Firefighters struggle to gain ground on Mendocino Complex fires

Firefighters struggled to gain ground Wednesday on the two wildfires threatening shoreline communities in Lake County as two new fires broke out in Mendocino County, forcing fire officials to divert planes and fire crews from the larger battles to snuff out the smaller blazes before they, too, grew into ?raging infernos.

Just as the scorching afternoon winds were breathing life into the River fire in Scotts Valley northwest of Lakeport and the Ranch fire in the Mendocino National Forest, a new fire erupted in a potentially perilous spot - halfway between Cloverdale and Hopland along Highway 101.

“The way things are going right now, this fire has the potential to be another major incident,” Cal Fire Division Chief Todd Derum said Wednesday evening.

The Western fire quickly grew to nearly 50 acres, with officials initially fearing it could grow to 1,000 acres in the hot, windy conditions. An aggressive attack from nearby aircraft and crews slowed the fire’s forward momentum by 6:30 p.m., Cal Fire officials said.

The fire appeared to have been caused by a 3:45 p.m. motorcycle accident near Cominsky Station Road. The CHP log for the incident reported smoke at the site shortly before 4 p.m. and multiple reports of fire shortly thereafter.

By 9:30 p.m, the fire was estimated to be 106 acres and 80 percent contained, with fears of a third major fire in the region largely abated.

The flare-up of the Western fire concerned fire managers that another major front might open up in the area, straining fire forces already stretched thin by blazes across the state.

“Whenever there is a new start anywhere in our area in conditions like this, definitely everybody gets worried,” said Cal Fire public information officer Ron Oatman.

New fires erupt

A fifth fire, which was sparked around 11 a.m. northeast of Ukiah near Vichy Springs, was held to 3 acres, while a sixth, the Steele fire at the southern end of Lake Berryessa, was held to 135 acres.

The Eel fire east of Covelo grew to nearly 1,000 acres with just 5 percent containment.

Those fires, however, remain dwarfed by the River and Ranch fires, which grew by nearly 15,000 acres to almost 95,000 acres by Wednesday evening.

Known together as the Mendocino Complex fires, by 7:30 p.m. the River fire had swelled to 33,398 acres, and was 38 percent contained.

The Ranch fire had grown to 61,514 acres, but was just 15 percent contained.

Now in their sixth day, the fires combined have destroyed an estimated 14 homes and 24 other structures.

A total of 12,200 structures were still considered threatened. Full containment on the fires was not expected until Tuesday.

The Lake County fires are now second in California only to the deadly Carr fire in Redding that as of Wednesday had burned about 115,000 acres.

There were about 3,000 firefighters on the blazes in Lake and Mendocino counties.

Sean Kavanaugh, an incident commander for Cal Fire who oversaw firefighting efforts in Shasta County last week before moving to the Mendocino Complex fires, said the fires are similar.

“The fire behavior we saw up there was the same we saw over here. It’s extreme,” Kavanaugh told about 200 people gathered at a community meeting at Kelseyville High School Wednesday evening. “We’re still not out of the woods in dealing with these fires.”

Thousands of people remain evacuated, although residents of Kelseyville, Finley and the Big Valley Rancheria were allowed to return home Tuesday night. The areas remain under an advisory evacuation order for people to be ready to leave if fire conditions change.

“Both fires continue to have rapid growth when aligned with fuels, topography and wind,” Cal Fire said in a news release. “High temperatures, low humidity and afternoon winds coupled with critically low fuel moistures are contributing to large fire growth.”

The fires had claimed more structures Tuesday as they raged through Scotts Valley northwest of Lakeport and pushed deeper into the Mendocino National Forest. Those patterns continued Wednesday afternoon.

“The wind and fire activity are definitely picking up,” said Paul Lowenthal, a Santa Rosa assistant fire marshal working as a fire public information officer who was outside Lakeport Wednesday afternoon. “We’re definitely taking it seriously on this side.”

Much of the fire activity on the River fire focused on the north part of Scotts Valley.

Building a line

Cal Fire’s plan on Wednesday was to try to build a containment line along the northern edge of the fire and link it up with the “heel” of the fire east of Old River Road north of Hopland.

“We’re taking a dozer line up into the Bureau of Land Management wilderness now,” Cal Fire operations chief Charlie Blankenheim said Wednesday morning.

Crews continued to monitor areas near Hendricks Road, northwest of Lakeport, into Wednesday afternoon, where flames pushed by high winds charred brush and trees in the area the day before.

By about 4:30 p.m., the smoke overhead draped the area in sepia hues, contrasted by the pink fire retardant streaked across area roadways.

Lowenthal said smoke from the Ranch Fire, burning parts of the Mendocino National Forest, was drifting over Lake County.

The fires in the forest were burning away from structures, but it was still too soon to allow residents to return to their homes, he said.

“Until we have that area really secured, buttoned up and holding, the evacuations in Upper Lake and Nice will remain in place,” he said.

Late Tuesday afternoon the River fire flared and made a run into Scotts Valley, setting up an intense battle between more than 100 firefighters with helicopter support and an erratic fire that spotted, raced through grass and burned homes and barns.

Reports included 100-foot high flames racing down Cow Mountain into the valley.

“The fire came up and over the hill from the northwest of Lakeport and the winds pushed it hard down into Scotts Valley,” Lowenthal said.

Orchards helped slow the fire’s spread in some areas, as the flames bumped up against the lush agriculture.

But in other areas it swept onto ranchettes and began to take some of the structures.

The fire didn’t get into Lakeport, but the evacuation order for the town remained in place Wednesday.

Some staying behind

Scott Paradise, 26, raked the yellow grass in front of his home on 11th near Brush Street in Lakeport Wednesday around 3 p.m. He said he’s packed up but decided to stay behind to clear the area surrounding his home of anything flammable.

“I’m going to pull back any brush and vegetation that I can and keep a lookout for any neighbors that I can,” he said as a Red Hot Chili Peppers song played in the background. Though he wants to protect his home, Paradise said he would leave if the fire made its way into town.

“Right now it’s OK,” he said of fire.

“But I’m not discounting that it might come down here.”

Much of the River fire is burning in the Cow Mountain Recreation Management Area, a 60,000-acre area managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The southern portion allows access by off-road vehicles like motorcycles and 4x4s.

Most of the Ranch fire expansion was from the fire’s push deeper into the Mendocino National Forest, a Cal Fire spokesman said Wednesday.

As a result of the Ranch fire’s behavior, fire officials early Wednesday issued new advisory evacuation warnings to residents of the Lake Pillsbury basin, Paradise Valley and in the Mendocino National Forest in Lake County.

For 47-year-old Lakeport resident Tara Cossey, the Kelseyville meeting gave her little clarity about when she would be able to return to her home.

She and her husband evacuated on Sunday but returned a day later.

They decided to flee again on Monday and have been staying with their son in Kelseyville since then.

“I just want to go home,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writers Kevin McCallum at 707-521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com; Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com; Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com.