CLEARLAKE, Calif. (KRON) — Firefighters in Lake County say they have stopped the forward progress of the Cache Fire, which is now 30% contained. But not before it charred 80 acres, wiping out many homes and two mobile home parks.
Fueled by gusty winds, the blaze destroyed 20-to-35 structures. Fire crews say that number will likely increase.
One thing the Cache fire tells us is, you don’t need thousands and thousands of acres charred to have a neighborhood destroyed.
Twisted metal makes it hard to tell exactly what was destroyed. Fire crews were still on the scene putting out hot spots and PG&E was cutting down trees before repairing their power lines. This is all from a fire that started early Wednesday afternoon.
“The thing moves incredibly fast,” said Jacqueline Snyder with the Lake County Fire Protection District. She was a volunteer firefighter 20 years ago and said “the fire behavior we’re experiencing now is like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s rapid. It’s explosive. The amount of people they were able to move out in the time this fire moved in with all of our partners was just impressive.”
While forward progress on the fire has been stopped for now, it didn’t happen before two mobile home parks were burned to the ground. Life here will have to start over.
But those who live here and many whose homes were spared remain evacuated because of the gusty winds.
“You know we’re very concerned about the winds coming in today, we have had some issues with spot fires,” said Snyder. “We don’t want to let bunch of people in and have something rapidly change and force them back out.”
The Cache Fire was smaller in size than many. Residents in the lower lake area are no stranger to this kind of destruction, with 2015’s Rocky and Jerusalem Fires.