- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Supervisors ratify sheriff’s Sulphur fire disaster declaration
The fire began shortly before 1 a.m. Monday on Sulphur Bank Drive near Clearlake Oaks before burning over the hill and into the city of Clearlake.
Sheriff Brian Martin on Monday declared a local emergency, and during the brief special Tuesday morning meeting the board unanimously approved a resolution to ratify the declaration.
Firefighters on Tuesday continued to hold the fire at 2,500 acres, raising containment to 30 percent by nightfall.
Board Chair Jeff Smith called for a moment of silence for the fire victims across the state at the start of the meeting.
It would later emerge that Smith and his wife lost their Clearlake home of 31 years to the fire.
Martin acknowledged how well Smith was handling his own loss in the midst of the wider community tragedy.
In his update to the board, Martin explained, “This fire quickly grew, driven by high winds.”
He said the winds were up to 50 miles per hour, and he experienced them himself while on his way to the scene.
“We’re dealing with this fire with some limited resources,” Martin said.
He said more than 18 fires started in a 24-hour period throughout the state.
Martin said Cal Fire’s Incident Management Team 4, which managed the Rocky and Valley fires in 2015, is overseeing both the Sulphur fire and the 26,000-acre Mendocino County Complex. The team is headquartered at the fairgrounds in Ukiah.
He said both the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army are involved in the emergency response, with the Red Cross managing the shelters and the Salvation Army preparing meals.
“As with previous fires that this county has experienced, our main concern is public safety,” Martin said.
“We need to make sure the areas are safe enough for people to return to their homes,” he said, adding that considerations include hazardous materials, downed power lines and hazardous trees.
Regarding the danger from fire-damaged trees, Martin said he had been informed that a piece of Cal Fire equipment had been destroyed by a tree in the Sulphur fire area.
Martin also reported that Pacific Gas and Electric is continuing its efforts to get power restored in unburned areas.
He said that Gov. Jerry Brown declared a statewide emergency in response to the fires that originally did not include Lake County. That’s because Lake County at that time was still in the process of making its own disaster declaration.
Once the county’s declaration was completed, Martin said Lake County was added to the statewide emergency. The governor’s office reported declaring a state of emergency for Lake County on Monday.
Martin said during the meeting that the city of Clearlake did its own separate disaster declaration.
Gov. Brown’s request for a presidential major disaster declaration included Lake County, Martin said.
Just a few hours after the meeting, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said that President Trump had approved the declaration, making federal disaster assistance available to California in the wildland fire recovery.
Martin said he had toured the fire area, and while he didn’t yet have a definitive number of homes destroyed, he estimated it could be as many as 150.
At that time, the Community Development Department has put together four damage assessment teams that were going to move through the fire area to get a more accurate county, according to Martin.
The vast majority of the burn area is in unincorporated county, in very rural and unpopulated areas, Martin said.
He said it appeared to him that most of the structures that burned were within the city of Clearlake, where most of the evacuees also live.
Supervisor Smith said the fire jumped around in strange ways. He said there are clusters of homes where one home in the middle is burned and others are untouched.
He said it also took out homes built five years ago with stucco and metal roofs that were thought to be fire safe.
The board voted 5-0 on the resolution ratifying Martin’s emergency declaration.
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