The Kelly Fire is part of the Smith River Complex of at least 13 fires that has burned more than 7,300 acres as of Thursday evening. Fire burned on both sides of the highway and the nearby Middle Fork Smith River.

Flames from the Kelly Fire threatened the historic Patrick Creek Lodge along Highway 199 in California, Terry McNaught, co-owner of the lodge said Thursday.

The 12-room lodge, which dates to 1926, is located about 14 miles south of the Oregon-California border and is a highly visible landmark along the main route to the coast from the Rogue Valley.

“The fire basically went around the lodge, but we lost a lot of the beautiful trees around the lodge,” McNaught said during a phone interview. “We’re very fortunate we didn’t lose it.”

McNaught and his wife, Tina, are now staying at a ranch property down the road in the Gasquet area, where lodge bartender Leo Kleinhanz is caretaker.

McNaught and a partner have owned the lodge property for about 18 months and were in the process of renovating its motel rooms. Construction workers on the project were among those evacuated.

The fire is one of at least 43 that broke out after lightning storms swept through the region late Monday and early Tuesday. McNaught first noticed smoke from the fire Tuesday.

“I saw just a small poof on the other side of the mountain,” he said. “So I called 911.”

“It started up on that hill. It came down.”

As the hours passed and flames drew nearer, concerned friends contacted him and his wife with offers of assistance and a place to stay. Three guys arrived to help. They put sprinklers on the roof.

“A lot of people in Gasquet, they come to our lodge,” McNaught said. “They want to save it. Everybody knows about the lodge.

“Everybody was texting me and my wife (to help). It’s amazing, when something goes wrong, people are there to help.”

Firefighters arrived to dig fire lines, help with sprinklers and fight flames, which came to within about 1,800 feet of the lodge, according to McNaught. The couple left the lodge shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday.

“There was so much fire around it,” McNaught said. “We waited until it was like, ‘You got to go.’ They had a full-on evacuation.”

Once they left, volunteers with the local fire department stood watch. When all this is over, the McNaughts plan on having them back.

“We’re going to have a party for them,” McNaught said. “They were up all night long.”

There’s still a threat that winds will transport embers back to the property.

“It’s just all about the wind,” McNaught said. “The lodge gets wind every day.”

Meanwhile, as of Thursday afternoon, a 20-mile stretch of the highway from the Oregon border almost to Gasquet remained closed by the California Department of Transportation, which first closed the route Wednesday afternoon due to fire danger.

“There’s a lot of fire along the highway,” McNaught said.

The Kelly Fire is part of the Smith River Complex of at least 13 fires that had burned more than 7,300 acres as of Thursday evening, according to Inciweb. Fire burned on both sides of the highway and the nearby Middle Fork Smith River.

California Interagency Incident Management Team 15 will assume command of the Smith River Complex Friday, Aug. 18, according to an advisory posted by Six Rivers National Forest. The fires within the Smith River Complex are threatening numerous communities, highly used travel corridors, critical transmission lines and other natural and cultural resources, the agency said.

Down the highway in Crescent City Thursday, would-be travelers were evaluating options, including the possible use of Highway 42 from Coos Bay to the Roseburg area.

Cruz Camarena of the Crescent City/Del Norte Chamber of Commerce said visitors to the chamber Thursday discussed the fire and route options.

“I want to say at least half of our customers have brought up the fire in some way,” he said.

Camarena, who was ready with fire information, suggested checking social media postings by Caltrans, Del Norte Office of Emergency Services and a local group called Del Norte and Curry County fires.

There also was some talk about when the highway might reopen.

“They said it could be tomorrow or it could be weeks from now,” he said.

Caltrans on Thursday was offering no estimates.

At the Best Western Plus Northwoods Inn in Crescent City, general manager Patricia Coburn said every one of the motel’s 100 rooms was taken, as would be normal during the summer, but that some of the rooms were taken up by fire personnel.

Also staying at the motel were inland visitors who came to the coast to escape the heat of recent days.

“They are stuck on the coast,” she said.

Among those stuck on the coast was Shawnee Anderson of Eagle Point and her daughter, Peggy, 3-1/2. The two had escaped triple-digit temperatures Tuesday, when they headed down Highway 199 to camp near Brookings.

“I just needed to escape the heat,” Anderson said Thursday in a telephone interview.

They were enjoying the coastal coolness Wednesday when a friend let her know that the highway was closed. She then searched online for the best route home Thursday, but decided against taking Bear Camp Road, a sometimes-narrow route east of Gold Beach that she figured would be crowded with other travelers using it as a detour.

“Instead, I decided to make it an adventure,” Anderson said.

So, instead, she and her daughter got a motel room overlooking the ocean at Bandon Thursday, with plans on taking Highway 42 east Friday for a stop at Wildlife Safari in Winston before returning home.

The motel room cost her a whopping $264, but she took the financial hit in stride.

“You know, what better place to be stuck in?” she said.