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Live Updates: Tens of Thousands Forced to Evacuate as Wildfires Continue to Rage From North Bay to P

KQED
Published August 19, 2020 at 9:09 AM PDT

A spate of wildfires sparked by lightning over the weekend continued to spread rapidly across vast expanses of the outer Bay Area. The fires remained largely uncontained as crews, already stretched thin, contend with high winds, rough terrain and triple-digit temperatures amid a week-long heat wave. By early Thursday, tens of thousands of residents from the North Bay to the Peninsula were ordered to evacuate in the face of three major groupings — or complexes — of fires blazing throughout the region. Click here to skip to our original post below the updates section.

The latest updates:

12:15 p.m. Thursday: Walbridge Fire in Sonoma County now top priority in North Bay The 14,500-acre Walbridge Fire in Sonoma County is now the top priority for firefighting efforts in the LNU Lightning Complex of fires burning in the North Bay, fire officials said. The lightning-ignited blaze, which merged overnight with the Stewart Fire, poses a serious threat to Guerneville and neighboring Russian River communities. See map of fire perimeters and evacuation zones here.

“Were hoping to make a lot better progress today. We are expecting better conditions than we had the last couple of days,” said Santa Rosa Assistant Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal at a press briefing Thursday morning.

11 a.m. Thursday: LNU Complex has burned 131,000 acres, with 0% containment The LNU Lightning Complex of fires raging in the North Bay has collectively  burned 131,000 acres, destroyed 105 structures and damaged 70 others as of Thursday morning, Cal Fire officials said.

An estimated 30,500 structures remain threatened by the wildfires, which have prompted widespread evacuations in Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties, among other communities. Cal Fire says the fires are at 0% containment.

The largest of the fires is the Hennessey Fire, which started near Hennessey Ridge Road and Napa County and has spread across 105,000 acres, according to Cal Fire. Another large blaze, the Walbridge Fire west of Healdsburg, is at 14,500 acres burned while the Meyers Fire north of Jenner is at 3,000 acres as of Thursday morning.

10 a.m. Thursday: Nearly all East Bay regional parks closedDue to the extreme fire activity in the region, nearly all East Bay regional parks — except some shoreline locations — have been shut down closed until further notice, the East Bay Regional Park District announced.

The district is currently experiencing an unprecedented number of wildfires in parks, including Round Valley Regional Preserve, Morgan Territory Regional Preserve, Del Valle Regional Park, Sunol Wilderness Regional Preserve, Ohlone Wilderness Regional Preserve, Mission Peak Regional Preserve, and Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park. Paved regional trails are not affected by the closures and will remain open.

The following parks remain open:

Crown Beach State Park Hayward Regional Shoreline MLK Jr. Regional Shoreline McLaughlin Eastshore State Park Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline Point Isabel Regional Shoreline Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area

8:30 a.m. Thursday: Entire town of Felton in Santa Cruz Mountains ordered to evacuateCal Fire has ordered all Felton residents to evacuate immediately due to severe fire danger. That includes all six of Felton’s evacuation zones. Evacuation centers have been established in San Mateo County at Half Moon Bay High School (1 Lewis Foster Dr.) and in Santa Cruz County at the Civic Auditorium (307 Church St., and 2601 East Lake Ave., Watsonville).

Incident information line: 831-335-6717

 

8 a.m. Thursday: PG&E worker dies near VacavilleA PG&E worker was found unresponsive in his vehicle in the Gates Canyon area in Vacaville Wednesday, where he had been assisting  first responders battling the Hennessey Fire, Cal Fire confirmed Thursday. CPR was performed and the employee was then brought to a local hospital and pronounced dead. The employee’s name has not been released.

Original post (last updated Wednesday, 4:30 p.m.):

Tens of thousands of people were under orders to evacuate from the North Bay to the Peninsula early Wednesday as three major series of lightning-sparked wildfires blazed out of control across the Bay Area amid a heat wave now in its sixth day.

“Throughout the state of California right now, we are stretched thin for crews” because of the fires, said Will Powers, a Cal Fire spokesman. “Air resources have been stretched thin throughout the whole state.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom blamed “this extraordinary weather we’re experiencing and all of these lightning strikes” for a total of 367 known fires now burning across California. Newsom said the state had recorded nearly 11,000 lightning strikes in 72 hours.

On the outskirts of the Solano County city of Vacaville, police and firefighters went door to door late Tuesday and early Wednesday in a scramble to warn residents to evacuate as one of the eight blazes that are part of the LNU Lightning Complex raced toward the residential areas from the northwest. Fire officials said at least 50 structures were destroyed and 50 were damaged and that four people were injured.

Find the latest evacuation orders here.

The LNU Lightning Complex includes lightning-sparked fires burning from the Sonoma County coast east across Napa County and Solano County. The blazes had burned a total 46,225 acres by early Wednesday. Most of the fires are burning in areas with limited access and steep terrain, making it difficult to get crews in. Fire crews were stretched too thin overnight to focus on more than immediate life-saving measures.

San Francisco Chronicle reporter Matthias Gafni, who traveled down Pleasants Valley Road on the western outskirts of Vacaville shortly after 4:00 a.m., told KQED that houses were on fire when he arrived, but that most people had evacuated from that area.

“It appeared the fire had just crossed the road and swept eastward towards the city proper,” Gafni said. “Houses were on fire. Structures, cars, explosions were being heard as propane tanks exploded and gas lines were whizzing. And it was a pretty chaotic scene when I when I first showed up.”

Christopher Godley, Sonoma County’s emergency management director, said about 10,000 people were under evacuation orders as crews battled two blazes and were working to set up an evacuation center with alternate locations for people exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms.

He conceded that resources are strapped statewide.

“It’s difficult to second guess what the fire commanders are doing with their aircraft. But it’s not like last year when we saw just a huge wealth of resources flowing into the county,” he said. “It is what it is.”

Vehicles burned by the LNU Lightning Complex sit off Pleasants Valley Road near Vacaville on Aug. 19, 2020. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

State Sen. Bill Dodd, who represents the area, said the fires burning in Napa and Sonoma counties were mostly affecting less populated areas.

“I think the people around here, even the people that have structures in harm’s way, understand that they’re in a more rural area and that the people in more densely populated areas have to get the resources first,” he said.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Cal Fire issued an evacuation order for residents of the Hidden Valley Lake and Jerusalem Valley areas of Lake County, suggesting a potentially dangerous northward move into that county.

In San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, about 22,000 people were ordered to evacuate overnight due to the CZU August Lightning Complex fire, burning in the Santa Cruz mountains, Cal Fire spokesman Jonathan Cox said.

Find the latest evacuation orders here.

That fire – also comprised of multiple lightning-sparked blazes – quickly expanded to 10,000 acres overnight and is at 0% containment.

“Last night we saw a major increase in fire activity in both San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties,” Cox said Wednesday morning. “And we saw several of the fires merge together and make a significant run into Santa Cruz County.”

“This is a very active timber fire burning in two counties with a serious threat to both public safety and for structures that are out in front of it.”

Officials issued evacuation orders late Tuesday night for people living in the Boulder Creek and Ben Lomond areas along Highway 9, and for Bonny Doon down towards Davenport on Highway 1 as multiple blazes merged together in the mountains between Big Basin State Park and Bonny Doon, threatening to move further south and east.

Increased winds on Wednesday afternoon appeared to fuel the blaze’s growth and cause the formation of a large pyrocumulus cloud – large, thunderhead-like clouds which top out at high altitudes and are themselves capable of producing lightning. All of the three major complex fires were producing pyrocumulus clouds Wednesday afternoon.

Cal Fire issued an additional evacuation warning for the Santa Cruz mountains at 2:00 p.m., requesting that all residents leave from areas west of Highway 9 to Empire Grade, and south from Bear Creek Road to Felton.

Cal Fire spokeswoman Cecile Juliette said crews spent all night and all morning evacuating people with the help of the Santa Cruz County sheriff’s office. She said the COVID-19 pandemic has created another challenging layer for evacuees.

“The Red Cross now can’t put them all in one big gymnasium. You know, they’ll have to get them hotel rooms, and so that just adds another layer.”

Evacuees from the CZU August Lightning Complex blazes were being sent to the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds in Watsonville, where tents were set up inside an air conditioned building as a COVID-19 safety measure.

“It’s frightening to think maybe you don’t have a home to go back to,” said Toni Bravo, who evacuated from the Boulder Creek area with her son Josh at midnight.

In San Mateo County, a separate evacuation center has been set up at Pescadero High School in Pescadero.

In the East Bay, a cluster of 20 separate lightning-sparked fires dubbed the SCU Lightning Complex threatened about 1,400 structures in rugged terrain with dense brush.

Find the latest evacuation orders here.

Those fires, burning in Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties have now burned 85,000 acres and are 5% contained. Two people have been injured.

The SCU Lightning Complex is burning in what’s regarded as the Diablo Range, east of Mount Diablo, east of Fremont, and northeast of Mount Hamilton. The biggest fires are the Del Puerto, burning west of the town of Patterson along Del Puerto Canyon Road, and the Reservoir, just east of the Calaveras Reservoir.

Most of the blazes are believed to have been sparked by lightning strikes from the unusual series of thunderstorms that rolled across the Bay Area beginning early last Sunday. Meteorologist Jan Null with Golden Gate Weather Services said the lightning storms and ongoing sizzling temperatures created a very dangerous combination.

“With the very dry fuels that we have, both from the temperatures and the fact it’s been almost three months since there’s been any significant rain in the state… It’s just been the perfect scenario for this sort of event to happen.”

Regarding the forecast for the next few days, Null sounded a meager note of optimism.

“I think we are past the high point of the heat wave,” he said, noting that Wednesday should be the last triple-digit temperature day in the inland Bay Area and into the Central Valley, but temperatures are still expected to reach the 90s.

The slight weather change is more likely to help crews battling the CZU August Lightning Complex Fire along the coast.

“We’re starting to see a little bit of a deeper marine layer, so we will see some cooling along the coastal areas that will bring some higher humidities in,” Null said. “But again, fuels are extremely dry. We are looking at fuels that, a few weeks ago, were drier by a month than what they normally are.”

This post will be updated.

This post includes reporting from The Associated Press and KQED’s Dan Brekke, David Marks, Adhiti Bandlamudi and Hannah Hagemann.

Copyright 2020 KQED
Regional Interests