By Joe Szydlowski and Sean Longoria
Record Searchlight
WEST REDDING, Calif. — A 1,200-acre fire was still burning late Thursday night between Happy Valley and West Redding that threatened 150 homes, closed numerous roads and forced hundreds of residents to evacuate. The fire started around 1:50 p.m. on Cloverdale Road in Happy Valley and moved north toward West Redding. By 9:45 p.m. Thursday, it was considered 30 percent contained. Full containment is not expected until Saturday, fire officials said.
The cause still was undetermined as of 10 p.m. Thursday.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Battalion Chief Mike Weaver called the Dale Fire “uncontrollable,” adding that it was spreading at a moderate to rapid rate throughout the evening.
Mike Witesman, a public information officer for Cal Fire, said five homes were damaged, but as of late Thursday he didn’t know where they were or how badly they were damaged. There still are about 150 homes considered threatened between Cloverdale and Honeybee roads, as well as around 200 other structures.
“It just has a south wind on it pushing it through the area,” said Mike Birondo of Cal Fire.
Witesman confirmed that the fire was 1,200 acres as of around 9:45 p.m., but he said firefighters were getting a handle on it.
“I’m very optimistic the fire’s not going to get much larger, if at all,” he said.
The fire was first reported as a 10-acre fire, but strong winds quickly made it grow to 100 acres. Within hours, it hopped across Clear Creek Road and Clear Creek, extending to more than 1,000 acres.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered in a wide area that extended from the south side of Placer Road between the Veterans Memorial Bridge near Igo west to Camino Del Encina to the east. Voluntary evacuations were in effect on the north side of Placer. By 9 p.m., residents also were being told to leave from Calle Vista Way, Secluded Valley, Ridgeland Terraces and Vista Knolls drives.
Weaver said it was a “narrow” fire, with the east and west flanks controlled.
Witesman said Thursday night that Cloverdale and Clear Creek roads may be allowed back into their homes soon.
He said there haven’t been any injuries reported from the fire.
Shasta County Executive Officer Larry Lees said it is too early to estimate the amount of damage the fire is causing.
Sheriff Tom Bosenko ordered the opening of a temporary shelter at Shasta High School.
It was early evening, and a family of five and their two nurses — the only people to arrive at the school — were preparing to return to their home on Oak Street.
“You think it won’t happen to you but then as you get closer to home and you see that smoke,” said Bobbi Hunter, who was driving home to be with her three young daughters, who all have disabilities, when she noticed the columns of white smoke. “I thought, why take a chance? Let’s just get out of here.”
At least two people prepared to stay overnight at the high school.
“We are very fortunate that right now it looks like they got a very good handle on the fire and it’s starting to lay down, which means that it’s starting to calm down,” Bosenko said about 7 p.m. “It’s a little cooler and the wind has died down a bit.”
The Salvation Army provided snacks.
Dispatchers used an automated telephone notification system to notify residents of the evacuations.
Firefighters prioritized their attack to the section north of Clear Creek, Birondo said. Power lines were down on Cloverdale Road, firefighters reported, though they were not live. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. workers said some 400 homes lost power during the initial stage of the fire. By evening, about 150 had their power restored.
PG&E crews planned to check power lines when firefighters cleared the area before restoring power to all homes in the area.
Birondo said hard road closures were in place at Cloverdale Road and Oak Street, Clear Creek and Honeybee roads and Clear Creek and Cloverdale.
By 10 p.m., Cloverdale was open in both directions.
Closures also were in effect at Honeybee and Texas Spring roads, Montgomery Ranch and Texas Spring roads and Placer Road and Diggins Way.
“I would just advise people to stay out of the area,” said Linda Galvan, Cal Fire spokeswoman.
As firefighters realized the extent of the fire, the force to fight it quickly grew. The force included nine crews, three helicopters, 44 fire engines, seven dozers, seven water tenders, for a total of 394 personnel battling the blaze, Witesman said. Fire crews from Butte and Siskiyou counties assisted.
Chris Merjil, 22, whose parents live on Cloverdale Road, said he saw a neon blue explosion on a utility pole and a power line fall, sparking the fire along the wire parallel to the road. He ran to neighbors’ houses to tell about the blaze.
Michelle Steffen, 21, said she’s worried about homes in the area and the amount of smoke the fire is producing.
“It’ll go white, then black, then brown, then back to white,” she said.
Birondo said light-colored smoke indicates that vegetation is burning.
“A rule of thumb, with light-colored smoke, it’s vegetation, but dark-colored smoke it’s improvements, structures and vehicles,” Birondo said.
Michelle Pfenning, 47, was stuck in traffic on Cloverdale Road earlier that afternoon.
She said her boyfriend owns a home on the road across from where the fire started.
She wasn’t initially able to communicate with him and was scared and frustrated without news.
"(I’m) staring at my phone and waiting for texts and listening to the scanner,” Pfenning said.
The two got in touch after about 15 minutes and he and her daughter were both OK, she said.
Alayna Shulman, Jim Schultz and Jenny Espino contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 Record Searchlight