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Weary firefighters and defiant residents in communities throughout Northern California are bracing for the return Sunday morning of the high heat and dry thunderstorms that sparked hundreds of fires in the state a week ago — just as they were starting to make some progress against the three massive blazes.
Cooler temperatures and the overnight marine layer helped crews grow their containment of the three large complex of fires Friday night, and milder weather Saturday aided efforts to create new fire breaks in Sonoma and Santa Cruz counties, including near UC Santa Cruz, to protect vulnerable communities when the wind — and possibly lightning — rears up again.
The LNU Complex fire, in parts of Sonoma, Solano and Napa counties and beyond, has burned 314,207 acres, caused four deaths and destroyed 560 structures, and is now 15 percent contained. On Saturday morning, the winds were blowing northeast, which kept flames away from the resort town of Guerneville, located on the south edge of the Walbridge Fire, one of several under the LNU umbrella, according to Cal Fire PIO Jay Tracy.
“The progress and the fact that the fire grew minimally is good,” Tracy said.
The fire has nibbled at the northern edge of Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve just outside Guerneville, but the historic redwoods there have so far been spared.
Healdsburg, sitting to the east edge of the Walbridge Fire and where homes were lost on Wallace Creek Road, could be more substantially impacted if winds pick up, said Paul Fleckenstein, an engineer with the Healdsburg Fire Department.
That would also be challenging for already-exhausted fire crews who, lacking reinforcements, have depended on help from nearby property owners with their own bulldozers and chainsaws to build a firebreak.
“There’s guys that have been out here for four days without seeing a bag lunch, and without much rest,” he said.
Still, firefighters made progress pushing the blaze back on the outskirts of the town Friday and Saturday and fire breaks plowed with bulldozers, hoses, some taking advantage of empty winery space, were finally coming together, he said.
“We’re making slow gains,” he said. “We’re getting there.”
Crews also gained a “toehold” on the CZU Complex fire in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties overnight, thanks to calmer winds, lower temperatures and moisture from the marine layer. Containment of the fire, which has burned 67,000 acres and destroyed 115 structures, grew to 5 percent. Crews worked Saturday to create a second firebreak to stop the fire from spreading south to the University of California Santa Cruz campus, and add control lines around threatened communities such as Boulder Creek.
“A really big win for us yesterday, fantastic job by our folks,” said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mark Brunton.
Despite the cautious optimism, nearly 75,000 homes and businesses are still threatened by the fires, and officials warned the thunderstorms and high temperatures forecast for Sunday and Monday could wipe out gains made Saturday. At a press briefing Saturday night, Brunton said crews were prepared to attack any new fires and flare ups, but he warned that the red flag conditions which often mean high winds, could make for a volatile situation.
Further south, evacuation orders and warnings were issued throughout Carmel Valley in anticipation of the weather exacerbating the River and Carmel fires. The two fires have burned 50,510 acres and 48 structures. And additional precautionary evacuation warnings were issued for Southern Alameda County, including part of Fremont, because of the SCU Complex fire, which has burned more than 330,000 acres in largely rural areas of five counties, including Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa.
But Saturday’s break gave hope to some residents who had decided not to heed evacuation warnings and orders, opting instead to stay put and help save their properties.
Historic Guerneville, which usually is packed in summer months with tourists carrying inner tubes down to the Russian River, was quiet and empty Saturday morning as the town remained under a mandatory evacuation order. Firefighters walked the streets in groups, preparing for their shifts and several trucks carrying bulldozers were standing by, ready to go.
The sky was hazy, but the smoke wasn’t as thick as it has been earlier in the week. And the peaceful atmosphere was a far cry from Thursday night, when police were driving up and down the streets telling people to get out, and a helicopter hovered overhead blaring an ominous message: “You need to evacuate now.”
Not everyone did.
“We know the risk. We’re fully aware of the risk,” said Jeng, a woodworker who was fitting a blade into a table saw at his workshop on River Road as if it was just another day. “But at the same time, for some of us, that’s all we have.”
Jeng, who didn’t want to give his last name, lives in an apartment behind M-4 Specialties, the custom furniture shop where he works. He said he’d rather stay put in the comfort of his home for as long as possible, rather than evacuating and spending $150 a night on a hotel room in Santa Rosa. Even so, his truck is packed and filled with gas, just in case.
The town was put under an evacuation order last year during the Kincade Fire, and although it was spared damaged then, the M-4 Specialities shop suffered $80,000 worth of damage during floods the same year. On Friday, at least, the air quality had improved and things seemed headed in a good direction.
“That’s like a ray of hope,” Jeng said. “You walk out and there’s no snowfall of ash.”
What it’s like driving through a wildfire at night #CZULightingComplex pic.twitter.com/LdkZBBp1Eb
— CAL FIRE CZU (@CALFIRECZU) August 23, 2020
In the Santa Cruz mountains, visibility remained low, with smoke making it hard to see more than 25 feet ahead on Empire Grade Road. Nearby, bulldozer crews were cutting a “last line” of defense from that road east to Highway 9 to protect the UCSC campus, as well as the nearby city. Scott Bullock, a Santa Cruz resident and 14-year area CalFire veteran, said he’d been working the fire since Sunday and the devastation he’d seen in Boulder Creek and Bonny Doon would linger for a long time.
“This unit has never seen anything like that, not even close,” he said.
Most people in the area had evacuated, but not Rod Rondeaux, who lives on a 13-acre property near the road.
Rondeaux, who moved there from Montana a couple of years ago, said his girlfriend, her two kids and three boarders who live on the property had all evacuated, as had his seven horses. He has sprinklers wetting down his house, hoping for the best.
“I’m just going to hang (on) and see what happens,” he said. “I’m going to hang until it’s too hot to handle, I don’t want to leave this.”
His optimism was tempered hearing that a new thunderstorm could bring the kind of lightning that set off 560 fires throughout the state earlier this week. Originally expected Sunday evening, dry lightning and gusty wind could now come as early as 5 a.m. Sunday, weather officials warned.
“Oh wow,” he said. “I was praying for rain.”
