30 p.m. Any new patients were being sent to Sutter Lakeside Hospital, fire officials said.

A second fire broke out at 2:45 p.m., about five miles north in Ogulin Canyon. That one, called the North Branch fire, spread to 25.5 acres of wildland by Friday night. Fewer than 10 homes were evacuated along Ogulin Canyon Road. By 6:30 p.m., residents were allowed to return. That fire, too, was 75 percent contained by Friday night, though Cal Fire officials said crews would remain on scene through the night and into the morning to make sure no other flare-ups occurred.

It wasn’t clear if the second fire was started by thrown embers from the first, which began in the open space east of Walmart on Dam Road, dispatchers said.

Flames from the Extension fire spread on a hillside along the city’s eastern outskirts. The city of nearly 15,000 residents is built on slopes and hills coming out of the Clear Lake basin, and the Extension fire burned east of a cluster of commercial and municipal buildings, including the hospital and the Clearlake branch of the Lake County Superior Court, built into the hills.

Flames could be seen burning in the trees about 100 yards off Highway 53, a north-south thoroughfare. White smoke filled the sky, punctuated by black streaks.

A Cal Fire dispatcher said the agency launched an aggressive fight from the air, with four tankers dropping red fire retardant and two helicopters ferrying water from nearby Clear Lake to the blaze.

Friday was the one-year anniversary of the start of the Rocky Fire, which burned 69,438 acres and destroyed 43 homes in Lake, Yolo and Colusa counties.

Staff writers Mary Callahan and Christi Warren contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.