California’s largest-ever wildland fire, a 7-week-old inferno that raged mostly across northern Lake County, scorching hundreds of thousands of acres of national forest, has been declared fully contained, Forest Service officials said Wednesday.
The Ranch fire was the giant among a pair of blazes called the Mendocino Complex that erupted an hour apart July 27 in Mendocino County and swept east, spurring evacuation orders affecting thousands of residents across four counties. Together, the fires burned a total of 459,123 acres — more than 700 square miles — and destroyed 280 structures, including 157 homes.
The lone fatality was a Utah firefighter who was killed last month battling the Ranch fire.
About 460 firefighters remained assigned to the blaze Wednesday, accompanied by seven engines, a helicopter and 45 bulldozers. With flames corralled, crews will shift their focus to repairing the 22 miles of fireline surrounding the blaze, as well as restoring burned areas, according to the Forest Service, which took over command of the fire last month.