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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Week-old wildfire continues to threaten homes in Northern California

Wildfire evacuee Robert Jones sleeps Tuesday near a pile of donated clothes at the Moose Lodge in Clearlake Oaks, Calif. (Associated Press)
Janie Har Associated Press

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – A predictable but painful summertime ritual played out in half a dozen resort communities near California’s largest freshwater lake on Tuesday as an erratic, week-old wildfire that has wiped out dozens of buildings continued to threaten nearly 7,000 more.

As firefighters and equipment from outside the state poured in to battle the blaze burning 10 miles from Clear Lake, more than 13,000 people were required or urged to leave their homes, vacation cabins and campsites in the latest fire-prone region to find itself under siege.

“This never gets easier,” said Gina Powers, who with her husband and cats on Sunday night fled the Spring Valley home she has evacuated before in the more than two decades she has lived there. “This time it was scarier.”

State and federal fire officials said the stubborn fire had consumed more than 101 square miles after flames jumped a highway in several places. Firefighters made some progress Tuesday afternoon with some help from light rain that fell in the area. The blaze was 20 percent contained, but it was not expected to be corralled until at least Monday.

The fire, by far the largest of 11 burning in Northern California, started on July 29 in drought-withered brush that has not burned in years in the Lower Lake area, about 100 miles north of San Francisco. A cause has not been determined.

The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, has the wildfire listed as the nation’s highest priority for crews and equipment even as potentially destructive blazes burned in Oregon and Washington, spokesman Mike Ferris said.

Ferris called the fire “one big monster.”

“In Northern California alone, all their resources are committed, and they are having to go outside the geographic area to get resources, whether it’s aircraft or firefighters,” Ferris said.

With more than 3,000 firefighters battling the smoky blaze and evacuees seeking shelter, motels within miles were booked up for days.

Margot Simpson, a manager at the Red Cross evacuation center set up at Middletown High School, said she hadn’t had any luck finding a room for a person in a wheelchair after searching four of the bigger nearby communities.

“I started in the phone book at the top of the list, and I started going down and I got nothing,” she said.

Vicki Estrella, who has lived in the area for 22 years, stayed in the high school with her husband and their dog.

“It’s amazing the way that thing spread,” Estrella said. “There was smoke 300 feet in the air.”

Cooler weather Tuesday was helping crews build a buffer between the flames and some of the estimated 6,900 homes it threatens. Despite the fire’s growth, no additional homes were consumed outside the two dozen already destroyed.

Crews have conducted controlled burns, setting fire to shrubs to rob the blaze of fuel and protect homes in a rural area of grasslands and steep hills.