Qualla: The Clayton Fire https://qualla.com/clayton-fire en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: The Clayton Fire https://qualla.com/clayton-fire The Clayton Fire: Introduction https://qualla.com/clayton-fire/ Lake County, California, had already been burning. The Valley Fire had torn through the county just a year earlier, in September 2015, killing four people and destroying nearly two thousand structures. So when smoke began rising south of Lower Lake on the evening of August 13, 2016, the community that scrambled to evacuate was not encountering wildfire for the first time -- it was encountering it again, in a county that was running out of things left to burn. What made the Clayton Fire different was not its size, though 3,929 acres is significant. What made it different was the cause. This fire was set deliberately.

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/v/clayton-fire-wp/9qbv-the-clayton-fire-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full The Clayton Fire: Thirteen Days in August https://qualla.com/clayton-fire/ The fire ignited just south of Lower Lake on Saturday evening, August 13, and moved fast. By the following day, 1,044 fire personnel were on the ground, evacuation centers had opened at the Highlands Senior Center, and road closures were spreading across the area -- Clayton Creek...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/v/clayton-fire-wp/9qbv-the-clayton-fire-thirteen-days-in-august.mp3 0:06 2 full The Clayton Fire: The Arsonist Among Them https://qualla.com/clayton-fire/ Damin Pashilk, a construction worker from Clearlake, was arrested while the fire still burned. He faced seventeen counts of arson -- charges connected not only to the Clayton Fire but to other fires in the area. The arrest sent a particular kind of shock through a community alrea...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/v/clayton-fire-wp/9qbv-the-clayton-fire-the-arsonist-among-them.mp3 0:06 3 full The Clayton Fire: What the Fire Took https://qualla.com/clayton-fire/ By the time containment reached ninety-eight percent on August 24, the Clayton Fire had destroyed 300 buildings and damaged 28 more. The town of Lower Lake, a small community with roots stretching back to the nineteenth century, lost a significant portion of its commercial core. ...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/v/clayton-fire-wp/9qbv-the-clayton-fire-what-the-fire-took.mp3 0:06 4 full The Clayton Fire: A County That Keeps Burning https://qualla.com/clayton-fire/ The Clayton Fire was neither the first nor the last major wildfire to hit Lake County in the 2010s. The Mendocino Complex Fire would follow in 2018, burning over 450,000 acres across Lake and neighboring counties to become the largest fire in California's recorded history at that...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/v/clayton-fire-wp/9qbv-the-clayton-fire-a-county-that-keeps-burning.mp3 0:06 5 full