A vegetation fire, dubbed the Grade Fire, has ignited east of Hopland along State Route 175, according to local authorities.
The blaze started on the 8400 block of Highway 175 and according to the Incident Commander is one acre in size and threatening multiple structures. The fire is described as growing at a moderate rate of spread having a moderate potential to grow in size. Both air and ground firefighting resources are converging on the area.
Eyewitnesses, including this reporter, have observed a significant smoke column rising from the area. Multiple mountaintop fire cameras also provide a clear view of the smoke.
UPDATE 6:31 p.m.: The Incident Commander asked dispatch to contact the California Highway Patrol to begin the process of closing State Route 175 due to the fire.
UPDATE 6:45 p.m.: The Incident Commander reported the fire is holding between 1.5-2 acres in size.
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.
Pretty poor legal analysis going on in the primary commenter’s commentary.
Unless the property is literally and currently PUBLIC property, as in, owned by either the City of Ukiah, Mendocino County, or the State of California — then it is PRIVATE PROPERTY and you can be legally ordered off it by any representative, employee, or contractor of the company, or any public safety officer during the course of their duty.
The reasons given, that:
He worked there packing pears 3 decades ago and have interesting memories
There was a massive amount of smoke which seemed to you to be of some greater long-term consequence
Usually the property is “open to the public” under normal day-to-day conditions (i.e. not one of the largest industrial fires in Ukiah history)
give the primary commenter zero, that’s right, ZERO legal justification for staying on the property, including the parking lot, which is not “public property” just because said lot is “open to the public” under normal business conditions day to day.
Where did all the smoke go? Somehow, as smoke always, ALWAYS does, it disappeared, up into — the atmosphere, mostly. Bye bye! All gone now. Even seriously “toxic” smoke seldom leaves much in the way of long-term contamination. Even in the case of those chemical rail cars burning in the 2023 Ohio train derailment — hundreds of tons of pure vinyl chloride etc. etc. — didn’t cause much long-term damage.
Ya know why? Because the FIRE converts MOST of that crap to plain carbon soot and a variety of other simpler compounds (like various acids and bases) that then very quickly react with the rest of the environment, either in the air or on the ground, & get further neutralized.
All in all an amusing and excessively long comment thread going nowhere, to which I have added my three bits worth.
Whoops what an idiot I POSTED THIS COMMENT TO THE WRONG ARTICLE. Sorry, please delete it.