Smaller Lake County fires handled, larger effort ongoing

Firefighters by Tuesday had two new fires in Lake County buttoned up while continuing to get final containment on the nearby Ranch fire - the state’s largest wildland fire.

A Kelseyville fire, which started Monday afternoon in the 9500 block of Kelsey Creek Road, was held to 24 acres and Tuesday morning was fully contained, according to Cal Fire.

Sunday’s Ridge fire, which started southwest of Lakeport, remained at 36 acres Tuesday with 95 percent containment. That fire burned near Highway 175 and Ridge Road.

Those were blips on the fire radar compared to the region’s far larger Ranch and River fires. The Ranch fire was 98 percent contained as of Tuesday morning.

U.S. Forestry officials Tuesday said the final stretch of unfinished line is in Colusa County, west of Stonyford, near Bonnie View and Happy Camp. Firefighters are working on fire still burning inside the containment line. Sunday, additional heavy equipment arrived to help, officials said.

The River fire has been fully contained for a few weeks. The two fires have burned 459,123 acres, primarily in Lake County and the Mendocino National Forest.

As of Monday there were 736 people remaining on the effort.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@rossmannreport.