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SANTA ROSA — The dreaded North Bay winds whipped up again Tuesday, raising the stakes in the fierce battle against the Kincade blaze as firefighters from around the state raced to try and keep the fire from spreading and incinerating more Wine Country homes.
Fanned by winds reaching speeds of up to 40 mph Tuesday afternoon and forecasted to grow stronger overnight, the fire in Sonoma County had burned more than 76,000 acres — making it to the edge of the 2017 Tubbs Fire — and still was only 15% contained. The blaze has destroyed 189 structures, of which 86 are single-family homes, seven are commercial buildings and 96 are sheds or outbuildings, and damaged another 39. About 90,000 structures remain threatened.
“The winds are what makes it difficult. It can change on you so quickly,” said Nathaniel Armstrong, battalion chief of the Hayward Fire Department, as he and his crew prepared for their fourth day of work on the fire.
Meanwhile, power outages and air quality issues persisted throughout the Bay Area. As of Tuesday evening, 540,000 PG&E customers were without power as a result of planned outages intended to prevent PG&E equipment from starting wildfires, Mark Quinlan, PG&E senior director of emergency preparedness and response, said during a media call. The utility expected to receive the “all-clear” to restore power to Northern California customers by 8 a.m. Wednesday.
On Tuesday, PG&E notified Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office that it’s planning to issue rebates to customers affected by a public safety power, or PSPS, shutoff earlier this month. More details on the plans were not immediately available. Newsom earlier this month pressured the utility to provide $100 rebates for each residential customer who lost power, and $250 for business customers.
“We have carefully considered the governor’s request to provide reimbursement for our customers impacted by the Oct. 9 PSPS and we have agreed to move forward with a one-time bill credit for customers impacted by that event,” said PG&E Corp. CEO and President Bill Johnson in a statement.
“We believe it is the right thing to do for our customers in this case, given the challenges with our website and call center communications,” Johnson continued.
The California Public Utilities Commission on Monday announced it will open an investigation into the shutoffs.
At the same time, temperatures around the Bay Area are expected to drop significantly this week — to near or below freezing in some places — making it harder for residents without power to keep warm.
“We want to warn individuals, in particular our unsheltered population, that they can seek shelter at many of our evacuation shelter sites,” said Barbie Robinson, director of the Sonoma County Health Services Department. “And we want to encourage folks that are living in tents or living in their cars to please come in and seek shelter during this cold weather advisory.”
And the region was hit with another “Spare the Air” alert for Wednesday — the third day in a row. While the air was expected to clear Wednesday morning, it likely will worsen again Wednesday afternoon as winds decrease and smoke drains south into the Bay Area, according to a news release from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
The fierce winds died down momentarily Monday, but the fire continued its eastward push, and a spot fire that ignited in Lake County continued to grow. As the sun went down Tuesday in Sonoma County, and the National Weather Service predicted wind gusts of up to 60 mph overnight before subsiding Wednesday morning, firefighters were gearing up for the worst at three battlegrounds.
“This is going to be hopefully one of the final tests of these fire perimeters, especially on the western side of the Highway 101 corridor area,” said Cal Fire Division Chief Jonathan Cox.
At the fire’s western border, firefighters worried the blaze would jump Highway 101 and advance into a wooded, hilly area near the town of Windsor.
“If it crosses 101, we feel like we’re gonna lose this thing,” Sonoma County Battalion Chief Mark Dunne said Tuesday afternoon as he marshaled crews to watch for spot fires that could ignite from embers smoldering after an epic battle there Saturday.
Map: For the latest fire and evacuation zone information in Sonoma County click here.
Firefighters also had their eye on Shiloh Road, about two miles south of Windsor. At the fire’s southern border, they were watching the unincorporated area of Mark West Springs, which was ravaged in 2017 by the Tubbs Fire. Strong northeast wind currents could push the fire down the canyon toward the Larkfield-Wikiup area and Santa Rosa — just as it did two years ago.
“To see how devastated our community was when that fire came through the town was hard. And two years later, here we go again,” Santa Rosa fire Capt. Jack Thomas said, peering over the hilltop from Pepperwood Preserve Road and into the smoke in the distance. “So we’re doing everything in our power to make sure that never, ever happens again. Or that we at least have some control over the fire compared to in 2017.”
As of 10 p.m.,the southern lines of the fire were holding strong under clear and starry skies. The strong winds expected earlier in the day appeared to be a no-show.
“I don’t think we’re going to get the wind,” Thomas said. “Our EOC got some pretty good intel that the wind event is not going to get here.”
The winds materialized elsewhere. Forest Lake recorded a peak gust of 64 mph about 4:20 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. Other peak gusts included 60 mph in Anderson Springs at 8:50 p.m. and 57 mph in Middletown at 9:10 p.m. But for the majority of Sonoma County, peak gusts ranged from 15 mph to 30 mph.
“It looks like the winds began a little bit earlier than we had anticipated today, so the front end of it coming in earlier might kind of make the tail end of it come through a little bit faster, too,” said weather service meteorologist Rick Canepa in a phone interview late Tuesday night. “We’re mostly on track here for the overnight hours, as forecast.”
By Wednesday morning, the worst — for now — was expected to be over. Winds were predicted to die down after midnight, said weather service meteorologist Ryan Walbrun.
“As we wake up tomorrow morning, we’ll notice the winds are much lighter,” he said.
Walbrun said conditions will continue to improve through the end of the week.
But shifting winds and changing conditions Tuesday added to the stress felt by some evacuees trying desperately to determine if their neighborhoods were in the fire’s path. In front of Finley Hall on the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, where evacuees with small pets are staying, Allison and Gail Baker peered at a map of the fire tacked to a wooden board, tracing their fingers from the southern tip of the fire to their home in Windsor.
It’s been confusing to follow where the blaze is moving and to know whether their home is facing a serious threat, said Allison Baker, though she was reassured by the efforts of both Cal Fire and the Red Cross.
“We (initially) thought we’d be here for three days, but we didn’t know the magnitude of the windstorm,” she said.
For some of the fire’s smallest evacuees, questions and worries abound. Jazmin Jacinto and Elias Dehmes, who evacuated to the fairgrounds from north Santa Rosa, tried to keep spirits high for Dehmes’ two daughters, Ezra, 2, and Nova, 3.
As fire trucks from across the country passed by the center, the family stood outside, waving and signaling for a honk from firefighters — and cheering when their efforts proved successful.
“I think we got that one,” Dehmes said, giving his daughter a high five after a truck full of Red Cross personnel reciprocated their vigorous waves and smiles.
“They’ve been asking a lot of questions, and sleeping was a bit hard last night,” Jacinto said about the girls. “But we just told them it was a giant sleepover, and they’ve been adjusting pretty well.”
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Cox, the Cal Fire division chief, said fire crews have been working as hard as they can to get the fire contained and help the community recover.
“I think the best way to describe it is, we’re in a battle rhythm,” he said. “The shifts are very structured now. We have resources that are assigned to areas shift over shift, and I think firefighters are ready to turn the corner after this wind event and really put some closure and some stability back into the community.”
Cox confirmed that there was a minor medical emergency on the fire line Tuesday, but he did not have additional details.
Cal Fire resources kept on top of fires further afield, including a wildland fire that scorched nearly 10 acres of hilly terrain behind homes in rural Palermo, seven miles southeast of Oroville in Butte County, just before 4 p.m. A swift response from more than 100 firefighters stopped flames’ forward progress within hours, leaving it at 50 percent containment as of 8:45 p.m. with mop-up efforts due to continue into Wednesday. There were no reports of injuries or threatened or damaged structures, and its cause was under investigation.
Meanwhile, law enforcement was cracking down on behavior that could aggravate the already precarious situation in the North Bay. On Tuesday morning, California Highway Patrol Capt. Aristotle Wolfe, commander of the Santa Rosa area CHP, stopped a motorist on Highway 101 in Petaluma who had tossed a cigarette butt out the window.
“I’m in an unmarked car. I rarely make stops,” Wolfe said. “But I wasn’t going to let that one go — with smoke in the air and tinder on the highway” from winds blowing branches.
“This is an extremely dangerous time,” he said, “and unsafe or lawless behavior won’t be tolerated.”
Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said at least three cases of looting have been reported in evacuation zones.
“The sheriff’s office is currently investigating all of these cases,” he said, “and I can assure you that if we are able to determine those responsible, arrests will be made and we will prosecute those people to the fullest extent.”
Staff writers George Avalos, Annie Sciacca and George Kelly contributed to this report.
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