“All of a sudden, again?” said Donald Harrison, 53, a handyman who lost his house on Lake Street in Lower Lake when the Clayton Fire stormed through Sunday afternoon, taking out several blocks of neighborhoods and a dozen buildings on Main Street. McCauley traversed a creek by boat and foot for a half mile to reach the property.
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California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant said Monday that the fire in Lower Lake, about 90 miles north of San Francisco, has scorched almost 5 square miles.
(AP Photo/Josh Edelson). A destroyed bicycle lays amid the rubble of a burned property in Lower Lake, Calif., Monday, Aug. 15, 2016.
Since Saturday, firefighters’ attention in Lake County has focused on the now 4,000-acre Clayton fire burning outside Lower Lake, where at least 175 homes and businesses have been destroyed.
It was just 5 percent contained, though late in the day fire officials said no other structures were under direct threat. We had all evacuated our homes for last September’s Valley Fire, and one of the couples had lost their handsome home and shop.
The suspect, 40-year-old Damin Pashilk of neighboring Clearlake, faces 17 charges of arson and is suspected in other fires in the area over the past year according to KRON 4.
Suspected arsonist Damin Pashilk’s FB page….
Officials confirmed 10 homes burned, although witnesses said they could see more.
“As things get committed we could be reaching fires at up to 100 miles away”, Davis explained. Thousands have been forced to evacuate the area as firefighters struggle to slow the wind-aided wildfire as it feeds on dry, heavy brush.
As that fire surged, a major blaze north of San Francisco was fading and some 4,000 people in the town of Clearlake were allowed to return home.
“The evidence standards are stringent”, forestry department spokeswoman Janet Upton said. It was considered California’s third-most-destructive wildfire after ravaging most of rural Lake County and parts of Napa County about 90 miles north of San Francisco.
He was paroled on July 25, 2007, but was taken back into custody six times for parole violations, Waters says. The Valley Fire, which destroyed 2,000 structures, including 1,350 homes, last September, was only recently blamed on faulty wiring in a Cobb Mountain resident’s hot tub.
In Southern California, forecasters warned of high fire danger due to a heat wave and gusty winds.
Officials said about 700 firefighters were battling to control the blaze in an area called the Cajon Pass, the latest in a series of wildfires that have blackened almost 300,000 acres (121,400 hectares) of the drought-parched U.S. West.
Firefighters will patrol for any remaining hotspots for a few more days.
More than 8,000 firefighters are battling seven large wildfires in California.
“The residents of Lake County have experienced senseless loss and endured significant hardship over the past year”, Cal Fire Director Chief Ken Pimlott said in a news release. Another 1,500 homes and other structures are threatened.
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On Monday, Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for the county, which will expedite funding for fire crews and aid workers on the ground.
