Three days after it began near Point Arena, the Owens Fire stands at 100% containment, confirmed by this morning’s CALFIRE Incident update.
Totaling 36 acres and driven by high winds, the Owens Fire marked Mendocino County’s first wildfire of the year requiring mandatory evacuations. Highway 1 was shutdown in the beginning hours of the blaze and one-way traffic control was in place nearly 48 hours after the fire’s start.
Residents near the Owens Fire should expect to see fire personnel patrolling the area over the next few days as they work to tamp out any hotspots that could flare up.
As per Mendocino CALFIRE Unit Chief Luke Kendall, the Owens Fire stands as a textbook example of a wind-driven fire, the burn area shaped like a rectangle, long, and thin. He told us approximately twelve homes were evacuated due to the blaze and around twenty people were affected.
Chief Kendall told us the Ownes Fire is typical of the Mendocino Coast spring and autumn seasons, where fog becomes less drying out vegetation leaving it vulnerable to fire spread.
Looking forward, Chief Kendall asks that Mendocino County residents heed the advice maintaining defensible space to protect both homes and help inhibit the spread of wildfire.
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