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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Firefighters quickly contained a small wildland fire in Clearlake that burned close to structures, caused a power outage and led to the evacuation of a nearby school.
The fire was first reported shortly before 1 p.m. on Arrowhead Road near Ukiah Street in the city of Clearlake, according to radio reports.
Cal Fire Division Chief Greg Bertelli said the fire was less than an acre, adding, “It was in really close proximity to several structures.”
Bertelli said the fire occurred in the “mutual threat zone,” which led to a combined response from Cal Fire and Lake County Fire Protection District, with the two agencies initially holding unified command on the incident.
“We both respond together to make sure we get enough resources,” Bertelli said.
In addition to engines and crews from Lake County Fire, Bertelli said Cal Fire sent a full wildland dispatch that included three air tankers, one helicopter, one air attack, five engines, two dozers and hand crews.
Clearlake Police officers also were on scene, with Bertelli reporting that they did an excellent job of quickly setting up roadblocks and preparing for evacuations if necessary, he said.
The fire led to the cancellation of the remainder of the first day of summer school at nearby Pomo Elementary School, according to Konocti Unified School District Superintendent Donna Becnel.
“We decided to go ahead and relocate the kids because at one point we lost power,” Becnel said.
Becnel said at 1 p.m. the district began notifying parents and shifting the children whose parents they couldn't contact over to Burns Valley School.
Some of the children are only on campus for a half day, so they already were headed home by the time the fire occurred, Becnel said.
Once they decided to end school for the day, “We didn't go ahead and move anybody back to the school,” Becnel added.
The Clearlake Police Department set out a Nixle alert just after 1 p.m. suggesting that residents of Burns Valley Road between Woodland and Ciwa could evacuate but it was not mandatory.
The agency followed up just before 1:30 p.m. to report that residents could return home but asking people to stay out of the area of Burns Valley Road, Ukiah Street and Arrowhead Road for the duration of the incident.
Burns Valley Road between Pomo and Woodland still remained closed at around 1:30 p.m., police said.
Bertelli said it took up to 25 minutes to contain the fire, which had some moderate but erratic winds hitting it.
He said they wanted to make sure they had good line all the way around the fire before calling it fully contained.
Bertelli said resources were being released from the scene as early as 2:30 p.m., with a few engines expected to stay on later in the day for monitoring.
Radio reports indicated that the incident command was terminated just before 3 p.m.
Bertelli said the cause remains under investigation. What appeared to be a power line came down during the incident, but he said it was a guy wire, not an energized line.
Pacific Gas and Electric reported that its crews also were at the scene Monday afternoon working to restore power to a small number of customers impacted by the outage the fire caused.
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