Kincade fire evacuations expand as fire officials
brace for historic winds
MARY CALLAHAN
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
October 25, 2019, 5:59PM
Public safety officials are bracing for the worst fire
conditions since the North Bay firestorm of 2017 in an
environment already saturated with smoke and
apprehension as a wildfire rages in the mountains
above Geyserville.
With gusts up to 80 mph expected for the highest
elevations this weekend, it’s hard to say what’s
worrying them most: the prospect of the nearly 24,000-
acre Kincade fire blowing up substantially or the fear
that a spark ignited during historically extreme winds
could start the next catastrophic California wildfire.
A widespread preemptive blackout scheduled for about
93,000 PG&E customers in Sonoma County, as well as 200
households served by Healdsburg’s municipal electric
department, may have some preventive impact. But after
a similar outage just two days earlier, the shutdown
compounded a siege mentality for some, which has been
exacerbated by dangerously poor air quality.
Late Friday, the mandatory evacuation zone inched
south toward Healdsburg and east toward Knights
Valley.
Bright flames visible Friday night from Highway 101
and the Healdsburg area provoked anxiety in the wake
of a significant flare-up inside the fire zone earlier
in the day. Ambulances raced up Pine Flat Road as a
dark plume of smoke rose overhead, then spilled across
the county below.
Cal Fire officials later said a firefighter came
across two civilians attempting to evacuate the area
as flames intensified. He was forced to deploy his
portable emergency shelter and managed to shield all
three of them from the flames, though they suffered
non-life-threatening injuries in the incident, Cal
Fire said.
The people involved were taken by ground ambulance to
a nearby hospital for treatment and all were expected
to survive, Cal Fire said.
As the potential for more evacuations grew, emergency
officials spoke frequently of the need for residents
to prepare ahead of time and act without hesitation if
they are told to flee the path of danger.
“When we call for evacuations, or if we have to call
for evacuations, it’s not a suggestion,” Cal Fire
Battalion Chief Jonathan Cox said during a Friday
evening news conference. “It is an order — that we
believe there is an imminent life threat to you and
your property. So as we go forward though this wind
event, if additional evacuations are called for, it is
going to be imperative, 100 percent, that people heed
those and get out early.”
Friday night’s evacuations covered areas including Ida
Clayton Road, Alexander Valley Road near Jimtown;
Highland Ranch Road and areas around Asti, east of
Highway 101; and rural areas between the fire and the
Mendocino and Lake county lines.
Northern unincorporated Healdsburg has been under
evacuation warning since Wednesday night, while
warnings were issued Friday evening for the Cobb
Mountain communities of Gifford Springs, Whispering
Pines, Anderson Springs, Adams Springs, Hobergs and
Cobb in Lake County, as well as those living on Ford
Flat and Socrates Mine roads. Anyone who may need
extra time to gather pets or pack essential items such
as medications was encouraged to prepare in the event
of a mandatory evacuation.
Already, about 2,000 people are under mandatory
evacuation from Geyserville and rural communities
around the Alexander Valley and up into the Mayacamas
Range toward The Geysers geothermal fields, since the
Kincade fire started Wednesday night.
As of Friday night, the wildfire remained just 5
percent contained and had grown slightly to 23,700
acres, expanding primarily on the eastern flank in
rugged terrain, Cal Fire said.
Forty-nine structures have been destroyed, including
what Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said were 21
homes and 28 outbuildings, though Cal Fire and the
county have just begun their formal damage assessment,
Emergency Management Director Christopher Godley said.
In the meantime, the county emergency operations
center was abuzz with preparations for weather
conditions meteorologists are casting in “historic”
terms, as the region’s fuels reach their driest, most
combustible point, with high sustained winds and
extreme gusts on the horizon, as well as critically
low humidity levels.
Fire officials said conditions could match or surpass
those of October 2017, when multiple fire erupted in
the North Bay, burning across Sonoma County and Napa
counties, killing 40 people in the North Bay and
burning more than 6,100 homes.
“If you look at the past three years, all of the large
and damaging fires have occurred this time of year,
during the offshore wine event period, and
particularly during the red flag warnings,” Cox said.
“Although we’ve had minimal fire activity this year,
all our fuels are now hitting that critical stage. You
kind of compound that with the fact we’re going to see
a potentially historic wind event, it has us highly
concerned that the vulnerable areas of California
could see some explosive fires.”
National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema
said winds this weekend would likely start ramping up
between 9 p.m. and midnight Saturday, with strong,
gusting conditions reaching their peak intensity
around sunrise Sunday and persisting through about
midday, so “the period of greatest concern is from
about midnight (Saturday) through about midday on
Sunday, that 12-hour period.”
But unlike Wednesday, when the Kincade fire burst
forth during a period of high, gusting winds, this
weekend’s high winds are expected to persist,
lingering through Sunday evening and into Monday
morning before subsiding, Dykema said.
They also will be felt strongly in the lowlands, so
“it is unusual from that standpoint,” he said.
The distribution and duration of the winds, Sonoma
County Fire Chief Mark Heine said, “is one of the big
reasons we’re concerned about this, obviously.”
He noted that after the Kincade fire started, fire
crews attacked two other vegetation fires in Bennett
Valley and the next day fought a 4-acre fire in
Trione-Annadel State Park and another along Highway
101 in Rohnert Park.
With sustained winds, any one of those could easily
get out of hand.
“What we need people to do is not use any mechanical
equipment outside in the dry vegetation,” Heine said.
“No power tools. No lawn mowers. No weed wackers. No
outdoor fire pits. Nothing that can ignite a fire in
any way.”
He also urged residents to secure or remove outdoor
furniture or items that could become airborne and to
be alert to falling limbs and power lines, and other
items that could be blow down or aloft, and to take
precautions with generators or candles — using
battery-operated lights whenever possible where power
is shut off.
More than 1,300 firefighters were deployed throughout
the fire zone, supported by helicopters and fixed-wing
aircraft, including air tankers and an air attack
plane directing the action.
ire officials said they were hoping Friday to make
substantial progress building control lines before the
extreme winds ramp up Saturday night and into Sunday
morning.
But by evening, the fire remained at 5 percent
containment, the same level as 24 hours earlier, and
was spreading east, threatening Knights Valley and
Cobb Mountain. Cal Fire Operations Chief Tim Ernst
said crews had held the blaze close to containment
lines, with little growth, but, with the more active
conditions on Friday afternoon, had not gained greater
control.
“We would love to have it at 90 p ercent containment,”
Cox said, “but as you can imagine, when 10,000 acres
burns in less than 1 2 hours, the number of miles of
fire perimeter that are open on that are overwhelming,
And although we have 1,300 firefighters 24 hours a day
on the ground, and aircraft during the day flying
this, the task is monumental.”
Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said at a Friday
night news conference that his message to the public,
“as we see this historic wind event coming at us,” was
this: “We would like you to stay home.”
He and others urged residents to keep the roads clear
for emergency vehicles unless they are evacuating and
to remain vigilant, stay informed and stay in touch
with each other and with their neighbors, especially
those who may be older or infirm.
He also said that about 50 deputies were patrolling in
the fire and evacuation areas, in large part to
provide assistance and prevent looting.
But he noted several troubling incidents on Friday
involving “aggressive people approaching some of our
checkpoints.”
“We want to reiterate that we need you to be kind with
our first responders,” Essick said. “Be patient with
us. We’re there to help you, keep you safe, keep you
out of the evacuated areas.”
Staff Writers Julie Johnson and Chantelle Lee
contributed to this report.
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