Spring Valley residents weary of annual wildfires in Lake County

SPRING VALLEY - From the back porch of Christopher Musser’s home on Cache Creek Road, smoke - at times black, brown and white - billowed up from the top of Chalk Mountain about a mile away Monday afternoon.

Flames burst through the smoke near the top of the mountain just before 2 p.m., defying winds that were pushing the hillside blaze away from fire-weary Spring Valley.

Musser, 68, evacuated his home Saturday evening, when fire came over the ridge and down the hill in front of his house in Spring Valley, stopping right at the property line of homes across the street. He and a housemate, Don White, 60, fled to the valley floor.

“I’m feeling overwhelmed,” Musser said. “We haven’t slept more than two hours since it started. The first night we slept in the car.”

Musser, like many residents in Spring Valley, spent much of Monday in a daze, almost battle-worn from Northern California’s latest wildfire. Residents expressed a sense of frustration and fatigue, cursing both fires of the past and the ones that are sure to come.

“It’s the third freaking day of summer,” said Musser. “It hasn’t even started, really.”

Though a mandatory evacuation was in place for the Spring Valley and neighboring areas, some residents remained close to their homes Monday. Like Musser they checked on their homes and those of friends and family, taking cellphone pictures or feeding animals and pets that had been left behind.

The hillsides all around Spring Valley were charred and ashen, some spots still smoldering. The ridges southeast of the valley floor were still very much ablaze. As winds kicked up Monday afternoon, small spot fires sent flames racing through brush and trees that not yet burned.

At Spring Valley’s Pantry, a community market on the corner of Spring Valley and New Long Valley roads, local residents who stayed behind gathered to exchange information and keep track of the smoke and flames to the east.

‘Ring of fire’

Michael Anderson, 60, who lives on Spring Valley Road, had just returned home from a lunch shift at a local restaurant where he works as a chef on Saturday when he first saw the fire.

“I’m sitting on my porch relaxing and I look up and see smoke,” he said. “With the high winds, it jumped New Long Valley Road.”

Anderson sent his wife to safety on Sunday, when fire burned all around Spring Valley. Most of the homes on the valley floor were spared.

“Basically it’s close to 360 degrees all around - a ring of fire,” Anderson said. Musser used the same description.

Cal Fire Capt. Amy Head urged local residents to leave the Spring Valley area until firefighters achieve some level of containment.

By Monday evening, firefighters had contained 5 percent of the fire, mostly around homes along its southern perimeter.

The blaze had burned 10,500 acres, destroying a total of 12 homes and about 10 outbuildings. Flames still threatened 600 homes, leaving 1,500 people under evacuation orders.

“Some people didn’t evacuate, which is not our suggestion,” said Head, sitting outside Spring Valley’s Pantry. Winds blowing east from the coast kicked up the flames as a large Air OV10 Bronco air tanker roared overhead, led by a smaller plane toward the burning ridges, where it dropped bright red fire retardant.

Head said cooler wind gusts that kicked up Monday afternoon were different from the hotter, low-humidity winds that spread the fire Saturday night and Sunday. She said more firefighters and equipment have arrived since the weekend and a Cal Fire base camp had been set up at the fairgrounds in Lakeport.

At the Moose Lodge 2284 in Clearlake Oaks, hundreds of evacuees took refuge. Older, frail people sat in cots near an American flag a few feet from a mounted moose head. Young children were visited by an actress portraying Cinderella, who had been contracted by a Lakeport woman.

Many evacuees parked their cars, SUVs and RVs and pitched tents in grassy areas near the parking lot. Dinner of hamburgers, macaroni salad and beans was served at 5 p.m., drawing many people into the dining area of the lodge.

Concerned about future

Michael McDaniel, 32, who had been at the lodge evacuation center with his family since Saturday, expressed frustration over the seemingly endless fires in Lake County. McDaniel said he and his family were able to evacuate their five dogs but had to leave their cats behind because they couldn’t locate them at the time they left.

He said a friend had since visited their home and reported that their cats were OK. The number of fires and their frequency is maddening, he said.

“How many more fires are we going to have now? How many more homes are going to burn?” he said. “It’s starting to become a nightmare. Lake County, I don’t know what it is but we have had bad luck when it comes to fires. It’s starting to get to the point where it’s driving people crazy.”

Tommy Teixeira, the lodge administrator, and Dennis Alexander, the lodge governor, said the lodge is running 24/7 to care for all the evacuees.

“You have a lot of scared, frantic people coming in,” said Teixeira. “All they saw was a wall of fire as they left.”

The evacuation center is well stocked with food and supplies, such as toiletries, but Teixeira said it could use donations to cover the cost of propane and electricity. It takes a lot of propane to cook for so many people and they’ve got fans and swamp coolers running constantly.

In a back room of the lodge, Charles Valdez, 61, visited with his 11-year-old macaw, Brady, who screeched and screamed every time he heard Valdez’s voice.

Valdez was able to flee his home on Old Long Valley Road, where he was caretaker, before fire burned it. He grabbed his macaw, some shirts, underwear and emergency medications he takes for his diabetes and other medical conditions before fire burned the property.

“I’m a veteran. I’ve been through some tough situations,” he said. “I’m used to stress.”

Valdez said he and his girlfriend of nine years are now homeless. “I’m thankful that we made it out. But I’m concerned about the future.”

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.