Authorities say evacuation order mistakenly sent in Mendocino Complex fires

Authorities in Lake County were scrambling Thursday to walk back an 'urgent message' about new evacuations in the Mendocino Complex fires, affecting thousands of residents in western Lake County and along the northwest shore of Clear lake.

The errant notification advised those communities that previous evacuation warnings had been upgraded to mandatory evacuations. However, most, if not all, of the communities were already under existing mandatory orders.

The notification, sent out at 9 a.m. Thursday morning, prompted numerous Bay Area media outlets, including the San Francisco Chronicle, to report on a new round of evacuations in the fires. Cal Fire and Lake County sheriff's officials stressed, however, that there were no new mandatory evacuations issued since Wednesday night.

Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Corey Paulich said that the notice was intended only to clarify the boundaries of the existing evacuation areas in the fire after the repopulation of some areas, including Kelseyville, earlier this week.