- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Two Hidden Valley Lake homes destroyed in early Thursday fire
The fire in the 16000 block of Buckhorn Road of Hidden Valley Lake was first dispatched at 5:43 a.m. Thursday, according to South Lake Fire and Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mike Wink, who was the incident commander.
Hidden Valley Lake resident Eric Soderstrom’s home is located about 200 feet from where the fire occurred, in a part of Hidden Valley Lake that had largely escaped the impacts of the Valley fire two years ago this month.
He said his wife was up getting ready for work when she heard a boom. The noise caused their dogs to react, and when she came into their bedroom to calm the animals, she saw an orange glow coming from the window.
When she opened the drapes, she saw the fire and immediately awakened him to tell him that they needed to go.
Soderstrom said he took his first photo of the fire at 5:49 p.m. It’s shown above. At the same time, Wink said firefighters were responding.
Wink said the first units on scene, which came from the Hidden Valley Lake fire station, found a fully involved structure and several vehicles – one of which appeared to be a travel trailer or motor home – on fire, with a neighboring home also catching fire.
The fire also spread to the nearby vegetation, with multiple spot fires developing in the general area, Wink said.
Wink said power lines were down and firefighters had to establish a water supply, which they were able to do thanks to Hidden Valley Lake’s hydrant system.
He said South Lake County Fire and Cal Fire received mutual aid from Kelseyville Fire, Lake County Fire and Northshore Fire, with the latter sending its support team.
Pacific Gas and Electric responded to pull the meters, with AT&T also on scene. The local water district was there to make sure there was enough water supply, turning off the meters to the destroyed homes after the incident was completed, Wink said.
Other agencies responding included the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Hidden Valley Lake Security, as well as the Lake County Building Department, which Wink same arrived Thursday morning to secure and red-tag the buildings before they were turned back over to the property owners.
Soderstrom said he and his wife and dogs evacuated to Hardester’s temporarily until they could size up the situation and knew that they could safely return. As they had been preparing to leave, they had heard more pops, which he believes may have been propane tanks.
As Soderstrom and his wife were leaving, they encountered emergency vehicles coming up Buckhorn Road and had to loop around onto Greenridge to get out of the area.
He said they also had found that a fire gate to allow for access out of Hidden Valley Lake was closed. Soderstrom said he later questioned Hidden Valley Lake Security about why the gate wasn’t open, and was told that decision was up to Cal Fire.
Altogether, two homes were lost plus several vehicles, Wink said.
There were no injuries, as Wink said all of the homes’ occupants were able to get out safely.
A third home had been filled with smoke because of the fire but was not damaged, he added.
Wink said Red Cross was on scene right away to provide housing assistance, with occupants of one of the homes accepting and the residents of the other home declining.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, with Wink explaining that they didn’t yet know if the fire started in a structure or one of the vehicles.
He said South Lake County Fire and Cal Fire are conducting the investigation into the fire’s origin and cause.
“They have processed the scene,” he said.
Because of the fire, the Middletown Unified School District initially reported on its Facebook page Thursday morning that it wouldn’t be able to send a bus into the area to pick up children because Hidden Valley Lake Security said that the roads around the fire were closed.
A short time later, the district followed up with a message stating that the roads were reopened once district buses were on the way, “so we were able to send a bus up to get the kids who were up there,” the message stated.
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