LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Saturday firefighters continued working on the ground and from the air to contain a wildland fire burning northwest of Lakeport.
The Scotts Fire, located on Cow Mountain west of Scotts Valley Road, was first reported shortly after 1 p.m. Friday.
By Friday night it had burned 1,600 acres in steep and inaccessible terrain, and resulted in the evacuation of the Blue Lakes area.
That evacuation order was lifted later Friday night, as Lake County News has reported. However, the Cal Fire Mendocino Unit said Saturday that 300 residences and 40 outbuildings remain threatened by the fire.
On Saturday firefighters held the fire’s acreage from advancing, and managed to get an estimated 5 percent containment on the incident, Cal Fire said. No date for full containment has yet been given.
There were 541 personnel assigned to the fire on Saturday – 491 of them from Cal Fire – along with 68 engines, 15 fire crews, three airtankers, three helicopters, eight bulldozers and one water tender, Cal Fire said.
Cal Fire said the fire’s cause remains under investigation.
Lake County Air Quality Management issued an alert on Friday that forecast “moderate “ to “unhealthy” – with the possibility of “hazardous” – air quality conditions in Lake County over the weekend because of the fire.
Smoke from the fire resulted in a football game at Upper Lake High School being rescheduled from Saturday afternoon to Monday.
Cooperating agencies on the incident include Cal Fire; local fire agencies from Lake, Mendocino and Sonoma counties; the Bureau of Land Management; the Lake County Sheriff’s Office; the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office; the Air National Guard; and Red Cross.
Major wildland fires continued burning in Lake’s neighboring counties on Saturday, with the North Pass Fire in Mendocino County remaining at 41,983 acres, with containment rising to 81 percent, according to the unified command of Cal Fire and the US Forest Service.
In Colusa and Yolo counties, Cal Fire said the 16 Complex in the Rumsey Canyon area had scorched a total of 16,837 acres, with containment at 35 percent.
Both the North Pass Fire and the 16 Complex are expected to be contained by Monday, officials said.
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