[Update: Aircraft Released] Fire Near Covelo Burning Multiple Structures, Evacuations Requested

Agency Fire as seen from the Big John 2 camera on the ALERTCalifornia system.

A vegetation fire burning near Agency Road and Mina Road outside Covelo grew quickly Tuesday afternoon, with dispatch traffic reporting multiple structures involved by around 3:40 p.m.

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office issued a Nixle situational awareness alert around 3:35 p.m., placing the fire near the 24000 block of Agency Road and telling residents to use caution and avoid the area. The office said updates would be posted to mendoready.org.

Nixle Alert

Scanner traffic indicated the fire started as a vegetation fire in light, slashy fuels. Mutual aid was requested for CAL FIRE’s Zone I as the fire grew.

By around 3:40 p.m., dispatch upgraded the incident to State Responsibility Area with structures actively burning, and reported multiple structures involved. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office was responding Code 3, and units requested the Sheriff’s Office to begin evacuations.

As of 3:47 p.m., the incident commander estimates the fire to have grown to 15 acres in size.

This is a developing story. Redheaded Blackbelt will update this story as confirmed information becomes available.

Update 3:55 p.m.: 

Mendocino County has issued a Nixle with evacuation orders.

Scanner traffic indicates that there lots of through traffic and residents aren’t evacuating. The order, though not published on the mendoready.org system as of this update, indicates those in the area need to evacuate immediately.

Multiple Cal Fire aircraft have been requested to respond to the Agency Fire including tankers and helicopters.

Update 4:05 p.m.: Once on scene, air attack updated the approximate size of the fire to 3/4 of an acre, significantly smaller than ground crews estimated. Additionally, multiple structures are reported to remain under threat from the fire.

Heavy traffic on Mina Road is impeding firefighting efforts, according to scanner traffic. A request to close Barnes Road at Agency Road has been made.

Update 4:15 p.m.: CHP has been requested to assist in road closures. PG&E has been requested due to powerlines “crackling cracking” according to the incident commander.

Additionally, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office has issued an evacuation order for a zone near the Agency Road fire outside Covelo, with an evacuation warning issued for a neighboring zone, according to the county’s evacuation zone mapping.

The evacuation order covers Zone MEN-1COV14-A, bounded by Barnes Lane to the north, Covelo Road to the east, and County Road 343 to the west. A southern boundary was not listed in the information provided to Redheaded Blackbelt.

Zone MEN-1COV14-B, just north of the order zone, is under an evacuation warning. That zone is bounded by East Lane to the north and Covelo Road to the east. Southern and western boundaries were not listed in the information provided to Redheaded Blackbelt.

An evacuation order means there is immediate danger to life and people in that zone should leave right away. An evacuation warning means there is a potential threat and people should be ready to leave if the order is upgraded.

Residents can check their specific address against evacuation zones at mendoready.org. This is a developing situation and boundary information may be updated as the fire progresses.

Update 4:27 p.m.: 

Update 4:33 p.m.: Tanker 90 and Tanker 91 have been released from the Agency Fire, returning to Ukiah, fully loaded.

Update 4:47 p.m.: Helicopter 612 has also been released from the Agency Fire.