EL DORADO COUNTY – Mandatory evacuations have been issued and multiple airplane hangars were involved in a fire south of Placerville Saturday afternoon, fire officials said.
Cal Fire AEU reported that the blaze, known as the Pay Fire, was about 150 acres (61 hectares) in size as of 6 p.m. and was not yet under control. Firefighters said the fire was spreading dangerously quickly and was threatening structures.
The fire is moving east toward the Placerville Airport on Country Club Drive, the El Dorado County Fire Protection District said.
A local fire was reported east of Texas Hill Road, forcing additional evacuations, officials said.
The fire brigade reported at 2:30 p.m. that several hangars at the airport were involved.
Evacuations
According to the evacuation map, mandatory evacuations are in effect for roads including Barett Drive, Brendan Way, Lions Park and Airport Road from the Goldman Lane area to Country Club Drive. They were extended to include Texas Hill Road to Big Barn Road around 4:45 p.m.
The evacuation order was also extended to the east side of Newtown Road, now including Parkway Drive, Ivy Knoll Drive to Learning Tree Road, Mining Brook Road, and Still Meadow Road near the El Dorado Trail.
The map also shows evacuation warnings along Airport Road from Goldman Lane to Broadway. Those warnings extend east to Newtown Road to Barragan Court.
Notable buildings in the alert include El Dorado Adventist School, Gold Trail Motor Lodge and Premier Healthcare Placerville.
Evacuation warnings were also issued around 3:40 p.m. for the area south and southwest of Cedar Ravine Road. Roads included Nugget Lane, Elysian Way and Sluice Box Road.
The warning also includes the northwest of the mandatory evacuations. Some of the roads currently under evacuation warnings are Heritage Lane, Wiltse Road, Lane Drive and Eskaton Drive.
The latest warnings issued are for the Camino Heights area, including Camino Heights Drive to Highway 50. The warnings extend south to Newtown Road near Half Moon Drive.
A temporary evacuation room has been set up at the Placerville Library, located at 345 Fair Lane.
You can bring animals to El Dorado County Animal Service, located at 6435 Capitol Ave. in Diamond Springs.
Blackouts
There are also power lines near the area where the fire started, the protection district said, but fire officials have not said what caused the fire.
PG&E’s outage map shows about 170 customers were without power just minutes after 2:30 p.m. south of the Placerville Airport.
Nearly 1,800 customers also lost power around 3 p.m. The outage stretched from the airport area to Placerville and the north side of Highway 50 at Placerville Drive. It was then reduced to about 311 customers in the area of the evacuation orders and warnings.
Road closures
Airport Road is closed at Broadway and Cedar Ravine Road is closed at Cedar Ravine and Camp Nauvoo Road.
Residents wishing to evacuate the area are asked to evacuate via Paydirt Road to Cedar Ravine Road.
Newtown Road is blocked at Mining Brook Road and Parkway Drive.
A roadblock has been set up at Nugget Lane and Gingham Court and at Texas Hill Road and Big Barn Road.