CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Several structures were destroyed and hundreds of people were left without power due to a late Thursday night fire in Clearlake.
The fire on Mullen Avenue at Palmer and Emory avenues was first reported at about 11:50 p.m. Thursday, according to radio reports.
Altogether, a studio apartment, a single family dwelling and three outbuildings were destroyed, said Lake County Fire Chief Willie Sapeta, the incident commander.
Lake County Central Dispatch received multiple reports from people stating that the fire had been immediately preceded by a very loud explosion.
Lake County News received reports of the explosion shaking nearby homes and waking people. Numerous other people also posted on social media, describing the explosion.
Sapeta said the explosion was heard throughout the main part of Clearlake.
Firefighters from Lake County Fire Protection District who arrived on scene found a fully involved dwelling with other structures threatened.
A short time later, firefighters reported over the radio that the fire had spread to a second structure as well as a 500-gallon kerosene tank.
Sapeta requested mutual aid from Cal Fire, Northshore Fire and Kelseyville Fire.
He reported over the radio that there were multiple wires down in the intersection and danger to nearby transformers, and firefighters needed to use extreme caution when responding to the incident.
The Clearlake Police Department also issued a Nixle alert warning people to stay out of the area.
Notifications were sent to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. which responded, as well as to Highlands Water Co. due to the large amount of water that firefighters needed to use, according to reports from the scene.
Shortly before 1 a.m. Friday the fire was reported to be contained, according to reports from the scene.
As a result of the fire, incident command ordered power be temporarily shut off to nearby residences.
PG&E said that the outage went into effect just before 12:50 a.m. Friday and impacted 421 customers.
Power to that area was expected to be restored by 4:15 a.m., PG&E said.
Sapeta said that, as of 2:30 a.m., there were no injuries reported. At that point they were continuing to make sure there were no victims.
Five engines, a water tender, a rescue unit, two medic units and three chief officers were involved in the response, Sapeta said.
Fire units are reported to be staying on scene until mid-morning Friday as part of mop up and overhaul, according to Sapeta.
He said they didn’t yet know what had caused the explosion and were continuing to work through the scene, noting there was “a ton of debris everywhere.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.