Boyles Fire in Clearlake burns structures and vehicles

Clear Lake, California - The Boyles Fire in Clear Lake is 40 t0 45% contained, holding steady at 76 acres burned, but serious damage has already been done. 

So far, at least 30 structures, mostly homes, and as many as 50 vehicles have been damaged or destroyed as the windblown fire swept through this residential neighborhood.

Some 4,000 residents have been under evacuation orders. Amazingly, there have been no reports of injuries. 

In the fire-ravaged neighborhood that suffered the most damage, two residents who live very close by were able to get into the area because they are on the County Water Board conducting an inspection. 

"We put in new hydrants up here back, back, a couple years ago and we just wanted to see what happened," said resident Kirsten Priebe. "It's a political issue right now because they would like the latest and the greatest fire hydrants. But who's got $208 million extra for that?" said resident Jeff Stanley.

But these are their neighbors as well. "The last 7 years, we've been ordered to evacuate almost every year with this lit embers falling down from the sky and we're hosing our yards down," said Stanley.  

"It's really scary. A lot of the people here are severely disadvantaged. A lot of people don't have house insurance," said Ms. Priebe.

So long as this area has glowing embers, the greatest fear is the regular afternoon winds, called the Witching hour. That's when embers can escape the burn area in hot air columns. 

"Lake County is actually under fire weather watch due to substantially lower RH and the wind uptake. Everything right now is very dry so, anywhere the embers are carried by the column, that when they fall, has the potential to start a new fire," said Lake County Fire Marshal Amber Lancaster.

Victor Perez helped rescue his grandparents whose trailer home barely survived. "Honestly, I think they were very. very lucky . It was like so close; the luckiest people I've seen," said Mr. Perez.

The folks that live in the surrounding neighborhood are very lucky because of activity from aircraft in the air and firefighters on the ground. 

Their neighborhood survived, just feet away from where homes burned down. 

"Historically, Lake County has some of its most destructive wildfires in the fall. We had the Valley Fire in September of 2015, the silver fire in October of 2017," said Fire Marshal Lancaster.