Clayton fire cleanup approaches halfway point in Lake County

Lower Lake is bustling as excavators, bulldozers and crews clad in Tyvek jumpsuits, respirators and hardhats clear away the ash and debris left behind by the devastating Clayton fire this summer. Blankets of apple-green grass, encouraged by recent rains, have begun shooting up from the cleared lots, diminishing scars from the reported man-made inferno.

State contractors had cleared 60 of some ?138 properties on CalRecycle’s cleanup list early this month and expected to reach the halfway point over the weekend, said Todd Thalhamer, operations chief for CalRecycle’s Clayton cleanup. Private contractors have cleared about 35 others, he said. It takes about a day and a half to clean each lot, he said.

“We have a dry streak now, so we’re going to work it pretty hard,” Thalhamer said.

CalRecycle has hauled away 2,559 tons of concrete, 267 tons of metal and ?8,823 tons of ash and soil, according to spokesman Lance Klug.

“It’s going really well,” Lake County Supervisor Rob Brown said during a recent visit to the CalRecycle office in Lower Lake.

The work sets the stage for reconstruction in the town where some 1,300 residents lived before the Aug. 13 blaze ripped through town. Arson suspect Damin Pashilk is scheduled for trial in April in connection with the Clayton fire and 15 smaller fires. He’s also charged with trying to start a 17th fire. The Clayton fire scorched ?3,929 acres, destroying ?300 structures and damaging 28.

The losses included some commercial enterprises on the town’s historic Main Street, including a deli and a car repair business where the burnt metal frames of vehicles remain. The stench of scorched buildings is still strong downtown, even as customers return to businesses that suffered minimal damage.

“It’s coming back,” said George Davis, owner of Maynard’s Sports Bar, who was hammering out some finishing touches two weeks ago as roofers nailed shingles above him. The main area of the bar, which includes a mounted deer head with a cigarette dangling from its mouth, was largely undamaged, but a bathroom, storage shed and back patio were gutted.

The bar was shut down for two months because of fire damage, Davis said.

Next door, Lower Lake Coffee suffered little structural damage, but the fire fried its deli counter and freezer, limiting what it was able to offer customers when it reopened two weeks after the fire. Business is back to about ?75 percent of what it was before the fire, thanks largely to crews working on the fire damage, owner Dee Yates said.

Before the debris cleanup could begin, state officials had to identify and remove toxic materials. That work is largely completed, but a number of properties - marked by pink hazard tape and spray paint - still need to be evaluated for asbestos before they can be cleared. Asbestos-contaminated properties require special treatment, Thalhamer said.

The cleanup crews are accompanied by state-hired Native American monitors, who scan sites for cultural artifacts during excavation.

The monitors already have found 12 new cultural sites, including one village, Thalhamer said. The sites and artifacts are documented and reburied, he said. Finding cultural sites on private property does not interfere with an owner’s ability to rebuild and otherwise utilize their land, Thalhamer said.

Brown said the cleanup is proceeding faster than similar work on the Valley fire last year. That’s partly because there were fewer trees to remove, and partly because the damage is more concentrated and there’s less of it.

The Valley Fire scorched 76,067 acres - much of it forested - and destroyed 1,955 structures, including 1,281 homes. At least four people died during the fire. The body of a fifth person reported missing since the fire has not been located.

Because of the Valley fire and other blazes last year, local contractors were trained to clean up the Clayton fire, Thalhamer said.

The cleanup is expected to produce 30,000 tons to 40,000 tons of waste - the same amount Lake County residents normally produce in an entire year, according to county officials. The Valley fire produced 180,000 tons, officials said.

The Clayton cleanup is expected to cost the state more than $3 million.

As of early November, no one had pulled permits to rebuild on their newly cleared lots, Brown said. He suspects many residents are still struggling to come to terms with their losses and figuring out what steps are next.

Toni Herrin, 45, is among them.

“I have to think about what I’m doing. For two weeks, I didn’t even shed a tear because I was in shock,” said Herrin, who moved to Lake County a year ago. Losing a home “feels like the rug was just ripped out from under your feet,” she said.

Herrin’s property on Palomino Court has been cleared and she has begun consulting a contractor to figure out how to proceed. She had limited insurance on the 2004 manufactured home she purchased last year. It was enough to pay off her loan on the old structure but she needs a new loan to buy another and replace the foundation and utility connections. Herrin, an accounting associate at Wal-Mart, said she’s having difficulty getting a loan despite having a high credit score.

Laurel Coulter, who lost her home of 16 years and all her belongings, said she intends to rebuild but can’t bring herself to visit the site where her home once stood, much less plan its replacement.

“I can barely get through a week without breaking down,” she said.

“We’re grieving,” Coulter said of herself and the town.

Thalhamer expects to have 90 percent of the ash and debris removed by Thanksgiving and hopes to have the cleanup completed by mid-December.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at ?707-462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@MendoReporter