At approximately 2:00 p.m. reports began to emerge of a vegetation fire burning in a riverbed near Calpella’s Hopkins Street. A full wildland fire response has been dispatched to the incident.
The fire is reportedly beginning to spreading to a nearby mobile home park catching leaves on roofs on fire.
Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office will begin initiating mandatory evacuations. The exact parameters are forthcoming.
The fire can be seen burning on the Ridgewood Grade AlertWild Fire camera.
UPDATE 2:20 p.m.: The fire is reportedly “running” and has jumped further north on East Calpella Road.
Please remember that this story is unfolding. Information is being reported as we gather it. However, some of the information coming from witnesses and initial official reports could be wrong. We will do our best to get the facts but, in the case that something is inaccurate, we will update with correct information as soon as we can.
UPDATE 2:29 p.m.: The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office tweeted, “Current fire in the area of Moore Street and east Hopkins Street, law enforcement and fire personnel are on scene please use situational awareness and stay out of the area.”
UPDATE 2:33 p.m.: The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office just tweeted, “Mandatory evactuation for the area of road 144 to 5000 block of eastside Caleplla, please use the safest route to leave the area immediately.”
UPDATE 2:38 p.m.: Credit Brandon Lawson for photos and video.
UPDATE 2:47 p.m.: The fire is now 15 acres and growing. Remember that MendoReady will have information on evacuations as soon as possible. Please keep checking back.
UPDATE 2:55 p.m.: The Fire is moving east quickly to the Lake Ridge Road. The fire is spotting. One firefighter reported over the scanner that one of the spots is one acre in size.
UPDATE 2:57 p.m.: The Nixle Alert system from the MCSO warns, “MANDATORY EVACUATIONS FOR THE AREA EAST SIDE CALPELLA RD BETWEEN THE AREA OF CORTINA PL AND MARINA DR. WARNING FOR AREA OF EASTSIDE CALPELLA RD FROM HIGHWAY 20 TO MARINA DR. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO FOLLOW AS DETAILS COME AVAILABLE. Instructions: MANDATORY EVACTUATION FOR THE AREA OF ROAD 144 TO 5000 BLOCK OF EASTSIDE CALEPLLA, PLEASE USE THE SAFEST ROUTE TO LEAVE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY.
UPDATE 3:05:
UPDATE 3:11 p.m.: According to the Incident Commander reporting over the scanner the fire is now 40-50 acres.
UPDATE 3:19 p.m.:
UPDATE 3:24 p.m.: Outage map from PG&E shows about 1700 customers are without power.
UPDATE 3:34 p.m.: According to Caltrans QuickMap Southbound Hwy 101 is backing up as are many surface roads. The redder the road, the worse the traffic is.
UPDATE 3:49 p.m.: Around 10 structures burned on East Side Calpella Road, according our reporter Matt LaFever. He’ll soon be doing a live feed with shots of the scene and we’ll update with that feed.
UPDATE 4 p.m. : All Photos from Matt LaFever of homes burned and vehicles smoldering. The fire has reached Lake Mendocino now.
UPDATE: all further updates on new post here: https://mendofever.com/2021/09/12/scenes-of-horrific-devastation-coming-from-mendocino-county-as-hopkins-fire-roars-through-calpella/
That much black smoke is always a bad sign that someone may have lost a home. “Leaves on the roof Burning” in a trailer park. When you see leaves etc on your neighbors roof people please ask. It may well be a person who is not able to remove them and you can help. This will protect your property too. The person could be married to a service member or retired, we all have to work together.
? That’s an amazing idea! I love it !
GOOD JOB MATT – THANKS TO YOU I WAS ABLE TO UPDATE http://www.firesafefortbraggsouth.com FOR ALL OUR NEIGHBORS UP THE SIMPSON LANE – MITCHELL CREEK AREA.
Inhaling wildfire smoke, weakens the immune system, leaving us more prone to getting sick with covid or delta. Mask up Matty! We need you! 🙂
Thanks for your timely reporting, Matt.