Lake County Sheriff’s Office lifts mandatory evacuation orders for August Complex; critical fire weather conditions continue
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Thanks to the work of firefighters protecting communities around Lake Pillsbury against the approach of the August Complex, evacuation orders in the area have been reduced to warnings.
The US Forest Service said Monday that the August Complex had grown to 878,470 acres – up about 8,000 acres since Sunday – with containment up two percentage points to 45 percent.
The complex, which began due to lightning on Aug. 17, is burning on the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests. Fire officials continue to anticipate it will be fully contained on Nov. 15.
Firefighters have been on high alert across the complex’s vast acreage due to an ongoing red flag warning that the National Weather Service issued last week because of high winds from an offshore wind event.
Critical fire weather conditions continue, officials said, with winds on Monday expected to be sustained at 12 to 18 miles per hour with gusts to 25 miles per hour on ridges and high areas, and 6 to 12 miles per hour in valleys.
Officials said temperatures will be close to 100 degrees and the humidity will be in the single digits. Relative humidity values did not increase much overnight, so fuels will start out dry this morning. As a result of these conditions, there will be significant potential for rapid fire growth for most of the day.
Despite the high winds and critical fire weather Sunday, crews successfully defended control lines in the Lake Pillsbury area and the east side of the South Zone is still fully contained, the US Forest Service reported.
On Monday, fire crews are continuing their work to secure firelines in the Pillsbury Lake and Rice Fork areas, the Forest Service said.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that the evacuation orders have been reduced to warnings for all residents and areas south of fire’s edge, north of North Ridge and West Crockett Camp, east of the Lake-Mendocino County line and west of the Lake-Glenn County line.
Also, evacuation orders have been lifted for all areas south of North Ridge and West Crockett Camp, east of the Lake-Glenn-Colusa County line and north of Pack Saddle Creek, the sheriff’s office reported.
Evacuation orders remain in effect for all areas north of the fire’s edge, south and west of the Lake-Glenn County line, and east of the Lake-Mendocino County line, the sheriff’s office reported.
Full evacuation information can be found here.
The Forest Service said the last remaining elements of the 14th Brigade Engineering Battalion from Joint Base Lewis-McChord departed the August Complex on Sunday after fighting the fire for 30 days.
“The hard work by these dedicated soldiers made a significant impact on the South Zone of the August Complex,” said Mike Quesinberry, incident commander of the National Incident Management Organization. “This unit provided additional capacity when national resources were critically low and played an important role in increasing containment and protecting structures.”
On the east side of the complex, the Burned Area Emergency Response team, or BAER, is
mobilized and prepared to start their analyses of the burned area, the Forest Service said.
After a fire, officials said the priority is emergency stabilization in order to prevent further damage to life, property or natural resources on Forest Service lands.
The stabilization work begins before the fire is out and may continue for up to a year. Rehabilitation focuses on the lands unlikely to recover naturally from wildland fire damage, officials said.
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