SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An unwelcome change in the weather, with higher winds, temperatures and lightning that threatens to spark new wildfires was coming Sunday to parched Northern California, where firefighters have for nearly a week battled three huge “complexes” of fires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced tens of thousands to flee.
Firefighters made slow but hopeful progress in battling the blazes on Saturday, aided by good weather but hampered by smoky skies that grounded water-dropping aircraft for some of the day. Reinforcements arrived to bolster overwhelmed crews, and evacuation orders were lifted in some areas.
But the changing weather brought fears of new fires overnight and warnings from state and local officials for residents in threatened areas to prepare to flee at any moment.
“There’s not a feeling of pure optimism, but a feeling of resolve, a feeling of we have resources backing us up,” Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore said.
Since Aug. 15, state fire officials said more than 12,000 lightning strikes across the state have ignited more than 500 wildfires. Of those, about two dozen major fires were attracting most of the state’s resources. Most of the damage was caused by three clusters of fire “complexes” that were ravaging forest and rural areas in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. They have burned 1,120 square miles (2,900 square kilometers).
Among the casualties were ancient redwood trees at California’s oldest state park, Big Basin Redwoods, plus the park’s headquarters and campgrounds. Smoke from the fires made the region’s air quality dangerous, forcing people to stay inside.
Overall, the fires have killed five people, torched nearly 700 homes and other structures and forced tens of thousands from their houses.
“Tuesday night when I went to bed I had a beautiful home on a beautiful ranch,” said 81-year-old Hank Hanson of Vacaville. “By Wednesday night, I have nothing but a bunch of ashes.”
The changing weather brought good news for some communities, including Boulder Creek, an old logging community of about 5,000 people in the Santa Cruz mountains. Fire officials said they expected the blaze to reach the community, but they took advantage of recent good weather to try to “herd” flames around the town.
The storms predicted for Sunday were expected to aid those efforts by changing the direction of the wind.
“As bad as that weather prediction is overall for certain parts of this fire, it actually is going to help us move it away from those certain communities,” said Chief Mark Brunton, a battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the state’s firefighting agency.
Responding to the emergency, President Donald Trump issued on Saturday a major disaster declaration to provide federal assistance. Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that the declaration will also help people in counties affected by the fires with crisis counseling, housing and other social services.
Fire officials, meanwhile, struggled to get enough resources to fight the two largest cluster of fires around the San Francisco Bay area that had grown to become the second-largest and third-largest fires in state history by size.
The fire burning in California’s wine country, north of the San Francisco Bay, had only 1,400 firefighters assigned to battle the blaze. By comparison, the state had 5,000 firefighters assigned to the Mendocino Complex in 2018, which still holds the record as the largest fire in state history — for now.
“All of our resources remain stretched to capacity that we have not seen in recent history,” said Shana Jones, the chief for CalFire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit.
Underscoring the danger the fires pose for firefighters, the Sonoma County sheriff’s office released dramatic video of the helicopter rescue Friday night of two firefighters trapped on a ridge line at Point Reyes National Seashore. They were hoisted to safety as flames advanced.
“Had it not been for that helicopter, those firefighters would certainly have perished,” Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said.
Associated Press
A firefighter battling the Kincade fire attempts to extinguish a hot spot as strong winds send embers flying in Calistoga, California, on Tuesday. Millions of people have been without power for days as fire crews raced to contain two major wind-whipped blazes that have destroyed dozens of homes at both ends of the state: in Sonoma County wine country and in the hills of Los Angeles.
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LOS ANGELES -- California firefighters raced against time on Saturday as they cut defensive lines against a wildfire in Sonoma County's famed wine country and authorities ordered 50,000 people to evacuate, ahead of winds that are forecast to pick up at night and spread the flames.
The expanded evacuation orders came as the utility Pacific Gas and Electric Corp prepared to shut off power to about 940,000 customers in 36 of the state's counties to guard against the risk that an electric mishap could spark a blaze.
The move to cut power to so many people quickly drew a rebuke from California Governor Gavin Newsom, who called it "unacceptable" in a video message on Twitter. The Democratic governor has blamed the bankrupt utility for lackluster investment in its infrastructure that he says makes its protective blackouts larger than they need to be.
Among the areas where power was shut off were parts of Sonoma County charred by the 10,000-hectare Kincade Fire.
The blaze burning along steep hillsides in rugged terrain north of San Francisco was one of two major wildfires burning in California, with the other, the Tick Fire, raging in suburban Los Angeles where it has charred 1,700 hectares with hundreds of residents still under evacuation orders on Saturday.
The more than 2,000 firefighters battling the Kincade Fire, which officials said was 10% contained and has destroyed nearly 50 structures, faced a more immediate threat from weather than crews battling the Tick Fire.
Winds around the Kincade Fire were expected to reach peak intensity on Saturday night into early Sunday, with sustained speeds of up to 90 kph and gusts of 130 kph in mountains and canyons, said Ryan Walburn, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
The winds will likely push flames toward the southwest, Walburn said, which would bring it closer to the 101 Freeway and put the towns of Windsor and Healdsburg at risk.
Authorities on Saturday ordered all the residents of those two towns to leave, with more than 50,000 people in Sonoma County told to evacuate.
Sonoma County supervisors and other officials at a news conference compared the potential for damage from the wildfire to an October 2017 complex of blazes that destroyed entire residential subdivisions in the nearby town of Santa Rosa and killed more than 40 people.
"This is a life-threatening situation and a danger to our entire town," said Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli, whose town has a population of nearly 30,000 people.
In an episode that underscored the dangers of civilians staying behind, on Friday evening a firefighter on the Kincade Fire had to deploy a portable shelter - which is made of aluminum and looks like a giant burrito wrapper - and bring two civilians inside to escape advancing flames, said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) spokesman Jonathan Cox.
"The decisions that people make regarding evacuations affect the first-responders lives, and we can't ask you enough: For us to be successful we must have the public evacuate," Cox said.
ROLLING BLACKOUTS
The winds were forecast to weaken on Sunday afternoon.
The cause of the Kincade Fire is still under investigation, but officials have said it erupted on Wednesday near the base of a damaged high-voltage transmission tower owned by PG&E.
Earlier in the week, authorities had ordered 2,000 people to evacuate their homes, with flames coming closest to Geyserville, a historic enclave home to about 900 residents and named for geothermal features in the vicinity.
The blaze also has encroached on wineries in a region full of internationally known vintners, including "The Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola.
On Saturday, authorities took advantage of the lull in winds to dispatch several air planes and helicopters to fight the Kincade Fire, said CAL FIRE spokeswoman Tricia Austin.
PG&E said it began shutting off power to some customers in Northern California on Saturday afternoon, in blackouts that would continue rolling out into Sunday evening when residents of Kern County north of Los Angeles would have their electricity shut off.
Outages could last for more than two days, said PG&E spokeswoman Suzanne Hosn.
"We are constantly working to minimize the impact of these safety shutoffs while prioritizing public safety," Hosn said.
SMOKE DAY - NO SCHOOL
The Tick and Kincade fires have worsened air quality in Los Angeles, San Francisco and areas around those two large cities.
In L.A.'s San Fernando Valley, which is just south of the Tick Fire, officials closed all public schools on Friday, giving thousands of students the day off, because of poor air quality.
At its peak, the Tick Fire burning in the Santa Clarita Valley north of Los Angeles forced the evacuation of about 50,000 people. It has destroyed at least nine structures since erupting from an unknown cause on Thursday and has been 25% contained, officials said on Saturday. No injuries have been reported.
Authorities allowed nearly all the residents displaced by the Tick Fire to return to their homes by Saturday morning, said Los Angeles County Fire Captain A.J. Lester, with only several hundred people still under evacuation orders.
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A fast-moving wildfire roared through California wine country early Thursday, as authorities warned of the imminent danger of more fires across much of the Golden State.
The Kincade fire in Sonoma County kicked up Wednesday night, quickly growing from a blaze of a few hundred acres into an uncontained 10,000-acre (4,000-hectare) inferno, California fire and law enforcement officials said.
Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for the town of Geyserville, California, the county sheriff's office said.
High winds out of the north were driving the fire south as firefighters worked through the night to evacuate residents and protect structures.
"This fire is moving fast, please pay attention to evacuation orders," state Senator Mike McGuire said on his Twitter account.
The Kincade fire came amid official warnings that much of northern California and parts of the south were under imminent threat of fires into Friday because of blustery, dry weather.
Citing strong Santa Ana winds, San Diego County warned residents of potential power shutoffs for tens of thousands of customers to reduce the risk of accidental fires.
San Diego Gas & Electric notified 42,000 customers that power shutoffs were possible.
Several fires were burning in the Los Angeles area, and at least one fire near Pendleton, California in San Diego County.
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A 21-year old Filipina was killed by a suspected drunk driver Sunday night, after celebrating her 10th anniversary of immigrating to America with her family.
Reports say Sonoma State University student Paulette Quiba was killed in a head-on collision while on her way home to Rohnert Park.
The crash happened 45 minutes after Quiba said goodbye to her family at a Concord restaurant where they were celebrating.
California Highway Patrol officers arrested 35-year old Santa Rosa man Logologoa Taumaloto Tevaseu on suspicion of murder and two drunk driving charges.
Tevasue had a previous drunk driving conviction in 2012.
Three other people were hurt in the collision that killed Quibo. They were taken to a nearby hospital with minor and moderate injuries.
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SANTA ROSA, California - Fast-moving fires spread by shifting winds
forced thousands more Californians to evacuate their homes on Saturday
as the death toll from the deadliest blaze recorded in the state's
history rose to at least 38, with hundreds of people still missing.
About 10,000 firefighters supported by air tankers and helicopters overhead were battling 16 major wildfires, some encompassing several smaller merged blazes, in areas north of San Francisco that have consumed nearly 214,000 acres (86,000 hectares) over seven days, or roughly 334 square miles (865 sq km) - an area larger than New York City.
The 38 confirmed fatalities, including 20 in Sonoma County, already make it the deadliest fire event in California history.
Some 100,000 people have been forced from their homes, including 3,000 evacuated on Saturday from the city of Santa Rosa, about 50 miles (80 km) north of San Francisco, and another 250 from nearby Sonoma city.
"This is truly one of the greatest tragedies that California has ever faced. The devastation is just unbelievable. It is a horror that no one could have imagined," California Governor Jerry Brown told a news conference in Santa Rosa.
The fires have damaged or destroyed about 5,700 structures, reducing homes and businesses to ash. The fires' death toll surpassed the 29 deaths from the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles.
"It's an unwieldy beast right now," fire information officer Dennis Rein said at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, the main staging area for the so-called Nuns Fire in Sonoma County, a world-renowned wine-producing region.
At least a dozen Napa Valley and Sonoma County wineries were damaged or destroyed, throwing the state's wine industry and related tourism into disarray.
For the picturesque Napa Valley town of Calistoga, the winds were a double-edged sword. The town was spared by hazardous winds when they shifted, Mayor Chris Canning said, though he warned a resurgence could pose a new threat.
The town of roughly 5,000 people had been evacuated, he said.
Firefighters from states including Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada have joined crews from California to battle the blazes.
From the air, some 70 helicopters and large aircraft including a 747, two DC-10s and about a dozen air tankers doused flames across the sprawling affected area with fire retardant, officials said.
On the ground, prison inmates were helping firefighters - sometimes digging lines to help contain fires, other times preparing meals at command centers, always watched over by guard.
In an area largely dependent on immigrant farm labor, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they would temporarily suspend routine operations during the emergency, "except in the event of a serious criminal presenting a public safety threat," spokesman James Schwab said in a statement.
SHIFTING WINDS
Ground crews gained on the wildfires on Friday, but drier weather and fast-shifting winds complicated efforts on Saturday, sparking a large new wildfire in Lake County, officials said.
The Nuns Fire, which had killed at least 1 person, was only 10 percent contained with winds threatening more residential areas, Cal Fire spokesman Antonio Negrete said.
But the more deadly Tubbs Fire, which killed at least 17 people in Sonoma County, was 44 percent contained, which officials considered a victory.
"It's cautious optimism, but it's optimism," Negrete said of the Tubbs Fire.
Cal Fire had estimated the fires would be contained by Oct. 20, but Rein said they may need to revise that date because of the winds that kicked up.
US Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, at the news conference with the governor in Santa Rosa pledged more federal aid to the region to help it through the devastation.
Whole neighborhoods of Santa Rosa have been reduced to landscapes of ash, smoldering debris and burned-out vehicles.
Some victims were asleep when flames engulfed their homes, and many survivors had only minutes to flee.
As parts of Santa Rosa were devastated, Calistoga, about 12 miles (20 km) to the northeast, faced hazardous winds that were forecast to push the Tubbs Fire toward town.
Mayor Canning said the shifting winds kept the flames at least 2 miles (3.2 km) from the city limit.
"If the winds shift and come back again, that's a big concern," he said in a telephone interview.
All but 12 of the city's 5,200 people heeded evacuation orders and left, Canning said.
"Nobody was confrontational," Canning said. "When the police or firefighters knocked on doors, most people were already ready to go with their bags packed."
With 235 people still missing on Saturday in Sonoma County alone, and rubble from thousands of incinerated dwellings yet to be searched, authorities have said the number of fatalities from the North Bay fires would likely climb.
The year's wildfire season is one of the worst in history in the United States, with nearly 8.6 million acres (3.5 million hectares) burned, just behind 2012, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
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SONOMA - Firefighters began to gain ground on Thursday against the spread of wildfires that have killed at least 24 people in Northern California and left hundreds missing in the pandemonium of mass evacuations in the heart of the state's wine country.
A brief resurgence of dry, gusty winds threatened to push flames into the Napa Valley town of Calistoga, whose 5,000-plus residents were ordered from their homes on Wednesday night as conditions worsened and fire crept closer.
Calistoga Mayor Chris Canning said anyone refusing to heed the mandatory evacuation would be left to fend for themselves if fire approached, warning on Thursday: "You are on your own."
Still, extreme wind conditions that had been forecast for Wednesday night and early Thursday failed to materialize, giving crews a chance to begin carving containment lines around the perimeter.
"Overall, we are definitely making progress," said Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), told Reuters, adding that the situation was less dire than earlier in the week.
Nearly two dozen blazes spanning eight counties have raged largely unchecked since igniting on Sunday night, scorching more than 190,000 acres (77,000 hectares) - an area nearly the size of New York City - and destroying at least 3,500 homes and other buildings.
Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to panoramas of ash, smoldering ruins, charred trees and burned-out cars by a series of firestorms that rank among the deadliest and most destructive in California's history.
The official cause of the disaster was under investigation, but power lines knocked down by gale-force winds may have sparked the conflagration.
Twenty-four people, all civilians, have been confirmed dead, the greatest loss of life from a California wildfire event since 1991, and authorities said the death toll could climb higher. Fire officials have said some of the victims were asleep when the fast-moving fires engulfed their homes before they could escape.
"We have found bodies that were completely intact, and we have found bodies that were no more than ash and bone," Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano told reporters.
As many as 900 missing-persons reports had been filed in Sonoma County alone, although 437 have since turned up safe, Giordano said.
It remained unclear how many of the 463 still listed as unaccounted for might be actual fire victims rather than evacuees who failed to alert authorities after fleeing their homes, he said.
"The best we can pray for is that they haven't checked in," emergency operations spokeswoman Jennifer Larocque told Reuters.
The fiercest of the blazes, the so-called Tubbs fire, accounted for 14 of the fatalities, all in Sonoma County, making it the deadliest single blaze since 2003, according to state data.
SMOKE, ASH IN BAY AREA
About 25,000 people remained displaced on Wednesday as the fires belched smoke that drifted over the San Francisco Bay area, about 50 miles to the south, where visibility was shrouded in haze and automobiles were coated with ash.
The National Weather Service warned on Thursday morning of persistent "critical fire weather conditions" in the fire zone for the next three days, with no rain expected and dry winds from the north with gusts upward of 35 miles per hour (55 kph).
The Tubbs fire on Thursday was within 2 miles (3 km) of Calistoga, which had appeared to be in the path of advancing flames but was spared on the first night of the fires.
Whether the town burns "is going to depend on the wind," Calistoga's Fire Chief Steve Campbell told Reuters early on Thursday. "High winds are predicted but we have not received them yet."
New evacuations also were issued in Sonoma County late on Wednesday for parts of Santa Rosa, the largest city in the wine-producing region, and Geyserville, an unincorporated town of 800 people.
While the cause of the fires have not been determined, they are thought to have been sparked by power lines toppled by gale-force winds and fanned by arid winds that blew into Northern California toward the Pacific on Sunday night.
Wildfires have damaged or demolished at least 13 Napa Valley wineries, a vintners' trade group said on Tuesday.
The confirmed death toll from the spate of fires stood at just one less than the 25 lives lost when a firestorm swept the Oakland Hills in October 1991.
In addition to high winds, the fires have been stoked by an abundance of thick brush left ready to burn by a dry, hot summer.
California Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in several northern counties, as well as in Orange County in Southern California, where a fire in Anaheim destroyed 15 structures and damaged 12 earlier in the week.
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