[UPDATE 11:09 p.m. Video!] Evacuations in Lake County as New Fire Grows Rapidly

A fire which started about 5 p.m. in Lake County is spreading rapidly. Within approximately one hour it has jumped from a couple acres to over 50. The Lake County Sheriff Department sent out this message, “Wildfire has broken out in Lower Lake in the Clayton Creek area. Residents on Clayton Creek Road and Ellen Springs area ordered to evacuate. Shelter being established at Twin Pine Casino.”

Lake County News is doing their usual stellar job covering this on their Facebook page here.

UPDATE 6:27 p.m.: Thousands are now without power according to the PG&E outage page.

UPDATE 6:41 p.m.:  Tweet from CA Fire Scanner:

UPDATE 6:55 p.m.: Cal Fire retweeted this photo.

UPDATE 7:25 p.m.:

The fire is now at 80 acres and more evacuations have been ordered. The Lake County Sheriff sent out this alert,

Additional evacs ordered in Lower Lake area. Evacuations are ordered for the following areas in Lower Lake: Cantwell Ranch Road, Morgan Valley Road, Riata Road, Teklas Road Hale, Daly Hill, Teklas, Spruce Grove Road to Noble Ranch Road and Ellen Springs.

Instructions:
Residents should leave area immediately. Middletown High School designated as evacuation center. Coordinating with Red Cross now.

UPDATE 7:31 p.m.: Lake County Sheriff sent another alert, “Middletown HS has declined to open their facility for evacuees. Evacuated residents are now directed to respond to the Highlands Senior Center in Clearlake.”

UPDATE 7:57 p.m.: According to this pay site, the fire is now estimated to be 400 to 450 acres with 200 structures threatened and only 15% containment.
UPDATE 8:29 p.m. Lake County Sheriff sent another alert, “Evacuations ordered for Stahle Road and Morgan Valley Road to mile marker 7.1.”

UPDATE 11:09 p.m.: Video shared by Cal Fire:

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Mogtx
Guest
7 years ago

Awe man that just really sucks .

Danielle
Guest
Danielle
7 years ago

Oh those poor people. Again in Lake County. 🙁

River Defender
Guest
River Defender
7 years ago

Not again!!!!

Rocky raging water
Guest
Rocky raging water
7 years ago

Middletown high school has declined residents that could potentially lose there homes with no place to go.. Wow I wonder who made that call. I would think after the tragedy of 2015 there doors would be wide open to anyone in need of evacuation from a disaster.

Liz
Guest
Liz
7 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Maybe that is their excuse. Or maybe they felt it was an unsafe place to go. I volunteered with a Red Cross program for neighborhoods. (NEST) There I learned that all public schools are mandated by federal law to became emergency shelters. The down point was the evacuees had to leave by 8:00 am so school could begin. Our community center then opened for coffee and regrouping after spending the night on the gym floor.

Suspicious
Guest
Suspicious
7 years ago
Reply to  Liz

I can’t understand why they can’t temporarily open there for the weekend.

If people still need to stay after school resumes, do their gym stuff outside. They also have the cafeteria room where they do plays and such. That room could temporarily accommodate some sort of sports program for a short while. They also have all those empty Grammer school buildings.

Liz
Guest
Liz
7 years ago
Reply to  Suspicious

I think their school has already started. Maybe someone knows.

Survivor
Guest
Survivor
7 years ago

You would think so. They refused to take my kid back after we lost our home in the fire. I have no love for that school!

Jqmes Dingler
Guest
Jqmes Dingler
7 years ago

Poor judgement when the population of Middletown evacuated last year everyone in this county and surrounding counties opened shelters for all in need. Now people in our own country need assistance and what does someone who should know better and possibly one of the people in need last year they make a hardship that much worse shame on superintendent of schools and leadership of the county and Middletown for allowing this to happen even of they did not make the decision they are in charge

Suspicious
Guest
Suspicious
7 years ago
Reply to  Jqmes Dingler

Absolutely!

SMKleven
Guest
SMKleven
7 years ago

Well,maybe Lower Lake should have thought about that last year when Middletown needed an evacuation point.

Get the horses out!
Guest
Get the horses out!
7 years ago

My mother said she saw a very thin plume of smoke in that area around 2:30 pm.

Paula Slater
Guest
Paula Slater
7 years ago

Did she report it? We all must report anything we see as soon as we see it because where there is smoke there could be fire.

Get the horses out!
Guest
Get the horses out!
7 years ago
Reply to  Paula Slater

She’s old and wasn’t sure her eyes were seeing right.
I’m sure she would have contacted someone if she was sure.

Martin's
Guest
Martin's
7 years ago

So sad. Sending prayers for all involved.

Sam
Guest
Sam
7 years ago

I was there in October of last year and saw the results of the fire last summer. Real black and bare hills!

Grumpy
Guest
Grumpy
7 years ago

Air Attack says 600 to 800 acres with big spot fire a mile ahead of main fire, not looking good

Nicole
Guest
Nicole
7 years ago
Reply to  Grumpy

Do you have a link to that update please ? ty

Nicole
Guest
Nicole
7 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

thank you

Sue
Guest
Sue
7 years ago

They’re going to stop it this time. Go firefighters!

Suspicious
Guest
Suspicious
7 years ago
Reply to  Sue

I sure hope so. We had no evacuation orders from any source in the Valley Fire. Not by phone, TV, or emergency vehicles driving through our neighborhood. By the time we decided something was really wrong it was almost too late. Had to drive through wall of flame with kid and pet. Highway was fully engulfed in flames. Our neighborhood wasn’t on fire yet. Not one single plane flew over or dropped water or retardent. My husband and other kid were trapped. They were told rescuers would get them. Never showed up, they waited 10 minutes. They had to run on foot down a ravine to safety. The highway was deserted, all the engines I saw earlier were gone. For 30 minutes I thought they died in the fire. For 2 hours fire officials knew it was coming towards our neighborhood and no official warnings. And no attempt was made to save our neighborhood. Many many people tell us the same story, unorganized, and engines doing nothing even watching homeowners fighting the fire themselves. They saved the school and CDF station but not the homes? I will never understand this! But we’re not suppose to mention this. Hope they learned something from the Valley Fire and “Stop it this time”

Survivor
Guest
Survivor
7 years ago

Does not surprise me about the MHS. We lost our home in the 2016 Valley Fire and they refused to take my kid back. We were temporarily relocated in another county and couldn’t drive to the school or use their bus. Wanted to use their independent study program to do schoolwork from home. Absolutely refused to even accommodate due to the disaster. Took my kid 6 months to find some sort of schooling he could do. Thank you Moke for opening your doors to evacuees.

Survivor
Guest
Survivor
7 years ago

By the way, I’m ready to help any way I can. I remember the generosity of all those who helped us. I’ll never forget it!

Noooo!
Guest
Noooo!
7 years ago

Crap this sux!!! Wishing for the best, so very sad and hard on community and resources.
Sending prayers to all the living beings affected

LeAnna Carson-Hansen
Guest
LeAnna Carson-Hansen
7 years ago

Sad to see the high school did not address the academic needs of their students who suffered such a great loss in the fires last year.

I do not understand it.

The Red Cross in each county usually has memorandums of understanding between them and the various public buildings that are able to be evacuation/respite centers.

Maybe the high school did not qualify or the school district did not approve of such an agreement.

The school’s website shows that they are in session for the school year and maybe the district had to make the difficult decision to not disrupt the school by being an evacuation center?

May all the folks evacuating find safe harbor this evening and may all the firefighting folks both volunteer and paid be kept safe, as well as all the support crews.

clearlake fool
Guest
clearlake fool
7 years ago

this was the second fire of the afternoon that started within a few minutes of the first . last week we also had 2 fires start within a few minutes apart . guess arson bug running around .

Get the horses out!
Guest
Get the horses out!
7 years ago
Reply to  clearlake fool

Does seem like arson.

Suspicious
Guest
Suspicious
7 years ago
Reply to  clearlake fool

Agree, looks suspicios. I don’t feel safe in LC anymore. Lost our home in the Valley Fire. Not looking forward to moving back into our new home. If I could I would live somewhere else!

Anon Forrest
Guest
7 years ago

Lake County touts itself as having the cleanest air in California. Until this happens.
Burn permits COST $25 in Lake, and my daughter says there are maybe 6-8 “burn days” allowed. If brush cannot be legally burned to prevent these disasters, this happens. Lake County’s “Air Quality Control Board” has a problem, and this is the result….again. af

Get the horses out!
Guest
Get the horses out!
7 years ago
Reply to  Anon Forrest

The fire department has been very good at clearing this past year. I think this is arson.

Grumpy
Guest
Grumpy
7 years ago

1400 acres and 5% contained this am

Linda Zeier
Guest
Linda Zeier
7 years ago

M. Cruz call aunt Linda so worried best hopes for all affected by the fire.

clearlake fool
Guest
clearlake fool
7 years ago

and now today , sunday at 2:15 pm , there is another fire started just north of clayton fire and its burning houses and more evacuations

Get the horses out!
Guest
Get the horses out!
7 years ago
Reply to  clearlake fool

How horrible. How does a fire just start like that? It must be someone with a sick mind.
Which way is the wind blowing? Is it blowing north or west? Could an ember have been carried by the wind, or is it arson?

HOPE
Guest
HOPE
7 years ago

Everyone affected by this fire, call your insurance company right away. Don’t wait until you have confirmation your home is gone. There will be a long list of people you will have to wait behind to get processed. So the sooner you call the sooner they will get to you and the help you need. Lost our home in the Valley Fire. We were 3rd on their list, the next couple of days there were hundreds that were waiting. I know neighbors who still haven’t gotten their money 11months later. We are almost done rebuilding. GET ON IT RIGHT NOW!

Secondly, one lesson we learned from the fire, our insurance paid off the dwelling right away but made us make a list of every item in our home. It took over 6 months and it was pure psychological torture! If your insurance is written up the same way, change your policy to put more on the dwelling and less on contents. It’s all the same in the long run but you don’t have to play the contents game. You’ll get more money up front and can begin to recover, either rebuilding or moving. If you have insurance, FEMA WILL NOT HELP YOU! Our whole neighborhood burned to the ground, FEMA denied every single neighbor!

Red Cross came through and gave us $150 per family member for new clothes or whatever we needed.

A local bank sent a check to each kid in school for school needs.

I believe a local bank as long sent us a check. And the Serroptomus club sent us a check after we wrote them about what happened to our family.

Many stores gave discounts to fire victims.

Point is sign up for everything you can right away, there is all sorts of people out there ready to help.

God Bless, I know what you are going through, you can do it. It will be one of the hardest thing you will ever go through. Be strong and don’t be afraid to ask for help. 11 months after the Valley Fire, I still have moments of total stress and tears. Don’t forget about the kids, get them help. A lot of times they act strong and unaffected but may be very stressed.

God bless all our neighbors in Lake County.

HOPE
Guest
HOPE
7 years ago

Also, make sure you sign up for cleanup by F**A/private co. right away. If you don’t sign up you can be waiting months to get your property cleaned up. If your insurance pays for clean up you can also get your own company to clean up. We used a local co. We were last on femas list for our neighborhood so we just took care of it ourselves so we could start rebuilding. Also when the cleanup crews started it was around $14,000, by the time a few months went by, they were charging triple that! They take your insurance money. So when they over charge that’s money taken out of your new home. We saw these crews take 1 1/2 to 3 weeks to clean a lot. Our crew we hired took only three days. These crews hired by F**A/state were milking the overtime. Be careful.

help for evacuees
Guest
help for evacuees
7 years ago

It would be really helpful to get the phone numbers of the evacuation centers so we can check in and find out what their needs are. Last year Pay it Forward Humboldt and Pay it Forward Southern Humboldt provided a lot of support for the evacuees. Since that time the two groups have separated and Southern Humboldt one is now called Southern Humboldt for Change. Everyone is welcome to join our Facebook group.

DISGUSTED
Guest
DISGUSTED
7 years ago

And now they get Good Morning America to give the principle a free trip to Hawaii for being there for his students! Are you kidding???? For 6 months I had to search for a new school for my kid after our home burned down and we lost everything. The principle refused to take my kid back, didn’t even have the courage to tell me to my face, had his secretary tell me, “He can’t come here.” After speaking with the superintendent, she also refused, even after pointing out that the California State Board of Education said what they were doing was illegal! I guess Independant Study would have cost them money they could use on football! A free trip to Hawaii but my kid will not graduate with his friends, or go to prom at what was his school because of this “Local Hero”. This absolutely sickens me! I guess this was an attempt at getting rid of the bad publicity over refusing to be first on the list for emergency shelter for the folks of Lower Lake.