Rocky Fire slowed in Lake County; 43 homes lost in blaze

Two days of cooler weather have slowed the advance of the Rocky fire, but the reported toll from its destruction grew significantly Wednesday as firefighters were better able to inspect areas already burned by the state’s largest wildfire.

As the blaze entered its second week, some evacuees Wednesday settled in to a makeshift existence and waited for permission to return to homes now being kept safe by firefighters.

The number of homes destroyed by the fire on Wednesday evening rose to 43, compared with 24 a day before. In addition, 52 outbuildings were consumed, nearly double the number reported Tuesday.

None of the new losses occurred overnight Tuesday or Wednesday, officials said.

“It’s a very, very rugged area and heavy brush. It took awhile to get an accurate assessment of what burned,” said Steve Swindle, a Cal Fire spokesman.

In brighter news Wednesday, officials reported that the fire was 30 percent contained, compared to 20 percent Tuesday. It has burned 69,600 acres, up 2,600 acres from Tuesday.

“We’ve made excellent progress,” Cal Fire spokesman Ron Oatman said. “We were able to take advantage of cooler weather for a couple of days.”

Cal Fire expects to have the fire contained by Aug. 13, a week from today, Oatman said.

“There’s a lot of hard work to be done over the next four to five days,” he said, including by hand crews who will hike or be flown in to remote areas around the fire.

About 1,200 people have been ordered from their homes due to the fire, and an additional 10,000 or so have been advised to vacate.

Among the evacuees are about 150 residents who have set up tents and parked campers at a nondescript Moose Lodge along Highway 20 north of Clearlake.

The lodge has been open day and night for three days, providing cots, meals and bathrooms for residents of Spring Valley, a rural community of about 850 located about 5 miles to the north. Firefighters battling the blaze have so far kept the community safe, but there’s just one road into the area, creating a high risk that residents could become trapped behind the fire lines.

Several other official evacuation centers have been set up by the county and Red Cross. But most Spring Valley residents prefer the Moose Lodge because it sits near the intersection of Highway 20 and Highway 53, which is closed to through traffic and their route back home.

When the road reopens, they’ll be the first to know.

“They can see when that intersection opens. That’s one reason the Spring Valley folks like to stay here,” said Pamela Rowland, secretary-treasurer of Women of the Moose, an auxiliary organization to the Loyal Order of the Moose, which is overseeing the evacuation center.

Inside the hall, there are stacks of bottled water, food and other supplies, including cots, donated and loaned by local businesses and organizations.

Volunteers on Wednesday cooked up a lunch feast that included bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, potato salad, fruit and soft drinks. There’s meat for future meals in the freezer and frequent pizza deliveries, courtesy of local shops and other donors.

“The community has really come through,” Rowland said.

She and the evacuees agreed that everyone is pitching in where they can, making the experience as good as it can be.

“There’s so much love in this place, it chokes me up,” said Bob Nigrelli, a veteran and retired carpenter.

Despite all the good will, worry and fear continue as an undercurrent in the camp.

Cassandra Raffaelli hasn’t seen or heard from her mother, who lives in the hills above Spring Valley, since she and her family evacuated three days ago.

Someone went to check on her, but she refused to leave and now is not answering the phone, she said.

“We’re really worried. No one can get a hold of her,” said Raffaelli, a precious metals and stone prospector.

She said the ordeal is easier to weather because of the outpouring of support at the lodge.

“I just want to cry,” Raffaelli said. “I’m so happy. People came here and helped one another in time of need.”

South of the evacuees’ Spring Valley homes, firefighters are working hard to contain the fire beyond the spot where it jumped Highway 20 and expanded north, said Oatman, the Cal Fire spokesman. Bulldozer operators have been working to build a containment line.

The southern portion of the fire has been largely contained for several days, fire officials said.

The fire began July 29 and has burned more than 100 square miles of open wildland and rural property east of Clearlake and Clearlake Oaks, spreading into Yolo and Colusa counties. It remains more than four times larger than any other ongoing fire in California, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

Nearly 3,500 firefighters are battling the blaze.

The burned homes and buildings are mainly in the Morgan Valley area of Lake County, where the fire started.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit.