10:48 p.m. - Officials say the Valley Fire in Lake and Napa counties has grown to 62,000 acres, with containment moving to 10 percent. A total of 585 homes and hundreds of other structures have been lost in the blaze.
Cal Fire says there are 1,800 firefighters working the incident.
5:14 p.m. The Valley Fire in Lake County is 5 percent contained and has burned over 61,000 acres.
The fire's destructive path took it through Middletown, where Capital Public Radio Reporter Lesley McClurg is this afternoon.
"Across the street from me is a Shell station, that's fully intact, it looks fine," saus McClurg. "And then across the street, I'm standing near this Mexican restaurant that has been absolutely demolished, there's nothing left but a, a charred chimney. And so you can get a sense that the fire has snaked its way through this valley. Mostly destructive, but some patches that are still intact."
3:42 p.m
2:55 p.m. The Lake County Sheriff's Office released more information Monday afternoon about the one fatality confirmed in the Valley Fire.
Lake County deputies say they started receiving calls about the fire at 1:22 p.m. Sept. 12. At 1:50 p.m., the agency received a request from Cal Fire to begin evacuations. At 1:51 p.m., deputies responded to the area and began conducting evacuations. The agency was innundated with calls for assistance and also requests from family members to check on their relatives within the fire area.
Deputies say there were numerous requests for evacuation assistance in the Cobb and Loch Lomond areas. One phone call was to assist an elderly, disabled woman at a home on Hot Springs Road at about 7:12 p.m. At 7:29 p.m., officials responded to the area, but was unable to reach the neighborhood because it was already engulfed in flames. Deputies say it is believed that the woman was unable to self-evacuate.
After the fire subsided in the area, responders arrived at the burned down Hot Springs home and found the remains of a deceased person. The name of the woman is being witheld pending next of kin notification and positive identification.
1:30 p.m. Cal Fire says the following areas are under mandatory evacuation orders:
Mandatory evacuations From the intersection of Hwy 29 and Hwy 281, North on Hwy 281 to the intersection of Soda Bay Road and Riviera West Drive, and all roads off of Soda Bay Road south of the intersection of Riviera West Drive, Bottle Rock Road, High Valley Road, Hwy 175 Cobb, Point Lakeview Rd to Hwy 281, Hwy 29 Tubbs Lane (Calistoga, Napa County) to Hwy 29/Hwy 53(Lower Lake, Lake County) Butts Canyon Road to Napa County Line, including Berreyssa Estates. Communities of Cobb, Seigler Canyon, Loch Lomond, Riviera West, Clearlake Riviera, Middletown and Hidden Valley Lakes.
The Valley Fire has burned 61,000 acres and is only 5 percent contained. About 9,000 structures are threatened and hundreds of homes and other structures were destroyed.
Capital Public Radio learned Monday afternoon that the Lake County Office Of Emergency Services is pointing evacuees to shelter in Ukiah because the Napa County Fairgrounds is near capacity.
- Mendocino County OES Human Health Services: Redwood Empire Fairgrounds (Fine Arts Building), 1055 North Street in Ukiah
8:23 a.m. The air around the Sacramento region may look hazy Monday because of several large wildfires are billowing smoke.
The Valley Fire in Lake County has burned 61,000. Cal Fire has it 5 percent contained.
Cal Fire spokesman Richard Cordova says the blaze is so big it's creating it's own weather patterns.
"Once a fire gets enough strength behind it, it will start to create it's own thunder clouds," says Cordova. "It creates its own pattern of weather within the fire. We don't know where these down drafts are going to occur. It could be calm outside the fire lines, but within those fire lines you can have winds up to 80 miles per hour."
The Valley Fire has destroyed 400 structures and injured 4 Cal Fire helicopter crew members over the weekend. The injured firefighters are in stable condition at UC Davis Medical Center.
8:05 a.m. - Cal Fire is battling several major wildfires around the state, including the Valley Fire in Lake County.
It's grown to 61,000 acres and is just 5 percent contained. Four members of a Cal Fire helicopter crew were injured over the weekend.
"They were way ahead of the fire trying to do these control lines, and it's a very dangerous job within our department," says Richard Cordova, with Cal Fire. "And again, our firefighters are trained very well and are very professional. Sometimes they also get caught off guard.
The injured firefighters are in stable condition at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
7:18 a.m. In Lake County, the Valley Fire has burned about 61,000 acres. Cal Fire says one civilian died over the weekend, and 400 structures were destroyed.
"When the fire took off we were seeing explosive conditions," says Richard Cordova with Cal Fire. "The fire grew 40,000 acres within 12 hours. Yesterday afternoon and this last evening we saw significant change in weather, so the firefighters were able to get out there and start some control lines, setting some back fires to contain this fire."
The fire is 5 percent contained.
6:41 a.m.: The Valley Fire grew to 61,000 acres and is at 5 percent containment as of Monday morning, according to Cal Fire.
In Middletown, just north of Napa Valley in Lake County, some 400 homes were among the hundreds of structures destroyed by the blaze.
The fire has left at least one person dead and sent residents fleeing along roads where some buildings and vehicles were still in flames.
Mandatory evacuations are in place for: Bottle Rock Road, High Valley Road, Hwy 175 Cobb, Hwy 29 Tubbs Lane (Calistoga, Napa County) to Hwy 29/Hwy 53( Lower Lake, Lake County) Butts Canyon Road to Napa County Line, including Berreyssa Estates. Communities of Cobb, Seigler Canyon, Loch Lomond, Middletown and Hidden Valley Lakes
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