A fire, called the #RidgeFire northeast of Clear Lake near the Lake-Colusa county border, that was first spotted about 4:30 p.m. was judged by air resources to already be somewhere around 250-300 acres by 4:37 p.m. when they were overhead. Repeaters are threatened as are structures. Most worrying, the Incident Commander believes there may be hunters trapped already.
The flames are wind driven and spreading rapidly with spotting out ahead of the main fire.
Evacuations are needed for Walker Ridge area and the Wilbur Hotsprings area, the Incident Commander said over the radio. He’s requesting the Colusa County Sheriff for that.
Air resources warn that the fire has the potential to impact the Double Eagle Ranch multiple resources are being dispatched to fight the new blaze. This is probably going top Walker Ridge and go into Colusa County, firefighters are reporting.
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 5:04 p.m.: CAL FIRE LNU tweeted, “The fire is approximately 300 acres. The wind driven fire is traveling up Walker Ridge headed into Colusa County. There are currently 19 engines, two crews, five dozers, six fixed-winged aircraft and two helicopters responding.”
UPDATE 5:16 p.m.: FireMappers shows the following as the rough area of the Ridge Fire.
UPDATE 5:27 p.m.: Air attack is reporting that power lines are arcing and need to powered down.
UPDATE 5:34 p.m: The following image was sent to us by a reader in the area of the fire:
UPDATE 6:39 p.m.: Caltrans QuickMap reports that there are plans to close Hwy 20 at Hwy 16.
UPDATE 7:31 p.m.: State Route 20 is fully closed east of Clearlake Oaks at the intersection of Route 52 with no estimated time of reopening. At this time the fire is estimated to be 2,5000 acres in size.
UPDATE 8:04 p.m.: According to information from CAL FIRE, “Approximately 50 structures are threatened by the fire (30 in Lake County, 20 in Colusa County). No reports of damaged or destroyed structures at this time.”
I’m wondering how a fire that size goes unnoticed or, unreported at least, for so long. I wonder why we don’t use satellite imagery for early detection? Seems they would be of great use in the fight against wildfires.
It was reported in minutes, just spread really fast. I got the notification when it was just an acre but two minutes later it was 100 and 20 min later it was 250.
Wow! I guess I got a little confused on the timing & how fast a fire can move in these conditions. Thanks for clarity
When a liberal catches fire ya gotta use foam similar to fighting THE OTHER FAT. Fat a$$libs are mostly blubber.
NEAR HWY 20! Which means it was probably some assholethatthrew their cigarrett but out the window while driving through on their way to somewhere else. Have some respect or concern for the people who have homes here that could lose everything because of your dum-ass selfish actions.
I’ve been on the freeway and observed people doing this several times. They usually have out of area plates.
This looks really bad for Wilbur Hot Springs.
Satellite fire map shows fire detections right on/over the Wilbur Hot Springs buildings/parking areas:
https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/usfs/map/#m:advanced;d:2024-07-21;l:fires_viirs_noaa20,fires_viirs_noaa21,fires_viirs_snpp,countries,country-outline,earth;@-122.40,39.03,14.00z
I live not so far from the fire. The wind was howling late yesterday, which is why the fire spread so fast.
It was also blowimg all the smoke away, but no more. We’re smoked out now.