Wye Fire: 7,000-acre blaze 60% contained
Highway 20 has been reopened between Lake and Colusa counties as fire officials say the two blazes that threatened three communities and a resort area should be fully contained by Monday.
The Wye Fire, which includes the Wye and Walker fires, burned 7,000 acres as of Tuesday and is 60 percent contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire reported.
The Walker Fire started along Highway 20 in Lake County on Sunday afternoon. It is burning northeast into Colusa County and had threatened the Wilbur Springs resort area.
Residents of the Spring Valley area have been allowed back into their homes.
Officials still consider the other communities to be threatened because they are in the defined fire zone, but said the danger has been reduced.
Two structures have been destroyed, but not homes. A Red Cross evacuation shelter has been established in the Clearlake senior center on Bower Lane.
The fire also continues to threaten two transmission lines serving Ukiah, the BLM Wilderness Area and MCI fiber optic cables.
The causes of the fires are under investigation. CalFire is the primary agency involved in the firefight, but emergency strike teams from Colusa and Lake counties are involved.
"And we have brought in (crews) from all around the state," added CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant.
A little more than 1,200 personnel and 157 engines are fighting the blaze, CalFire said.
The fires come just a month after two fires burned a combined 29,500 acres around the Stonyford area in western Colusa County.
The Mill Fire, which started July 7 near the Mill Valley campground within in the Mendocino National Forest, burned 29,500 acres, and forced the evacuation of Fouts Springs, Bonnie View, and Board Camp Springs, as well as some campground areas.
It came under the jurisdiction of the US Forest Service.
The Sites Complex Fire started July 8 east of Stonyford in the Sites-Lodoga area.
Five individual fires made up the event, which consumed about 4,000 acres.
No homes were lost in either incident.
