SOUTH LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As more south county residents made their way home on Sunday, firefighters on the front lines of the Valley fire achieved a significant increase in containment on the weeklong incident.
Cal Fire said Sunday night that the fire had burned 75,711 acres with containment at 69 percent. That was an increase of only 611 acres while, at the same time, a 16-percent jump in containment.
Residents of Hidden Valley Lake, Jerusalem Grade, Grange and Butts Canyon roads returned home starting on Sunday afternoon.
With those mandatory evacuations lifted, the number of threatened structures dropped by nearly 4,000 to a total of 3,503, Cal Fire said.
With Cal Fire's damage assessments continuing, the number of burned structures inspection teams have recorded rose to 1,050. Those numbers were not broken out into residences and other types of buildings.
In addition to building containment lines, Cal Fire said firefighters on Sunday were repairing changes to the landscape that have resulted from the firefighting efforts.
The red areas on the fire perimeter in the map above show uncontrolled fire edge, Cal Fire said.
Radio reports during the day indicated firefighters were working on a lot of smoldering stump holes and hazard trees in various parts of the fire area.
Anthony Brown, a Cal Fire public information officer stationed at the incident command post at the Lake County Fairgrounds, told Lake County News that firefighters had been dealing with hot spots in the fire area south of Butts Canyon Road and west of Hoberg's on Cobb.
Shortly before 11:30 p.m., a fire that was reported near A Street south of Lower Lake was found to be a hot spot within the burn and was mopped up, according to scanner reports.
On Monday, authorities plan to lift the mandatory evacuation order for the communities of north Loch Lomond, Seigler Springs and Bonanza Springs at 5 p.m.
Brown and other Cal Fire personnel at the command post said they've worked to explain to community members that the delays in letting them go home stemmed from the need to make sure the fire has been fully mitigated, and that hazards – including downed power lines and snags – are addressed.
Once it's explained, Brown said people tend to understand.
He and another colleague at the command post said they encountered many happy Hidden Valley Lake residents on their way home on Sunday, with some of those former evacuees coming back to thank them for their efforts to put out the fire.
At day's end, personnel assigned to the incident totaled 4,289, accompanied by 442 engines, 94 hand crews, 75 water tenders, 55 dozers, 22 helicopters and two air tankers, Cal Fire said.
The firefighting force is so large that officials have had to find additional places for resources to stage, as the fairgrounds is at capacity.
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