Hopland Evacuees Return as Feliz Fire Reaches 50% Containment
Firefighters sustain minor injuries when engine overturns
Evacuees from the Feliz Fire in Hopland returned home Sunday night to scorched vineyards and golden hills blackened with burn scars, prompting jokes about “Char-donnay.” By Monday, life had begun returning to normal, even as firefighting continued.
As of Monday evening, CAL FIRE reported the fire had burned 872 acres and was 50 percent contained. Sherri Wise, a spokesperson for the CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit, said containment means firefighters have established barriers between burned and unburned areas to limit the fire’s spread. It does not mean the fire has been extinguished, she said.
Wise said evacuees would not have been allowed to return home if doing so would have put them at risk.
During a tour of the fire with CAL FIRE, this reporter observed several small fires still smoldering within larger burned areas. A crew of volunteer firefighters from the Telegraph Ridge Fire Protection District in southern Humboldt County was extinguishing hotspots near Saracina Vineyards on Sunday afternoon.
Tanner Speas, the department’s fire chief, said it was rewarding to be part of the regional response. Five engines left Humboldt County at 3:30 a.m. Sunday, he said, to relieve Mendocino County firefighters, many of whom had worked through the night.
“I’m glad to be part of Cal OES,” Speas said.
Along with Telegraph Ridge, fire departments from Shelter Cove, Salmon Creek, Briceland, and Redway deployed firefighters and engines to assist with the Feliz Fire.
Members of a crew from a CAL FIRE Shasta-Trinity unit suffered minor injuries Sunday afternoon after their engine overturned, The Press Democrat reported.
As of Monday evening, CAL FIRE said 642 people had fought the Feliz Fire, supported by 50 engines, 15 air tankers, and two dozers. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.