Residents evacuated in face of fast-moving Lake County wildfire
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A wall of flames lurches over a ridge as a resident of Morgan Valley Road near Lower Lake prepares to evacuate the Rock Fire, Wednesday evening July 29, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
The blaze, one of the region's largest this year, was sparked just before 3:30 p.m. in heavy brush and rugged timberlands east of Lower Lake, and it prompted immediate evacuations on the outskirts of town as the fire's boundaries expanded amid scorching temperatures and tinder-dry fuels.
Named the Rocky fire because of its proximity to Rocky Creek just north of Morgan Valley Road east of town, the blaze grew from 150 to 3,000 acres in a matter of hours as the mercury topped 100 degrees.A South Lake County Fire captain said the resulting mushroom-like smoke cloud made it look "like a bomb went off. You can see it from everywhere."
By 10 p.m., about 500 residents were affected by the mandatory evacuations, with some seeking overnight refuge at the Highland Senior Center in Clearlake, the county's official evacuation site for the blaze. No injuries were reported.
The fire's north and westward movement toward Lower Lake, a town of about 1,300 people, suggested additional evacuations might be required, though the speed with which the fire was spreading made it too difficult to predict where it would go next, Cal Fire spokeswoman Suzie Blankenship said.
She said dropping temperatures at sundown offered some hope that rapidly mobilized fire crews working through the night might be able to get the upper hand.
But "it's scary," she conceded. "It's a fast-moving fire."
The massive perimeter of flames, with multiple fronts burning east of Lower Lake and heavy smoke that reddened night skies around Sonoma County, offered grim signs of the summer's already torrid fire season, one exacerbated by the state's four-year drought.
Altogether, 14 large wildfires were burning across California on Wednesday, including the Rocky fire and four other large blazes sparked in the day's hot, gusty conditions. Similar conditions were expected again Thursday, with the forecast calling for a peak temperature of 104 in Lower Lake.
Clearlake resident Cheryl Johns said the hills east of Lower Lake were aglow in bright orange as the sun set Wednesday."If I lived in Lower Lake, I would be terrified right now," Johns said, as she watched from a KFC parking lot.
Anana Bliss, who was among 30 or so people who sought refuge at the Highland Senior Center, had been hosting her visiting daughter and son-in-law at her home off Morgan Valley Road east of Lower Lake when the fire erupted.
"We sat and watched it like you watch TV," said Donna Magee, Bliss' daughter. Then they got a call from the Sheriff's Office warning them to be prepared to evacuate. Eventually, an official came to the house and issued the order to go, in the middle of preparations for dinner.
They took suitcases, some papers and documents and the food, and left.
Bliss said it was the second time she's been evacuated for a wildfire in 15 years. "There's nothing that can't be replaced," she said.
Some at the senior center were headed for motel rooms Wednesday night. Food and fold-up cots were available at the center for those staying the night.
Patty Hackett, who was at the center with her father, said the pair couldn't see flames Wednesday afternoon from their Lower Lake home, but they watched as ever-larger clouds of smoke billowed into the sky.
"We just saw it growing and growing and growing," Hackett said.
Blankenship said evacuations were ordered along Morgan Valley Road east of Highways 53 and 29 to the Napa and Colusa county lines.
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