Firefighter suffers minor injuries while battling wildfire near Clearlake, Cal Fire says

A firefighter suffered minor injuries while battling a wildfire near Clearlake in Lake County, Cal Fire said Saturday.

It’s unclear what the specific injury is, but it is not a sprain or broken bone, according to Bruce Lang, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Fire crews are working to contain the 20-acre blaze, called the Golf Fire, which started Thursday night near Soda Bay Road and Golf Drive, Cal Fire said. It began as a 5-acre fire and grew to its current size by the following day.

The fire threatened 40 structures, which prompted evacuations of Lake County’s Riviera West subdivision, incident reports say. Soda Bay Road was also closed off Golf Drive to Crystal Drive.

The evacuation order has since been lifted, and the road was reopened at noon Saturday, Cal Fire said.

The Golf Fire was 80 percent contained Saturday morning, according to incident reports.

About 100 personnel were taken off the fire as a result, Cal Fire said. The remaining fire crews were continuing to extinguish hot spots and build a control line around the blaze Saturday.

The fire was started by an improperly discarded cigarette, Cal Fire said Saturday.

No one has reported other injuries or damaged structures.

Here are updates on other fires burning in Northern California on Saturday:

▪ The McDonald Fire, in a remote ranching area of Lassen County, was 1,070 acres and 50 percent contained Saturday morning, according to the federal Bureau of Land Management.

The wildfire was sparked by lightning Thursday afternoon and is threatening nearby ranching structures, BLM said. No structures had been damaged as of Saturday morning, and no injuries were reported.

▪ The Juniper Fire near Ravendale in Lassen County had burned 130 acres Thursday night and was 85% contained as of Thursday, the latest day for which information was available.

The fire, which started Wednesday, is being managed by the BLM, Cal Fire said.

▪ The 3-2 Willow Fire near Fall River Mills in Lassen County was 90% contained with 107 acres burned as of Friday evening. It is being managed by the U.S. Forest Service.

▪ The Preston Fire, in Jamestown, Tuolumne County, was at 24 acres and no containment Friday afternoon, Cal Fire said. Forward progress had been stopped on the blaze, which started Thursday.

This story was originally published August 10, 2019 at 1:24 PM with the headline "Firefighter suffers minor injuries while battling wildfire near Clearlake, Cal Fire says."