The 4,000-acre Clayton fire – which authorities said late Monday was arson – spread with frightening speed through the small town of Lower Lake on the southern edge of Clear Lake, ravaging Main Street and wiping out much of its small commercial district.
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Since then, the blaze has burned down 4,000 acres and forced the evacuation of thousands of local residents – many of whom had lost everything in wildfires that ravaged the area a year ago.
Damin Anthony Pashilk, 40, has been charged with 17 counts of arson, some dating back to previous year.
Chief Ken Pimlott, Cal Fire’s director, said Pashilk is believed to be responsible not just for the Clayton fire but a series of fires in Lake County over the past year.
More than 1,000 people fire personnel are battling the blaze, which was set about 6 p.m. Saturday on Clayton Creek Road, off Highway 29 south of Lower Lake, Cal Fire officials said.
The fire, burning 80 miles (130 km) north of San Francisco, was driven by fierce winds after sparking on Saturday evening. The fires briefly ran alongside each other. Still, she said, “I’m terrified”.
The Clayton fire delivered another crippling blow to a region still reeling from last summer’s series of fires, the memory of which already had set residents on edge this summer.
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.
Weather conditions have hampered more than 1600 firefighters trying to put out the blaze.
The fast-moving Clayton Fire has now destroyed almost 200 structures in and around the Lake County town of Lower Lake (pop. 1,294). But then, winds picked up and sent embers flying over firefighters heads, causing the fire to take off and turn into a structure-destroying conflagration. The alleged arsonist is also accused of starting numerous other fires in the Northern California County.
It has also burned the post office, a winery, a Habitat for Humanity office and several businesses.
Mandatory evacuation calls went out to 34,506 homes with more than 82,600 people, ranging for the ski resort of Wrightwood to the sprawling high desert town of Phelan, with more than 14,000 residents.
Some 1,500 structures were still considered threatened by the flames and evacuation orders remained in place.
The fire was burning in an area of grassy woodland with heavy brush that was hard for fire-fighters to access, Cal Fire said. As of Monday afternoon, it was only 5 percent contained.
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The U.S. Forest Service says the 12.6-square-mile blaze was 100 percent contained Tuesday.
