The U.S. Forest Service says the 12.6-square-mile blaze was 100 percent contained Tuesday.
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When the Lake County Sheriff announced at an evacuation center Monday night in nearby Middletown that they had booked a 40-year-old Clearlake man into Lake County jail Monday on 17 counts of arson, including for the Clayton Fire, a crowd of evacuees erupted in cheers.
Damin Pashilk, 40, was taken into custody on Monday and was expected to face 17 counts of arson, authorities said.
More than 100 homes have been destroyed by a wildfire that has ripped through several communities in Lake County, prompting many evacuations and threatening 1,500 structures.
Containing the blaze has proven to be a costly effort during a time when the state is battling several significant wildfires.
CAL FIRE’s incident information page showed almost 1,700 firefighters, 200 fire engines and 12 helicopters were engaged in the battle against the blaze. Evacuated residents applauded the arrest and expressed outrage that the fire that destroyed many of their homes was deliberate act.
Blue Mountain Farms, a horse ranch in Phelan, was in the path of the fire about 60 miles east of Los Angeles – just as it was for another fire in the area a year ago.
“Every time firefighters would go in to try and attack the blaze”, says Daniel Berlant with CAL Fire, “another home would light on fire”. Deputies have released a new mugshot of a man who is suspected of starting the massive fire intentionally.
In central California, Highway 1 has reopened after a daylong closure for removal of fire-weakened trees north of Big Sur. It was 20 percent contained.
All California State Parks in the area – from Garrapata through Julia Pfeiffer Burns – are closed until further notice. A heat wave and gusty winds also put Southern California on high fire alert. Underlying it all: A five-year drought that has sapped vegetation of moisture.
Despite getting some rain last winter and spring, Lake County is tinder dry.
Thousands of people – some of them already dubbed “fire survivors” after previous year – fled as they awaited word on whether their homes and businesses were still standing.
The fire in Lower Lake reduced businesses to little more than charred foundations that were still smoldering on Monday.
The fire is burning in the middle of where three wildfires – the Rocky Fire, the Jerusalem Fire and the Valley Fire – devastated the region within three months in 2015.
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Other than a pair of large blazes in the 1960s, which destroyed far fewer homes in a county that had just one-quarter its current 64,000 residents, lifelong resident and county supervisor Jim Comstock can’t remember anything approaching the past year. Comstock said when his wife sees tall grass, she wonders aloud when the property owner will cut it. “The trees are lovely, but when they catch fire, they carry fire”.
