ALERT Multiple fires and evacuations in North SF Bay Area
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I just read that and was going to copy that paragraph and ask the same question. Spontaneous combustion is vanishingly rare outdoors, absent wet hay bales or someone dropping a pile of oily rags. *Something* started that new fire. What?
Summerthyme
Bardou
Veteran Member
From Post #237
Live updates: Feinstein says ‘dollars have to come’ for California wildfires; death toll hits 38
Screw you Lyinstein, you already got the money and it went to the illegals. Those deaths are on you, Brown, Boxer (who retired), and every Democrat who voted for you. I wonder how many of them who voted for you died? You go against Federal law, yet you want Federal money. F off!
Live updates: Feinstein says ‘dollars have to come’ for California wildfires; death toll hits 38
Screw you Lyinstein, you already got the money and it went to the illegals. Those deaths are on you, Brown, Boxer (who retired), and every Democrat who voted for you. I wonder how many of them who voted for you died? You go against Federal law, yet you want Federal money. F off!
Be Well
may all be well
I noticed that some photos show burned trees, and some none or few, so I assume that in the places where there were unburned trees, the fire burned the houses incredibly fast to the fire whipped through the subdivision very quickly, and if trees were watered, they just weren't exposed to heat long enough to burn. Also different varieties of trees are more or less easy to catch fire. My non-technical ideas.
Last edited:
mzkitty
I give up.
Dottie L Snow Tubb @Dottiesnowtubb 9m9 minutes ago
Retweeted Breaking411 News (@breaking411):
#BREAKING: California ‘horror’ fires kill at least 40 — deadliest in...
14 Oct 2017 at 23:16 ET
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 40, with hundreds of people still missing.
More than 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 40 confirmed fatalities, including 22 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.
“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 said on a visit to a devastated 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.
Janis and Roberto Lucha joined scores of people lining up at a temporary Federal Emergency Management Agency office in Santa Rosa, seeking help after losing their home of 27 years in the city’s Coffey Park neighborhood, where most homes burned to the ground.
Molly Kurland, 63, has lived in her Santa Rosa home for nearly as long and her house was still standing. She joined a packed community meeting with worried residents at the Santa Rosa High School gymnasium.
“Even for people who haven’t lost their house, the uncertainty and anxiety is tremendous,” she said. “We are seeing the places where we shop for groceries disappear. My favorite restaurant is gone.”
GLIMMERS OF HOPE
There were some glimmers of hope as winds weakened and firefighters made progress with blazes such as the Cascade Fire, about 80 miles northeast of Santa Rosa, which was nearly 10,000 acres and 87 percent contained on Saturday, Cal Fire said.
Winds are expected to weaken overnight, which should help in fighting the fires but high temperatures and dry conditions that feed the fires will remain through the weekend, forecasters said.
”This is still very much in play. The danger is still very present,” said U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, a Democrat from California, who accompanied Brown on the visit.
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 affected area with fire retardant, officials said. Aircraft have dropped more than 2 million gallons (7.6 million liters) of fire retardant.
Cal Fire had estimated the fires would be contained by Oct. 20.
INMATES AND IMMIGRANTS
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 guards.
In an area largely dependent on immigrant farm labor, U.S. 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.
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, another California Democrat accompanying the governor, 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.
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.
Even with the ever-present danger of wildfires in California, where many prepare bags for quick evacuation, the ferocity of these fires stunned residents.
“Everything went up like a blow torch. No warnings. No firemen. Just neighbors honking horns,” said Steve Spencer, who, with his wife Kay, lost their home in the Coffey Park neighborhood.
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/ca...-kill-at-least-40-deadliest-in-state-history/
Retweeted Breaking411 News (@breaking411):
#BREAKING: California ‘horror’ fires kill at least 40 — deadliest in...
14 Oct 2017 at 23:16 ET
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 40, with hundreds of people still missing.
More than 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 40 confirmed fatalities, including 22 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.
“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 said on a visit to a devastated 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.
Janis and Roberto Lucha joined scores of people lining up at a temporary Federal Emergency Management Agency office in Santa Rosa, seeking help after losing their home of 27 years in the city’s Coffey Park neighborhood, where most homes burned to the ground.
Molly Kurland, 63, has lived in her Santa Rosa home for nearly as long and her house was still standing. She joined a packed community meeting with worried residents at the Santa Rosa High School gymnasium.
“Even for people who haven’t lost their house, the uncertainty and anxiety is tremendous,” she said. “We are seeing the places where we shop for groceries disappear. My favorite restaurant is gone.”
GLIMMERS OF HOPE
There were some glimmers of hope as winds weakened and firefighters made progress with blazes such as the Cascade Fire, about 80 miles northeast of Santa Rosa, which was nearly 10,000 acres and 87 percent contained on Saturday, Cal Fire said.
Winds are expected to weaken overnight, which should help in fighting the fires but high temperatures and dry conditions that feed the fires will remain through the weekend, forecasters said.
”This is still very much in play. The danger is still very present,” said U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, a Democrat from California, who accompanied Brown on the visit.
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 affected area with fire retardant, officials said. Aircraft have dropped more than 2 million gallons (7.6 million liters) of fire retardant.
Cal Fire had estimated the fires would be contained by Oct. 20.
INMATES AND IMMIGRANTS
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 guards.
In an area largely dependent on immigrant farm labor, U.S. 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.
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, another California Democrat accompanying the governor, 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.
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.
Even with the ever-present danger of wildfires in California, where many prepare bags for quick evacuation, the ferocity of these fires stunned residents.
“Everything went up like a blow torch. No warnings. No firemen. Just neighbors honking horns,” said Steve Spencer, who, with his wife Kay, lost their home in the Coffey Park neighborhood.
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/ca...-kill-at-least-40-deadliest-in-state-history/
Be Well
may all be well
http://goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntim...with-40-deaths-and-5-700-structures-destroyed
CAL FIRE California Statewide Fire Summary for Sunday Morning, October 15, 2017 – 15 Large Wildfires Have Burned Over 217,000 Acres with 40 Deaths and 5,700 Structures Destroyed
Last Updated: Sunday, 15 October 2017 08:37
October 15, 2017 - Yesterday, nearly 11,000 firefighters beat back the flames and made good progress towards the containment of now 15 large wildfires across California. 217,566 acres have burned in the current 15 large fires, with an estimated 5,700 structures destroyed. Sadly, the death toll has risen to 40 people. As progress has been made on several fronts, many evacuations have been able to be lifted. As of Sunday morning, nearly 75,000 people remain evacuated.
Winds across Northern California have been fairly light this morning and the earlier Red Flag Warnings for the area will be lifted at 8a.m. In Southern California, Red Flag Warnings remain in effect due to gusty winds, low humidity and high fire danger. The winds are likely to continue throughout the day.
Residents are urged to be prepared for wildfires now. Learn more by visiting www.ReadyForWildfire.org.
List of all fires is at link, with links to get details to each fire. Won't copy, very long but will copy first one, more are getting contained thankfully.
Fires of Interest:
**CAL FIRE Incidents**
CENTRAL LNU COMPLEX (4 fires)
In unified command with Santa Rosa Fire Department & Sonoma County Sheriff
CAL FIRE Incident Management Team assigned
20 civilian fatalities
Tubbs Fire, Sonoma and Napa Counties(more info…)
Between Calistoga and Santa Rosa
35,470 acres, 60% contained
Significant number of structures destroyed
CAL FIRE California Statewide Fire Summary for Sunday Morning, October 15, 2017 – 15 Large Wildfires Have Burned Over 217,000 Acres with 40 Deaths and 5,700 Structures Destroyed
Last Updated: Sunday, 15 October 2017 08:37
October 15, 2017 - Yesterday, nearly 11,000 firefighters beat back the flames and made good progress towards the containment of now 15 large wildfires across California. 217,566 acres have burned in the current 15 large fires, with an estimated 5,700 structures destroyed. Sadly, the death toll has risen to 40 people. As progress has been made on several fronts, many evacuations have been able to be lifted. As of Sunday morning, nearly 75,000 people remain evacuated.
Winds across Northern California have been fairly light this morning and the earlier Red Flag Warnings for the area will be lifted at 8a.m. In Southern California, Red Flag Warnings remain in effect due to gusty winds, low humidity and high fire danger. The winds are likely to continue throughout the day.
Residents are urged to be prepared for wildfires now. Learn more by visiting www.ReadyForWildfire.org.
List of all fires is at link, with links to get details to each fire. Won't copy, very long but will copy first one, more are getting contained thankfully.
Fires of Interest:
**CAL FIRE Incidents**
CENTRAL LNU COMPLEX (4 fires)
In unified command with Santa Rosa Fire Department & Sonoma County Sheriff
CAL FIRE Incident Management Team assigned
20 civilian fatalities
Tubbs Fire, Sonoma and Napa Counties(more info…)
Between Calistoga and Santa Rosa
35,470 acres, 60% contained
Significant number of structures destroyed
Be Well
may all be well
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-fires-20171014-story.html
Death toll rises to 40 as firefighters continue to battle massive California wildfires
Firefighters monitor flames threatening the Oakmont community along Highway 12 in Santa Rosa. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Joseph Serna, Laura J. Nelson, Chris Megerian, Sonali Kohli
October 15 2017 8:00 AM
As the death toll rose to 40, firefighters struggled to get the upper hand against several massive wildfires that have ravaged Northern California for almost a week.
The winds that bedeviled firefighters Saturday are expected to die down Sunday, allowing firefighters to go back on the offense after a day of new evacuations. Cooler temperatures are also forecast.
Officials said Sunday they are making good progress on the Tubbs and Atlas fires. which are both more than 50% contained. Firefighters will concentrate their forces on the Nuns fire, which is 30% contained. There was some concern the Tubbs and Nuns fires could merge.
It was a different story Saturday, when strong winds kicked up overnight in the central Napa Valley region, causing some fires to spread and triggering evacuations in Sonoma and elsewhere, officials said.
Fire officials feared that winds forecast for Saturday would be similar to those that stoked the first flames on Oct. 8 and that have since exploded to more than 15 fires that have scorched 220,000 acres, destroyed an estimated 5,700 structures and caused at least 40 deaths.
Despite low humidity and red flag warnings throughout the region, however, the winds appeared to calm down Saturday afternoon, aiding firefighters who have been battling the fire around the clock, officials said.
Officials warned that the biggest threat remains the low humidity, with the dry air continuing to transform grass and vegetation into fuel.
“It’s been drying out the mountains,” said National Weather Service forecaster Steve Anderson. “It’s still going to be bone-dry out there overnight.”
Northerly winds, similar to Southern California’s Santa Ana winds, are expected to move across the region at about 15 mph overnight with some 25 mph gusts, he said. Temperatures are expected to drop into the mid-40s overnight, with temperatures expected to hover in the mid-80s Sunday.
More than 10,000 firefighters from California and other states are fighting the fires in Northern California, said Dave Teter of the California Dpeartment of Forestry and Fire Protection, and officials are readying more crews in Southern California, where red flag warnings are in place through Sunday.
Firefighting efforts include 880 fire engines, 134 bulldozers, 224 hand crews and 138 water tenders, Teter said. At first light Saturday, 14 helicopters were in the air conducting water drops.
During a night of strong winds, the 46,000-acre Nuns fire in Sonoma County grew by at least 300 acres, threatening the outskirts of the city of Sonoma and the Oakmont neighborhood in Santa Rosa. It was 10% contained as of Saturday, and had destroyed some buildings in the city of Sonoma.
Firefighters were asleep in Healdsburg early Saturday morning when they got the call around 3:30 a.m.: Get over to the Oakmont neighborhood of Santa Rosa.
High winds had sent the Nuns fire branching toward the city, which had already been devastated by the Tubbs fire earlier in the week. Another branch was heading toward the city of Sonoma.
When firefighters arrived, police were helping to evacuate the area.
"I don't think I've ever seen that many cop cars Code 3," CalFire spokesman Jeff Allen said, meaning they were flashing their lights and blaring their sirens.
The firefighters headed up the ridge in the darkness, trying to hold the flames at bay with hoses and shovels. When the sun came up, air tankers and helicopters started dropping fire retardant and water. Bulldozers cut through the earth to create fire breaks and firefighters set backfires to slow the blaze's advance.
They were helped by the weather as winds started to slow later in the morning.
The ridge remained blanketed with smoke late Saturday morning as helicopters circled. Occasionally a tall tree would become engulfed, and flickers of flames would be briefly visible from the road.
An offshoot of the Nuns fire, which ignited early Saturday when a downed power line touched a tree branch, has grown from 300 acres to more than 400 acres in several hours near Oakmont, Cal Fire operations section chief Steve Crawford said Saturday afternoon. Flames were pushing east, and closer to Highway 12, he said.
Firefighters are also working to hold flames back from reaching the outskirts of Sonoma. The wind “has hit us pretty hard, and there’s a pretty good firefight going on in the field right now,” Crawford said. Winds have also stopped some air tankers from making water drops on flames closer to St. Helena, Crawford said.
Twenty-two people have died in the Tubbs fire in Sonoma County, eight in Mendocino County, four in Yuba County and six in Napa County.
Napa County officials identified two new victims of the Atlas fire as George Chaney, 89, and Edward Stone, 79. The two men owned a house in the 2300 block of Atlas Peak Road, where officials found their bodies Thursday, county spokeswoman Molly Rattigan said.
Much of their neighborhood was reduced to debris after the Atlas fire scorched 50,403 acres. The fire, which continued to threaten about 5,000 homes,, was 48% contained Saturday evening.
All around, the view was one of entire hillsides charred black and some wineries with nothing but brick frames and melted equipment.
Just down the road from the house where Chaney and Stone were found, one spot remained untouched by the fire: the Bubbling Well Pet Memorial Park, a pet cemetery on Atlas Peak Road. The park was still covered in lush, bright green grass.
The sound of its babbling brook was interrupted intermittently with the sound of a firetruck or utility crew's diesel engine powering up the mountain to extinguish hot spots or continue the arduous task of reconnecting the mountain residents’ homes to the valley city below.
On Saturday afternoon, a deer and two fawn found shady refuge under an oak tree as smoke from the Nuns fire could be seen rising from the hills on the other side of Napa Valley.
One of the wettest winters on record, followed by the hottest summer on record, has created possibly the worst potential for fire in Napa County that the state has seen, a Cal Fire spokesman said Saturday.
Experts use a scientific formula to determine the potential of a fire, called the energy release component, said Cal Fire spokesman Mike Smith. On Saturday, that potential was the worst “in recorded history,” Smith said.
Crews have not seen this amount of fuel this dry in the path of a fire in at least 26 years, he said.
“Today is going to be a much different day than you’ve experienced unless you were here” from the beginning, Tom Wright of the National Weather Service told fire crews in Napa at a Saturday morning briefing. “It’s a really critical day.”
The Atlas fire saw 35-mph winds over ridge tops Friday night, blowing to the south and southwest.
The fire is continuing a slow march north toward Lake Berryessa, Smith said. The fire spread slightly along its southern and northwestern edges overnight, officials said Saturday morning. The strongest containment lines have been built around the southern and western faces of the fire, closest to the city of Napa.
But Napa County officials expressed optimism at a Saturday news conference, saying they were confident that the Atlas fire would remain under control. Around 9 a.m., as supervisor Belia Ramos spoke, winds were light and no new evacuations were expected.
No one was going to be allowed into the evacuation areas Saturday, officials said, because Caltrans was spending the day trying to restore the roads.
The National Guard has been called in to help the California Highway Patrol block the roads, as Caltrans crews in the hills work to remove rocks, mud, burned trees, fallen branches and downed power lines, CHP Capt. Chris Childs said.
Locals have been urged to avoid trying to help the cleanup. The county public health director declared a local emergency in order to bring in more resources to remove toxic ash and burnt remnants of homes and cars.
Of 224 people unaccounted for in Napa County, 146 have been found safe, four have been identified as dead and 74 remain missing, Rattigan said.
But the combination of high winds and high temperatures raises the potential for burn areas to expand quickly, officials said.Crews continued to gain ground against the 35,270-acre Tubbs fire, which is 44% contained. The nearly 11,000-acre Pocket fire, east of Geyserville, is 5% contained.
In Mendocino County, the 34,000-acre Redwood fire was 20% contained as of Saturday.
Taken together, the death toll from the wildfires in wine country has exceeded that of the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, which totaled 25. The Cedar fire, which swept through San Diego County in 2003, killed 15 people and destroyed more than 2,800 structures.
Officials expect the death toll to rise as search efforts continue in neighborhoods from Santa Rosa to the hills of Napa County.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is conducting damage assessments, providing aid to local agencies and offering federal funding to residents affected by the fire, the agency announced Saturday.
The road to repair will be a long one. In Napa near Atlas Peak Road, 51-year-old Robert Vickham controlled the traffic flow on a two-lane highway with a sign as his colleagues at Traffic Management Inc. methodically cut down eucalyptus trees lining its edges.
"We're going to be here for weeks," the Pittsburg resident said. "I'm 51 and been in California my whole life, and I've never seen a fire this bad."
Teams like Vickham's dotted the Atlas fire’s burn scar area first hit by the flames last weekend. Slowly but surely, every tree in the way of a damaged utility line is going to come down, he said, with tall brown power poles down the hill waiting to fill in the gaps.
Gov. Jerry Brown and U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris visited affected areas of Sonoma County on Saturday. Brown has declared a state of emergency for Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Yuba, Butte, Lake, Mendocino and Orange counties. The Canyon 2 fire in Anaheim Hills was 70% contained as of Saturday morning.
"The devastation is just unbelievable. I just drove by hundreds of houses that were totally destroyed,” Brown said during a news conference at Santa Rosa High School on Saturday afternoon.
Harris shared her awe after their tour of the devastated areas.
"It's unpredictable. It skips over certain houses. It's not logical in the way that it burns," she said.
Despite the visits, there’s often little politicians can do on the ground when wildfires strike besides comfort people who lost their homes and monitor emergency efforts to make sure they’re getting the help they need. But Assemblyman Jim Wood has another job.
“Most of my work is in the morgue at this point,” he said.
A Democrat from Healdsburg, Wood also is a dentist who is helping law enforcement identify victims of the deadly fires in Northern California.
Wood represents an enormous, mostly rural district stretching from Santa Rosa to the Oregon border in the north. There aren’t many people in the country with his skills and experience. So when the latest fires started, he said, “I knew at some point I would be called.”
It’s the kind of work he’s done with sheriff’s offices in counties like Mendocino and Sonoma for years.
Sometimes bodies are recovered mostly intact. Other times, there are only bone fragments.
It’s slow work, and getting the right dental records to identify the remains can be difficult.
“It’s a process that will take awhile,” Wood said.
At a time when distraught families are desperate for information about missing loved ones, Wood said he is grateful there’s something he can do to help those families.
“There’s times we’re all standing around wondering what to do,” he said. The dental work, Wood said, “gives me a sense of purpose.”
Death toll rises to 40 as firefighters continue to battle massive California wildfires
Firefighters monitor flames threatening the Oakmont community along Highway 12 in Santa Rosa. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Joseph Serna, Laura J. Nelson, Chris Megerian, Sonali Kohli
October 15 2017 8:00 AM
As the death toll rose to 40, firefighters struggled to get the upper hand against several massive wildfires that have ravaged Northern California for almost a week.
The winds that bedeviled firefighters Saturday are expected to die down Sunday, allowing firefighters to go back on the offense after a day of new evacuations. Cooler temperatures are also forecast.
Officials said Sunday they are making good progress on the Tubbs and Atlas fires. which are both more than 50% contained. Firefighters will concentrate their forces on the Nuns fire, which is 30% contained. There was some concern the Tubbs and Nuns fires could merge.
It was a different story Saturday, when strong winds kicked up overnight in the central Napa Valley region, causing some fires to spread and triggering evacuations in Sonoma and elsewhere, officials said.
Fire officials feared that winds forecast for Saturday would be similar to those that stoked the first flames on Oct. 8 and that have since exploded to more than 15 fires that have scorched 220,000 acres, destroyed an estimated 5,700 structures and caused at least 40 deaths.
Despite low humidity and red flag warnings throughout the region, however, the winds appeared to calm down Saturday afternoon, aiding firefighters who have been battling the fire around the clock, officials said.
Officials warned that the biggest threat remains the low humidity, with the dry air continuing to transform grass and vegetation into fuel.
“It’s been drying out the mountains,” said National Weather Service forecaster Steve Anderson. “It’s still going to be bone-dry out there overnight.”
Northerly winds, similar to Southern California’s Santa Ana winds, are expected to move across the region at about 15 mph overnight with some 25 mph gusts, he said. Temperatures are expected to drop into the mid-40s overnight, with temperatures expected to hover in the mid-80s Sunday.
More than 10,000 firefighters from California and other states are fighting the fires in Northern California, said Dave Teter of the California Dpeartment of Forestry and Fire Protection, and officials are readying more crews in Southern California, where red flag warnings are in place through Sunday.
Firefighting efforts include 880 fire engines, 134 bulldozers, 224 hand crews and 138 water tenders, Teter said. At first light Saturday, 14 helicopters were in the air conducting water drops.
During a night of strong winds, the 46,000-acre Nuns fire in Sonoma County grew by at least 300 acres, threatening the outskirts of the city of Sonoma and the Oakmont neighborhood in Santa Rosa. It was 10% contained as of Saturday, and had destroyed some buildings in the city of Sonoma.
Firefighters were asleep in Healdsburg early Saturday morning when they got the call around 3:30 a.m.: Get over to the Oakmont neighborhood of Santa Rosa.
High winds had sent the Nuns fire branching toward the city, which had already been devastated by the Tubbs fire earlier in the week. Another branch was heading toward the city of Sonoma.
When firefighters arrived, police were helping to evacuate the area.
"I don't think I've ever seen that many cop cars Code 3," CalFire spokesman Jeff Allen said, meaning they were flashing their lights and blaring their sirens.
The firefighters headed up the ridge in the darkness, trying to hold the flames at bay with hoses and shovels. When the sun came up, air tankers and helicopters started dropping fire retardant and water. Bulldozers cut through the earth to create fire breaks and firefighters set backfires to slow the blaze's advance.
They were helped by the weather as winds started to slow later in the morning.
The ridge remained blanketed with smoke late Saturday morning as helicopters circled. Occasionally a tall tree would become engulfed, and flickers of flames would be briefly visible from the road.
An offshoot of the Nuns fire, which ignited early Saturday when a downed power line touched a tree branch, has grown from 300 acres to more than 400 acres in several hours near Oakmont, Cal Fire operations section chief Steve Crawford said Saturday afternoon. Flames were pushing east, and closer to Highway 12, he said.
Firefighters are also working to hold flames back from reaching the outskirts of Sonoma. The wind “has hit us pretty hard, and there’s a pretty good firefight going on in the field right now,” Crawford said. Winds have also stopped some air tankers from making water drops on flames closer to St. Helena, Crawford said.
Twenty-two people have died in the Tubbs fire in Sonoma County, eight in Mendocino County, four in Yuba County and six in Napa County.
Napa County officials identified two new victims of the Atlas fire as George Chaney, 89, and Edward Stone, 79. The two men owned a house in the 2300 block of Atlas Peak Road, where officials found their bodies Thursday, county spokeswoman Molly Rattigan said.
Much of their neighborhood was reduced to debris after the Atlas fire scorched 50,403 acres. The fire, which continued to threaten about 5,000 homes,, was 48% contained Saturday evening.
All around, the view was one of entire hillsides charred black and some wineries with nothing but brick frames and melted equipment.
Just down the road from the house where Chaney and Stone were found, one spot remained untouched by the fire: the Bubbling Well Pet Memorial Park, a pet cemetery on Atlas Peak Road. The park was still covered in lush, bright green grass.
The sound of its babbling brook was interrupted intermittently with the sound of a firetruck or utility crew's diesel engine powering up the mountain to extinguish hot spots or continue the arduous task of reconnecting the mountain residents’ homes to the valley city below.
On Saturday afternoon, a deer and two fawn found shady refuge under an oak tree as smoke from the Nuns fire could be seen rising from the hills on the other side of Napa Valley.
One of the wettest winters on record, followed by the hottest summer on record, has created possibly the worst potential for fire in Napa County that the state has seen, a Cal Fire spokesman said Saturday.
Experts use a scientific formula to determine the potential of a fire, called the energy release component, said Cal Fire spokesman Mike Smith. On Saturday, that potential was the worst “in recorded history,” Smith said.
Crews have not seen this amount of fuel this dry in the path of a fire in at least 26 years, he said.
“Today is going to be a much different day than you’ve experienced unless you were here” from the beginning, Tom Wright of the National Weather Service told fire crews in Napa at a Saturday morning briefing. “It’s a really critical day.”
The Atlas fire saw 35-mph winds over ridge tops Friday night, blowing to the south and southwest.
The fire is continuing a slow march north toward Lake Berryessa, Smith said. The fire spread slightly along its southern and northwestern edges overnight, officials said Saturday morning. The strongest containment lines have been built around the southern and western faces of the fire, closest to the city of Napa.
But Napa County officials expressed optimism at a Saturday news conference, saying they were confident that the Atlas fire would remain under control. Around 9 a.m., as supervisor Belia Ramos spoke, winds were light and no new evacuations were expected.
No one was going to be allowed into the evacuation areas Saturday, officials said, because Caltrans was spending the day trying to restore the roads.
The National Guard has been called in to help the California Highway Patrol block the roads, as Caltrans crews in the hills work to remove rocks, mud, burned trees, fallen branches and downed power lines, CHP Capt. Chris Childs said.
Locals have been urged to avoid trying to help the cleanup. The county public health director declared a local emergency in order to bring in more resources to remove toxic ash and burnt remnants of homes and cars.
Of 224 people unaccounted for in Napa County, 146 have been found safe, four have been identified as dead and 74 remain missing, Rattigan said.
But the combination of high winds and high temperatures raises the potential for burn areas to expand quickly, officials said.Crews continued to gain ground against the 35,270-acre Tubbs fire, which is 44% contained. The nearly 11,000-acre Pocket fire, east of Geyserville, is 5% contained.
In Mendocino County, the 34,000-acre Redwood fire was 20% contained as of Saturday.
Taken together, the death toll from the wildfires in wine country has exceeded that of the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, which totaled 25. The Cedar fire, which swept through San Diego County in 2003, killed 15 people and destroyed more than 2,800 structures.
Officials expect the death toll to rise as search efforts continue in neighborhoods from Santa Rosa to the hills of Napa County.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is conducting damage assessments, providing aid to local agencies and offering federal funding to residents affected by the fire, the agency announced Saturday.
The road to repair will be a long one. In Napa near Atlas Peak Road, 51-year-old Robert Vickham controlled the traffic flow on a two-lane highway with a sign as his colleagues at Traffic Management Inc. methodically cut down eucalyptus trees lining its edges.
"We're going to be here for weeks," the Pittsburg resident said. "I'm 51 and been in California my whole life, and I've never seen a fire this bad."
Teams like Vickham's dotted the Atlas fire’s burn scar area first hit by the flames last weekend. Slowly but surely, every tree in the way of a damaged utility line is going to come down, he said, with tall brown power poles down the hill waiting to fill in the gaps.
Gov. Jerry Brown and U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris visited affected areas of Sonoma County on Saturday. Brown has declared a state of emergency for Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Yuba, Butte, Lake, Mendocino and Orange counties. The Canyon 2 fire in Anaheim Hills was 70% contained as of Saturday morning.
"The devastation is just unbelievable. I just drove by hundreds of houses that were totally destroyed,” Brown said during a news conference at Santa Rosa High School on Saturday afternoon.
Harris shared her awe after their tour of the devastated areas.
"It's unpredictable. It skips over certain houses. It's not logical in the way that it burns," she said.
Despite the visits, there’s often little politicians can do on the ground when wildfires strike besides comfort people who lost their homes and monitor emergency efforts to make sure they’re getting the help they need. But Assemblyman Jim Wood has another job.
“Most of my work is in the morgue at this point,” he said.
A Democrat from Healdsburg, Wood also is a dentist who is helping law enforcement identify victims of the deadly fires in Northern California.
Wood represents an enormous, mostly rural district stretching from Santa Rosa to the Oregon border in the north. There aren’t many people in the country with his skills and experience. So when the latest fires started, he said, “I knew at some point I would be called.”
It’s the kind of work he’s done with sheriff’s offices in counties like Mendocino and Sonoma for years.
Sometimes bodies are recovered mostly intact. Other times, there are only bone fragments.
It’s slow work, and getting the right dental records to identify the remains can be difficult.
“It’s a process that will take awhile,” Wood said.
At a time when distraught families are desperate for information about missing loved ones, Wood said he is grateful there’s something he can do to help those families.
“There’s times we’re all standing around wondering what to do,” he said. The dental work, Wood said, “gives me a sense of purpose.”
Melodi
Disaster Cat
I couldn't really post from my phone, but my friend that I was traveling with (we were on a tour and she was my roommate) had to evacuate during the Firestorm of 1992 and two houses on her block burned down.
We spent a lot of time in small German Alpine towns trying to get the wifii to work and ending up with me trying to find a phone mast so she could get news; her adult son wisely wrote her an e-mail asking where the important papers were and if there was anything beside his list that he should pack IF the fires broke out again in the Oakland/Berkley hills which thankfully they have not - but it made for a bit of stress on the trip.
Also dear friends of mine have their retirement home in one of the areas that IS affected; the good news was a I knew they were OK because they were at the Madrid airport the night this broke out but the bad news was I had no idea if their home was OK (and probably neither did they).
Since they are now posting Spain second honeymoon photos I am guessing either the house is OK or they don't want to talk about it (they don't live in it full time yet) but I am keeping my fingers crossed for them.
These fires are just horrific and they can spread faster than you can ever imagine unless you have experienced one up close and personal; there is a poem about my friend's house that didn't burn but nearly did and the story of their evacuation.
A coastal area (Berkeley) the haunting refrain is:
"And the mist is burning, Burning..."
I hope the rains come soon!
We spent a lot of time in small German Alpine towns trying to get the wifii to work and ending up with me trying to find a phone mast so she could get news; her adult son wisely wrote her an e-mail asking where the important papers were and if there was anything beside his list that he should pack IF the fires broke out again in the Oakland/Berkley hills which thankfully they have not - but it made for a bit of stress on the trip.
Also dear friends of mine have their retirement home in one of the areas that IS affected; the good news was a I knew they were OK because they were at the Madrid airport the night this broke out but the bad news was I had no idea if their home was OK (and probably neither did they).
Since they are now posting Spain second honeymoon photos I am guessing either the house is OK or they don't want to talk about it (they don't live in it full time yet) but I am keeping my fingers crossed for them.
These fires are just horrific and they can spread faster than you can ever imagine unless you have experienced one up close and personal; there is a poem about my friend's house that didn't burn but nearly did and the story of their evacuation.
A coastal area (Berkeley) the haunting refrain is:
"And the mist is burning, Burning..."
I hope the rains come soon!
Sleeping Cobra
TB Fanatic
Hopefully Bohemian Grove was burned down. Everyone knows what that place is.
Be Well
may all be well
Melodi, the forecast for the general Napa/Sonoma etc areas are chance of rain on Thursday, rain likely Thursday night and showers Friday. I hope it comes down heavily. Link below is for Santa Rosa but I've moved the cursor around and the rain will be in a pretty wide area.
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=38.4379&lon=-122.7124#.WeO8TYi1uM8
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=38.4379&lon=-122.7124#.WeO8TYi1uM8
Melodi
Disaster Cat
Thank you, my friend's son updated us on that yesterday morning but it was still too early to be sure if the front would move in; one thing about these sorts of fires is you need HEAVY SOAKING RAIN; which doesn't happen much this time of year.
Just a little rain with high winds and thunder just make the real fire storms worse because there isn't enough water to put them out but there is enough wind to fan the flames higher and lightning to start more fires.
In reality, this sort of fire is "normal" for California; before the Europeans came the Natives would actually encourage them up to a point because after an area burned it grew back more lush and with better hunting and gathering than before (provided you could run away in time and not be killed by the fire). But these days people live in permanent settlements, houses, farms, ranches, wineries, etc that are now all in the path of these flaming walls of destruction.
And, as my friend put it, "the other side" of the heavy rain last Winter meant more vegetation to burn this year....pray for good soaking rain...
marsh
On TB every waking moment
Latest update from CALFire (15 min) https://www.facebook.com/CALFIRE/videos/10155844154807390/
11,000 firefighters all over the US and international
50 large fires
217,000 tot acres
5,700 structures burned
40 fatalities
oakmont and tubbs fire are starting up again. winds not as bad as expected and weather looking better.
possibility of rain thurs and fri
Calistoga avoidance looking better
good containment on the eastern fires.
Canyon Fire in Orange Co is 70% containment.
Fire in Trinity Co is only 25% contained.
11,000 firefighters all over the US and international
50 large fires
217,000 tot acres
5,700 structures burned
40 fatalities
oakmont and tubbs fire are starting up again. winds not as bad as expected and weather looking better.
possibility of rain thurs and fri
Calistoga avoidance looking better
good containment on the eastern fires.
Canyon Fire in Orange Co is 70% containment.
Fire in Trinity Co is only 25% contained.
Be Well
may all be well
I didn't know there was a fire in Trinity Co too. Just talked to DH but not for long as he's having trouble charging up his cell phone. Will tell me tomorrow if he learns anything about what's happening, hopefully the rain even if not soaking hugely, will dampen the area to make fighting the fire easier, less spread etc.
Be Well
may all be well
I saw this elsewhere - posting part of the article. What interested me was one of the videos (can't embed) - it's called Berkeley Firefighter Video - an engine from Berkeley was called to assist the night the fires started and they had no idea how bad it was, and took video as they rolled into Santa Rose. Well worth watching. Scroll down a little and there are several videos, this is the Berkely FF one I watched. I'd embed if I could.
http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/how-to-help-north-bay-fires-napa-santa-rosa-12264095.php
How you can help people affected by the North Bay fires (or get help if you are an evacuee)
By Katie Dowd, SFGATE Updated 6:18 pm, Sunday, October 15, 2017
As the scope of the enormous Wine Country fires becomes apparent, it's clear that people and pets will need help in the days, weeks and months to come. If you're looking to assist, we've broken down some ways you can help both right now and any time:
HOW TO HELP RIGHT NOW:
• Santa Rosa has currently met its immediate requirement for volunteers, but they ask that people interested in volunteering or donating as-needed sign up with the Red Cross. The Red Cross has a sign-in sheet here. For Sonoma County, you may call 707-573-3399 if you're hoping to volunteer.
• The Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership has also been called in to help. As of Oct. 13, they are temporarily suspending new volunteer sign-ups, but for the latest updates check CVNL's Facebook page.
• Do not call emergency services unless you see active, unattended flames or a life-threatening situation. Emergency services around the Bay Area are overwhelmed right now, and do not need more calls unless you have an immediate emergency.
• Stay off the roads, if possible. You are hindering emergency vehicles and urgent evacuees from getting through.
(much more to the article about local stuff.)
Also a photo gallery with 93 photos, worth looking at if you are interested.
http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/how-to-help-north-bay-fires-napa-santa-rosa-12264095.php
How you can help people affected by the North Bay fires (or get help if you are an evacuee)
By Katie Dowd, SFGATE Updated 6:18 pm, Sunday, October 15, 2017
As the scope of the enormous Wine Country fires becomes apparent, it's clear that people and pets will need help in the days, weeks and months to come. If you're looking to assist, we've broken down some ways you can help both right now and any time:
HOW TO HELP RIGHT NOW:
• Santa Rosa has currently met its immediate requirement for volunteers, but they ask that people interested in volunteering or donating as-needed sign up with the Red Cross. The Red Cross has a sign-in sheet here. For Sonoma County, you may call 707-573-3399 if you're hoping to volunteer.
• The Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership has also been called in to help. As of Oct. 13, they are temporarily suspending new volunteer sign-ups, but for the latest updates check CVNL's Facebook page.
• Do not call emergency services unless you see active, unattended flames or a life-threatening situation. Emergency services around the Bay Area are overwhelmed right now, and do not need more calls unless you have an immediate emergency.
• Stay off the roads, if possible. You are hindering emergency vehicles and urgent evacuees from getting through.
(much more to the article about local stuff.)
Also a photo gallery with 93 photos, worth looking at if you are interested.
Be Well
may all be well
http://calfire.ca.gov/communications/communications_StatewideFireSummary
California Statewide Fire Summary
Monday, October 16, 2017
11,000 firefighters continued to make good progress on 14 large wildfires burning
across the State, despite the fact that several new fires ignited. On the current 14
large wildfires over 213,000 acres have burned, an estimated 5,700 structures
destroyed and sadly 41 people have been killed. This morning, a private water
tender driver assigned to the Nuns Fire tragically died in a vehicle rollover on
Oakville Grade in Napa County.
As containment figures have increased, many of the evacuations across the fires in
Northern California have been lifted. Over 40,000 people remain evacuated, but
many of the evacuation orders are being reevaluated. Residents returning home are
urged to be cautious as hazardous conditions may remain. Learn more tips on how
to return home after a wildfire at www.fire.ca.gov.
The weather today is expected to be hot and with low humidity, which will continue to challenge firefighters, but only light winds are forecast. All Red Flag Warnings have been lifted.
DH called a while ago and said that they (not he and his strike team but others) are finding many DBs - confirmed.
California Statewide Fire Summary
Monday, October 16, 2017
11,000 firefighters continued to make good progress on 14 large wildfires burning
across the State, despite the fact that several new fires ignited. On the current 14
large wildfires over 213,000 acres have burned, an estimated 5,700 structures
destroyed and sadly 41 people have been killed. This morning, a private water
tender driver assigned to the Nuns Fire tragically died in a vehicle rollover on
Oakville Grade in Napa County.
As containment figures have increased, many of the evacuations across the fires in
Northern California have been lifted. Over 40,000 people remain evacuated, but
many of the evacuation orders are being reevaluated. Residents returning home are
urged to be cautious as hazardous conditions may remain. Learn more tips on how
to return home after a wildfire at www.fire.ca.gov.
The weather today is expected to be hot and with low humidity, which will continue to challenge firefighters, but only light winds are forecast. All Red Flag Warnings have been lifted.
DH called a while ago and said that they (not he and his strike team but others) are finding many DBs - confirmed.
Be Well
may all be well
Live updates: Death toll at 41 in Northern Calif. fires; 88 still missing in Sonoma County
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Live-updates-Last-missing-person-in-Yuba-County-12282065.php
Jenna Lyons, Annie Ma, and Steve Rubenstein Updated 6:20 pm, Monday, October 16, 2017
6:08 p.m. More evacuations lifted in Sonoma County: Evacuation orders were lifted for Geyserville and Healdsburg, in the area of Highway 128 between River Rock Casino and Chalk Hill Road, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office. Residents can also return the East of Windsor area east of Faught Road and East Shiloh Road outside the burn area.
The sheriff’s office also lifted the evacuation order for all of the city of Sonoma, as well as county areas north of East Napa Street to the burn area and west of Fourth Street East and Gehricke Road to Highway 12, including side the associated roads to the burn area.
5:32 p.m. Evacuation lifted in parts of Santa Rosa: The evacuation order for Bennett Valley and Annadel Heights was lifted at 5 p.m. Monday, Santa Rosa Police said.
4:44 p.m. Napa lifts another evacuation order: Napa County lifted the mandatory evacuation order for Circle Oaks and Wooden Valley Road. The area is accessible through Sage Canyon Road and Wooden Valley Road as it reopens. Wooden Valley is also accessible from Suisun Valley Road in Solano County.
4:21 p.m. Solano County Fairgrounds sheltering large animals: Volunteers are being sought to help care for more than 500 large animals, including horses and cows, that have been evacuated to the Solano County Fairgrounds, with more expected to arrive in coming days. The displaced animals have come from all over Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties. The Solano County Sheriff’s Office put out a call for volunteers with experience handling large animals and other livestock.
“This is going to be an ongoing process,” Solano County Sheriff Thomas Ferrara said. “I don’t expect that operation to shut down any time soon.”
Those interested in volunteering must be at least 18 years. Anyone interesting in helping can call (707) 551-2008 for more information.
3:15 p.m. Santa Rosa Memorial clinics open: Outpatient and elective surgery services have resumed at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. The emergency room, which did not close, has been been treating about twice the normal number of patients, primarily those suffering with respiratory ailments, hospital staff said Monday.
2:45 p.m. Napa Valley College to reopen next Monday: Napa Valley College will resume classes on Monday, October 23, the college announced. Its three campus evacuation shelters will close on Tuesday. Faculty and staff will meet on campus on Thursday and Friday.
2:30 p.m. Mandatory evacuation lifted in parts of Napa County: The Napa County Sheriff’s office lifted the mandatory evacuation in the Berryessa Highlands Community, along Highway 128 from Silverado Trail to the Napa County Line at the Monticello Dam. The evacuation order was lifted at 2 p.m. Monday. Residents can access the area through Sage Canyon Road or from the Winters area.
1:55 p.m. Number of missing keeps dropping in Sonoma County: The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said that the number of people missing has dropped to 88 on Monday afternoon, down from 99 reported earlier in the day.
1:30 p.m. Advisory for Portable Generators: Returning homeowners should use portable generators to power individual appliances and pieces of equipment, but should not use them to power their entire house. Doing so creates problems for Pacific Gas and Electric crews attempting to restore power in the affected areas, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.
1:25 p.m. Kaiser Santa Rosa partially reopens: Medical buildings 1 and 2 and the pharmacy at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center at 401 Bicentennial Way, Santa Rosa, have reopened. The hospital and emergency room remain closed.
1:10 p.m. Smoke Advisory for North Bay and East Bay: Unhealthy air quality caused by wildfire smoke means that old and young people, and those with respiratory illnesses should stay indoors or move out of some parts of the North Bay and East Bay Unhealthy air was measured in Sebastopol on Monday and unhealthy air for sensitive persons was measured in Napa, Berkeley and Oakland.
12:10 p.m. More evacuation orders lifted in Sonoma County: Residents of Bennett Valley Road, of the area east of Petaluma Hill Road, and of parts of Kenwood, of Boyes Hot Springs, Glen Ellen and parts of the city of Sonoma may return home, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said.
11 a.m. Last missing person found in Yuba County: Everyone who evacuated the region ahead of the deadly Cascade Fire in Yuba County has been accounted for, county officials said Monday. The last missing person was confirmed safe over the weekend, said Russ Brown, a Yuba County spokesman. There were more than a hundred welfare checks performed in the aftermath of the wildfire but only four of those calls had escalated to missing persons cases, Brown said. Of those, three of them were fatalities.
The fourth case — resolved by Saturday— was someone who went out of town and lost contact with the person who called in the report, Brown said.
A total of four people died in the nearly 10,000-acre Cascade Fire that broke out on Cascade Way and Marysville Road north of Collins Lake about 11 p.m. Sunday, according to Cal Fire. The first person who died was not reported missing but was found after their car ran off the road and crashed, trapping the driver in the wildfire zone.
All evacuation orders for Yuba County residents had been lifted by 5 p.m. Friday. The fire, which was 96 percent contained on Monday, destroyed 143 homes, Brown said.
10:10 a.m. All boil water notices lifted in city of Napa: All routine water operations have resumed in Napa, city officials announced Monday morning. Advisories asking residents to boil potentially contaminated tap water when cooking or drinking are no longer in effect. The measure was put in place because infrastructure damage during the wildfires could have possibly tainted water. Anyone who has water-related issues should call (707) 257-9521.
9:30 a.m. More Mendocino County residents return home: Some residents in Redwood Valley and Willits in Mendocino County and in the Lake Pillsbury Basin of Lake County were allowed to return to their neighborhoods Monday morning, officials said.
In Redwood Valley, where eight people were killed in wildfires, residents in all areas of the Cave Creek subdivision can re-enter the neighborhood, including those along Scenic Drive, Appaloosa Way, Cave Creek Road and feeder roads into the area. An evacuation warning remains for the area.
All other areas of Redwood Valley are no longer under evacuation warning.
All Willits residents can re-enter their neighborhoods. While an evacuation warning is still in effect for the Pine Mountain Estates in Willits, residents there are allowed to return home, according to Mendocino County Sheriff’s officials.
In Lake County, all areas within the Lake Pillsbury Basin are no longer under an evacuation warning and is reopened to the public.
9 a.m. More than 40,000 remain evacuated in Northern California wildfires: As some evacuees are gradually given the green light to return home, more than 40,000 remain evacuated, according to a Monday morning Cal Fire report.
What was once more than 20 wildfires statewide have merged and consolidated to 14 large wildfires burning. Forty-one people, including a firefighter killed in a Napa County crash near the Nuns Fire Monday morning, have died in the fires.
An estimated 5,700 structures have been burned as wildfires blackened more than 200,000 acres of land.
8 a.m. Firefighter killed in tanker crash: A water tanker crashed on a winding Napa County road near where firefighters are battling the northern edge of the Nuns Fire, and the driver was killed, officials said.
The crash happened around 7 a.m. on Oakville Grade west of Highway 29 north of Yountville, California Highway Patrol officials said. The tanker was going downhill when it lost control, went down an embankment and overturned, the CHP said.
The driver was a contract firefighter, the CHP said. The firefighter’s name has not been released.
7:15 a.m. Firefighters making progress: The Atlas Fire is now 68 percent contained — up from 56 percent containment on Sunday. Over the past 24 hours, it grew in size by only 7 acres, to 51,064 acres.
“Firefighters continue to strengthen perimeter control lines, provide structure defense and engage in tactical patrol,” Cal Fire said in a statement. The Nuns / Adobe / Norbbom/ Pressley / Partrick Fires, at 48,627 acres, are now 50 percent contained, and the Tubbs Fire, at 36,390 acres, is 70 percent contained.
6:20 a.m. Missing persons reports down to double digits in Sonoma County: Of the nearly 2,000 missing persons reports stemming from deadly wildfires in Sonoma County, only 99 of those reports remain outstanding, officials said Monday.
The county received 1,853 missing persons reports since the fires broke out on Oct. 8, but the majority of those people have since been found safe. Many of the reports could be duplicates, in which several people call-in to report the same person missing. The bulk of the cases were resolved as cell service was restored and people reconnected with loved ones, said Deputy Brandon Jones of the county sheriff’s office.
But sheriff’s officials are meticulously investigating every report to ensure everyone is accounted for, he said. So far, 31 reports were sent to other jurisdictions, and 1,723 of the missing reports ended with the person being confirmed safe, Jones said.
“Some of these reports are like, ‘I haven’t talked to my aunt in five years and she lives in Santa Rosa,’” Jones said Monday. “Unfortunately, it’s a little bit of a misleading stat. But the way we’re doing it is the right way to do it.”
Sonoma County was the hardest hit by Northern California wildfires, accounting for 22 fatalities — the majority of the current death toll of 40.
5:50 a.m. School closures in Napa, Sonoma counties: Napa Valley Unified School District, which encompasses all public schools in the county, plans to reopen campuses for classes on Wednesday, according to a district statement.
“This date is based on a presumption that the fire situation and air quality will continue to improve and that the school buildings and staff are ready to serve students,” the statement reads. “If that is not the case, we will inform you of any changes to the plan through our established channels.”
In Sonoma County, various schools plan to reopen either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, or remain closed the whole week. A detailed list of school closures is available online.
5:30 a.m. Boil water notices still in effect for areas of Santa Rosa: Residents in parts of the Oakmont and Fountaingrove neighborhoods of Santa Rosa should continue boiling tap water before drinking or cooking, according to police.
Damaged infrastructure from deadly wildfires in the Sonoma County city possibly tainted water systems.
Fountaingrove residents who live east of Mendocino Avenue, north of Chanate Road, west of Fountaingrove Parkway, and south of Mark West Springs Road should continue the precautionary measure, authorities said.
The notice also applies to Oakmont residents who live on White Oak Drive south of Madelyne Court, including Madelyne Place, and on Oak Mesa Drive south of Starry Knoll Court, including Shooting Star Place.
5 a.m. Favorable firefighting weather, rain on the way
The winds have eased, red flag warnings have ceased and rain is on the way to regions of the North Bay devastated by deadly wildfires, according to the National Weather Service.
“The good news is winds are going to be relatively light — under 10 mph in both the valley locations and higher elevations,” Charles Bell, a meteorologist with the weather service, said Monday morning of Napa and Sonoma counties.
Conditions are a far cry from the past week when there were four days of Red Flag warnings for the North Bay — alerting the community that low humidity, gusts and higher temperatures could aid rapid spread of the region's destructive fires.
Temperatures remains unfavorable, however, with the North Bay set to record highs in the mid to upper 80s, about 10 degrees higher than normal for the season, Bell said. The air remains dry, too, with humidity in the North Bay ranging from 8 to 14 percent. The driest air around, in a desert, for instance, measures 1 percent humidity.
But the rain the region has been hoping for is on the way. The first winter storm of the season is coming from the Gulf of Alaska, and should land by late Thursday and continue overnight into Friday. Humidity should rise this week ahead of the rain, forecasters said.
Meteorologists expect two tenths of an inch of rainfall in the North Bay. One tenth of an inch — known as “wetting rain” — is significant, Bell said, so double that is “certainly welcome.”
“It’s a notable rain that can help to really tamp down fires,” Bell said. “It’s a slowing mechanism.”
Still, Bell said drivers, especially those commuting Thursday evening, should be cautious of slick roads that can cause spin-outs. Every year, car incidents abound when the first rain of the season hits.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Live-updates-Last-missing-person-in-Yuba-County-12282065.php
Jenna Lyons, Annie Ma, and Steve Rubenstein Updated 6:20 pm, Monday, October 16, 2017
6:08 p.m. More evacuations lifted in Sonoma County: Evacuation orders were lifted for Geyserville and Healdsburg, in the area of Highway 128 between River Rock Casino and Chalk Hill Road, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office. Residents can also return the East of Windsor area east of Faught Road and East Shiloh Road outside the burn area.
The sheriff’s office also lifted the evacuation order for all of the city of Sonoma, as well as county areas north of East Napa Street to the burn area and west of Fourth Street East and Gehricke Road to Highway 12, including side the associated roads to the burn area.
5:32 p.m. Evacuation lifted in parts of Santa Rosa: The evacuation order for Bennett Valley and Annadel Heights was lifted at 5 p.m. Monday, Santa Rosa Police said.
4:44 p.m. Napa lifts another evacuation order: Napa County lifted the mandatory evacuation order for Circle Oaks and Wooden Valley Road. The area is accessible through Sage Canyon Road and Wooden Valley Road as it reopens. Wooden Valley is also accessible from Suisun Valley Road in Solano County.
4:21 p.m. Solano County Fairgrounds sheltering large animals: Volunteers are being sought to help care for more than 500 large animals, including horses and cows, that have been evacuated to the Solano County Fairgrounds, with more expected to arrive in coming days. The displaced animals have come from all over Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties. The Solano County Sheriff’s Office put out a call for volunteers with experience handling large animals and other livestock.
“This is going to be an ongoing process,” Solano County Sheriff Thomas Ferrara said. “I don’t expect that operation to shut down any time soon.”
Those interested in volunteering must be at least 18 years. Anyone interesting in helping can call (707) 551-2008 for more information.
3:15 p.m. Santa Rosa Memorial clinics open: Outpatient and elective surgery services have resumed at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. The emergency room, which did not close, has been been treating about twice the normal number of patients, primarily those suffering with respiratory ailments, hospital staff said Monday.
2:45 p.m. Napa Valley College to reopen next Monday: Napa Valley College will resume classes on Monday, October 23, the college announced. Its three campus evacuation shelters will close on Tuesday. Faculty and staff will meet on campus on Thursday and Friday.
2:30 p.m. Mandatory evacuation lifted in parts of Napa County: The Napa County Sheriff’s office lifted the mandatory evacuation in the Berryessa Highlands Community, along Highway 128 from Silverado Trail to the Napa County Line at the Monticello Dam. The evacuation order was lifted at 2 p.m. Monday. Residents can access the area through Sage Canyon Road or from the Winters area.
1:55 p.m. Number of missing keeps dropping in Sonoma County: The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said that the number of people missing has dropped to 88 on Monday afternoon, down from 99 reported earlier in the day.
1:30 p.m. Advisory for Portable Generators: Returning homeowners should use portable generators to power individual appliances and pieces of equipment, but should not use them to power their entire house. Doing so creates problems for Pacific Gas and Electric crews attempting to restore power in the affected areas, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.
1:25 p.m. Kaiser Santa Rosa partially reopens: Medical buildings 1 and 2 and the pharmacy at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center at 401 Bicentennial Way, Santa Rosa, have reopened. The hospital and emergency room remain closed.
1:10 p.m. Smoke Advisory for North Bay and East Bay: Unhealthy air quality caused by wildfire smoke means that old and young people, and those with respiratory illnesses should stay indoors or move out of some parts of the North Bay and East Bay Unhealthy air was measured in Sebastopol on Monday and unhealthy air for sensitive persons was measured in Napa, Berkeley and Oakland.
12:10 p.m. More evacuation orders lifted in Sonoma County: Residents of Bennett Valley Road, of the area east of Petaluma Hill Road, and of parts of Kenwood, of Boyes Hot Springs, Glen Ellen and parts of the city of Sonoma may return home, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said.
11 a.m. Last missing person found in Yuba County: Everyone who evacuated the region ahead of the deadly Cascade Fire in Yuba County has been accounted for, county officials said Monday. The last missing person was confirmed safe over the weekend, said Russ Brown, a Yuba County spokesman. There were more than a hundred welfare checks performed in the aftermath of the wildfire but only four of those calls had escalated to missing persons cases, Brown said. Of those, three of them were fatalities.
The fourth case — resolved by Saturday— was someone who went out of town and lost contact with the person who called in the report, Brown said.
A total of four people died in the nearly 10,000-acre Cascade Fire that broke out on Cascade Way and Marysville Road north of Collins Lake about 11 p.m. Sunday, according to Cal Fire. The first person who died was not reported missing but was found after their car ran off the road and crashed, trapping the driver in the wildfire zone.
All evacuation orders for Yuba County residents had been lifted by 5 p.m. Friday. The fire, which was 96 percent contained on Monday, destroyed 143 homes, Brown said.
10:10 a.m. All boil water notices lifted in city of Napa: All routine water operations have resumed in Napa, city officials announced Monday morning. Advisories asking residents to boil potentially contaminated tap water when cooking or drinking are no longer in effect. The measure was put in place because infrastructure damage during the wildfires could have possibly tainted water. Anyone who has water-related issues should call (707) 257-9521.
9:30 a.m. More Mendocino County residents return home: Some residents in Redwood Valley and Willits in Mendocino County and in the Lake Pillsbury Basin of Lake County were allowed to return to their neighborhoods Monday morning, officials said.
In Redwood Valley, where eight people were killed in wildfires, residents in all areas of the Cave Creek subdivision can re-enter the neighborhood, including those along Scenic Drive, Appaloosa Way, Cave Creek Road and feeder roads into the area. An evacuation warning remains for the area.
All other areas of Redwood Valley are no longer under evacuation warning.
All Willits residents can re-enter their neighborhoods. While an evacuation warning is still in effect for the Pine Mountain Estates in Willits, residents there are allowed to return home, according to Mendocino County Sheriff’s officials.
In Lake County, all areas within the Lake Pillsbury Basin are no longer under an evacuation warning and is reopened to the public.
9 a.m. More than 40,000 remain evacuated in Northern California wildfires: As some evacuees are gradually given the green light to return home, more than 40,000 remain evacuated, according to a Monday morning Cal Fire report.
What was once more than 20 wildfires statewide have merged and consolidated to 14 large wildfires burning. Forty-one people, including a firefighter killed in a Napa County crash near the Nuns Fire Monday morning, have died in the fires.
An estimated 5,700 structures have been burned as wildfires blackened more than 200,000 acres of land.
8 a.m. Firefighter killed in tanker crash: A water tanker crashed on a winding Napa County road near where firefighters are battling the northern edge of the Nuns Fire, and the driver was killed, officials said.
The crash happened around 7 a.m. on Oakville Grade west of Highway 29 north of Yountville, California Highway Patrol officials said. The tanker was going downhill when it lost control, went down an embankment and overturned, the CHP said.
The driver was a contract firefighter, the CHP said. The firefighter’s name has not been released.
7:15 a.m. Firefighters making progress: The Atlas Fire is now 68 percent contained — up from 56 percent containment on Sunday. Over the past 24 hours, it grew in size by only 7 acres, to 51,064 acres.
“Firefighters continue to strengthen perimeter control lines, provide structure defense and engage in tactical patrol,” Cal Fire said in a statement. The Nuns / Adobe / Norbbom/ Pressley / Partrick Fires, at 48,627 acres, are now 50 percent contained, and the Tubbs Fire, at 36,390 acres, is 70 percent contained.
6:20 a.m. Missing persons reports down to double digits in Sonoma County: Of the nearly 2,000 missing persons reports stemming from deadly wildfires in Sonoma County, only 99 of those reports remain outstanding, officials said Monday.
The county received 1,853 missing persons reports since the fires broke out on Oct. 8, but the majority of those people have since been found safe. Many of the reports could be duplicates, in which several people call-in to report the same person missing. The bulk of the cases were resolved as cell service was restored and people reconnected with loved ones, said Deputy Brandon Jones of the county sheriff’s office.
But sheriff’s officials are meticulously investigating every report to ensure everyone is accounted for, he said. So far, 31 reports were sent to other jurisdictions, and 1,723 of the missing reports ended with the person being confirmed safe, Jones said.
“Some of these reports are like, ‘I haven’t talked to my aunt in five years and she lives in Santa Rosa,’” Jones said Monday. “Unfortunately, it’s a little bit of a misleading stat. But the way we’re doing it is the right way to do it.”
Sonoma County was the hardest hit by Northern California wildfires, accounting for 22 fatalities — the majority of the current death toll of 40.
5:50 a.m. School closures in Napa, Sonoma counties: Napa Valley Unified School District, which encompasses all public schools in the county, plans to reopen campuses for classes on Wednesday, according to a district statement.
“This date is based on a presumption that the fire situation and air quality will continue to improve and that the school buildings and staff are ready to serve students,” the statement reads. “If that is not the case, we will inform you of any changes to the plan through our established channels.”
In Sonoma County, various schools plan to reopen either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, or remain closed the whole week. A detailed list of school closures is available online.
5:30 a.m. Boil water notices still in effect for areas of Santa Rosa: Residents in parts of the Oakmont and Fountaingrove neighborhoods of Santa Rosa should continue boiling tap water before drinking or cooking, according to police.
Damaged infrastructure from deadly wildfires in the Sonoma County city possibly tainted water systems.
Fountaingrove residents who live east of Mendocino Avenue, north of Chanate Road, west of Fountaingrove Parkway, and south of Mark West Springs Road should continue the precautionary measure, authorities said.
The notice also applies to Oakmont residents who live on White Oak Drive south of Madelyne Court, including Madelyne Place, and on Oak Mesa Drive south of Starry Knoll Court, including Shooting Star Place.
5 a.m. Favorable firefighting weather, rain on the way
The winds have eased, red flag warnings have ceased and rain is on the way to regions of the North Bay devastated by deadly wildfires, according to the National Weather Service.
“The good news is winds are going to be relatively light — under 10 mph in both the valley locations and higher elevations,” Charles Bell, a meteorologist with the weather service, said Monday morning of Napa and Sonoma counties.
Conditions are a far cry from the past week when there were four days of Red Flag warnings for the North Bay — alerting the community that low humidity, gusts and higher temperatures could aid rapid spread of the region's destructive fires.
Temperatures remains unfavorable, however, with the North Bay set to record highs in the mid to upper 80s, about 10 degrees higher than normal for the season, Bell said. The air remains dry, too, with humidity in the North Bay ranging from 8 to 14 percent. The driest air around, in a desert, for instance, measures 1 percent humidity.
But the rain the region has been hoping for is on the way. The first winter storm of the season is coming from the Gulf of Alaska, and should land by late Thursday and continue overnight into Friday. Humidity should rise this week ahead of the rain, forecasters said.
Meteorologists expect two tenths of an inch of rainfall in the North Bay. One tenth of an inch — known as “wetting rain” — is significant, Bell said, so double that is “certainly welcome.”
“It’s a notable rain that can help to really tamp down fires,” Bell said. “It’s a slowing mechanism.”
Still, Bell said drivers, especially those commuting Thursday evening, should be cautious of slick roads that can cause spin-outs. Every year, car incidents abound when the first rain of the season hits.
Now it's the Santa Cruz Mountains...
For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/e...ountains/ar-AAtE6nq?li=AA4ZnC&ocid=spartandhp
Evacuations issued as fire grows in Santa Cruz mountains
KCRA Sacramento
1 hr ago
Five firefighters were hurt Tuesday battling a fire that sprang up overnight in the Santa Cruz mountains, prompting evacuation orders.
The blaze, named the Bear Fire, was 125 acres and 0 percent contained, as of 6:15 a.m., Cal Fire reported.
It broke out off Bear Creek Road, southwest of San Jose, and evacuation orders have been issued for Deer Creek Road, Rons Road, Dons Road, Lost Valley Road, Favre Ridge and Oak Ridge, officials said.
Rob Sherman, assistant chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told NBC Bay Area that at least one structure was destroyed and about 100 homes are threatened.
Sherman said that a house fire is believed to have sparked the quick-spreading blaze.
One firefighter slipped about 50 feet down a ravine and suffered cuts on his face and a possible wrist fracture, Sherman said.
An inmate firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation and three other firefighters slipped in the steep terrain, suffering minor injuries, officials said.
As daylight broke, crews were planning to attack the fire by air to prevent it from spreading
"The idea is to hit it pretty hard with aircraft and hit it with ground resources at the same time," Sherman said.
A cluster of wildfires have been burning in Northern California for a week. The fires, the deadliest cluster in California history, have killed at least 41 people and destroyed nearly 6,000 homes.
For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/e...ountains/ar-AAtE6nq?li=AA4ZnC&ocid=spartandhp
Evacuations issued as fire grows in Santa Cruz mountains
KCRA Sacramento
1 hr ago
Five firefighters were hurt Tuesday battling a fire that sprang up overnight in the Santa Cruz mountains, prompting evacuation orders.
The blaze, named the Bear Fire, was 125 acres and 0 percent contained, as of 6:15 a.m., Cal Fire reported.
It broke out off Bear Creek Road, southwest of San Jose, and evacuation orders have been issued for Deer Creek Road, Rons Road, Dons Road, Lost Valley Road, Favre Ridge and Oak Ridge, officials said.
Rob Sherman, assistant chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told NBC Bay Area that at least one structure was destroyed and about 100 homes are threatened.
Sherman said that a house fire is believed to have sparked the quick-spreading blaze.
One firefighter slipped about 50 feet down a ravine and suffered cuts on his face and a possible wrist fracture, Sherman said.
An inmate firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation and three other firefighters slipped in the steep terrain, suffering minor injuries, officials said.
As daylight broke, crews were planning to attack the fire by air to prevent it from spreading
"The idea is to hit it pretty hard with aircraft and hit it with ground resources at the same time," Sherman said.
A cluster of wildfires have been burning in Northern California for a week. The fires, the deadliest cluster in California history, have killed at least 41 people and destroyed nearly 6,000 homes.
Be Well
may all be well
How awful. What I want to know is how did the Sausalito one start, and all the valley ones??? Sausalito has lots of hills with trees and dried up vegetation, and Mt Tamalpais isn't far from t here.
Be Well
may all be well
ICE Detainer Issued for Suspected Wine Country Arsonist in Sonoma Jail
http://www.breitbart.com/california...spected-wine-country-arsonist-in-sonoma-jail/
Chriss W. Street 17 Oct 2017
The U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) issued a detainer request on the Sonoma County Jail for Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, who was arrested Sunday on suspicion of arson in Wine Country fires that have killed at least 40 residents.
Breitbart News reported earlier this week that Sonoma County Sheriffs had arrested Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, 29, at Maxwell Regional Park in Sonoma County after a series of reports of ongoing fires in the region. Mr. Gonzalez was observed around 3:00 p.m. PDT wearing a jacket and walking “out of the creek area and a plume of smoke behind him,” according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
Mr. Gonzalez, who is homeless and reportedly known by law enforcement to have been living under a nearby bridge, claimed he was cold and had lit the fire to stay warm. But it was a balmy 78 degrees when he and the plume of smoke were first observed.
Mr. Gonzalez was booked into the Sonoma County Jail for suspicion of felony arson. His bail was set at a steep $110,000, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff Public Information Officer.
[STEEP???? NOT STEEP ENOUGH!]
Sargent Spencer Crum told Breitbart that Mr. Gonzalez is also on a U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) detainer request, despite Sonoma County declaring itself as a “sanctuary county” in May 2014. The county only cooperates with “ICE holds” if the prisoner has been convicted of a felony or any misdemeanor offence that falls within the Trust Act within the last five years. Mr. Gonzalez’s immigration status has not yet been announced.
The American Civil Liberties Union argues detainers are a violation of “unreasonable searches and seizures” under the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.
The Sonoma County Sheriff Department’s “1.0 Policy Statement” reads: “No person shall be held solely on the basis of their immigration status.” The policy adds that “the immigration status of a person, and the lack of immigration documentation, should have no bearing on the manner in which Sheriff’s Office personnel execute their duties.”
According to ICE documents, Sonoma County declined 491 detainer requests in 2014 and 2015. During the 2017 period from January 28 through February 3, when President Donald Trump issued his immigration Executive Order 13768 to require all federal, state and local government to comply with ICE detainers, Sonoma County still denied detainers.
Sonoma County fires have killed dozens. 172 are still missing and 102,000 residents have been dislocated — about one-fifth of the entire population. The latest financial losses include 3,819 unincorporated parcels with 100 structures valued at $2,016,962,239, and 2,907 homes and 86 commercial units lost in the city of Santa Rosa valued at $1.18 billion.
[I read he had matches or a lighter and a fire extinguisher with him at the time he was arrested.]
http://www.breitbart.com/california...spected-wine-country-arsonist-in-sonoma-jail/
Chriss W. Street 17 Oct 2017
The U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) issued a detainer request on the Sonoma County Jail for Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, who was arrested Sunday on suspicion of arson in Wine Country fires that have killed at least 40 residents.
Breitbart News reported earlier this week that Sonoma County Sheriffs had arrested Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, 29, at Maxwell Regional Park in Sonoma County after a series of reports of ongoing fires in the region. Mr. Gonzalez was observed around 3:00 p.m. PDT wearing a jacket and walking “out of the creek area and a plume of smoke behind him,” according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
Mr. Gonzalez, who is homeless and reportedly known by law enforcement to have been living under a nearby bridge, claimed he was cold and had lit the fire to stay warm. But it was a balmy 78 degrees when he and the plume of smoke were first observed.
Mr. Gonzalez was booked into the Sonoma County Jail for suspicion of felony arson. His bail was set at a steep $110,000, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff Public Information Officer.
[STEEP???? NOT STEEP ENOUGH!]
Sargent Spencer Crum told Breitbart that Mr. Gonzalez is also on a U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) detainer request, despite Sonoma County declaring itself as a “sanctuary county” in May 2014. The county only cooperates with “ICE holds” if the prisoner has been convicted of a felony or any misdemeanor offence that falls within the Trust Act within the last five years. Mr. Gonzalez’s immigration status has not yet been announced.
The American Civil Liberties Union argues detainers are a violation of “unreasonable searches and seizures” under the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.
The Sonoma County Sheriff Department’s “1.0 Policy Statement” reads: “No person shall be held solely on the basis of their immigration status.” The policy adds that “the immigration status of a person, and the lack of immigration documentation, should have no bearing on the manner in which Sheriff’s Office personnel execute their duties.”
According to ICE documents, Sonoma County declined 491 detainer requests in 2014 and 2015. During the 2017 period from January 28 through February 3, when President Donald Trump issued his immigration Executive Order 13768 to require all federal, state and local government to comply with ICE detainers, Sonoma County still denied detainers.
Sonoma County fires have killed dozens. 172 are still missing and 102,000 residents have been dislocated — about one-fifth of the entire population. The latest financial losses include 3,819 unincorporated parcels with 100 structures valued at $2,016,962,239, and 2,907 homes and 86 commercial units lost in the city of Santa Rosa valued at $1.18 billion.
[I read he had matches or a lighter and a fire extinguisher with him at the time he was arrested.]
Be Well
may all be well
Cal Fire continues to probe cause of deadly wildfires despite arson arrest
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/17/cal...be-deadly-wildfires-despite-arson-arrest.html
Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano said Tuesday an arson suspect arrested Sunday is known to local law enforcement and remains in custody.
"Our arson arrest involves someone who is known to the deputies," said Giordano. He went on to say the suspect frequents Maxwell Farms Regional Park in Sonoma and "is known to sleep there."
The wildfires now raging in Northern California have claimed at least 41 lives and are responsible for the loss of more than 5,700 structures in several counties, including Sonoma and Napa. The fires wiped out entire neighborhoods in portions of Santa Rosa, the largest city in Sonoma County.
Dozens of people remain missing, and around 200 search and rescue workers were in the field Tuesday conducting searches for more possible victims of the disaster. Authorities also said they are using drones to find hot spots still in scorched areas.
Cal Fire said "repopulations" of evacuated areas remain a "priority." Over the last 24 hours, the state agency said 13,956 homes and 36,225 people were repopulated. "That's a pretty brisk pace and about as fast as we can do it," said a Cal Fire official.
Recent reports have cited PG&E's power lines as a possible cause of some of the current wildfires.
Despite the arson arrest, Cal Fire said it continues to investigate the cause of the various fires in Northern California.
"Cal Fire investigators continue to work on cause and determination," Bret Gouvea, a Cal Fire incident commander, told reporters at a press briefing Tuesday afternoon in Sonoma County. "And they are working closely with local law enforcement on those efforts to find a cause for each one of these fires."
The arson suspect is Jesus Fabian Gonzales, 29, Sgt. Spencer Crum, a spokesman for the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office told CNBC. Crum described him as "a transient out of Sonoma" and said the suspect was "arrested for setting a small fire in a park in Sonoma on Sunday."
Speaking at the Tuesday afternoon press conference, Giordano said the arson suspect was seen "walking away from a small fire" and stopped by deputies. Also, the suspect allegedly had "a fire extinguisher and a lighter with him," said the sheriff.
Giordano said the suspect was asked whether he started the fire and responded that "he started the fire to warm himself up — something to that effect."
In an SEC regulatory filing Friday, PG&E's parent company acknowledged that the causes of the fires are being investigated by Cal Fire, adding that the probe includes "the possible role of power lines and other facilities" of its Pacific Gas & Electric utility subsidiary.
The San Francisco-based utility has about $800 million in liability insurance for potential losses in connection with the wildfires, according to its SEC filing.
"If the amount of insurance is insufficient to cover the utility's liability or if insurance is otherwise unavailable, PG&E Corp's and the utility's financial condition or results of operations could be materially affected," the company's filing stated.
On Tuesday, PG&E shares closed up 7.5 percent. It recouped some of the losses from the past few days following investors getting nervous about its potential liability over the current wildfires.
An attorney specializing in wildfire lawsuits said PG&E could potentially be on the hook for up to $6 billion in damages if found liable for the deadly Northern California wildfires.
[So this illegal was known to authorities but because CA is a sanctuary hellhole ICE was not allowed to take him away. Therefore the state of CA is guity of any arson the illegal committed, as an accessory before the fact and assistant, by allowing him to remain n CA despite being an illegal and "known to them".]
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/17/cal...be-deadly-wildfires-despite-arson-arrest.html
- Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano said an arson suspect was seen "walking away from a small fire."
- The 29-year-old suspect allegedly had "a fire extinguisher and a lighter with him," the sheriff said.
- Despite the arson arrest, Cal Fire said Tuesday afternoon it continues to investigate the cause of each of the wildfires in Northern California.
- The wildfires have claimed more than 41 lives, and many more people remain listed as missing.
Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano said Tuesday an arson suspect arrested Sunday is known to local law enforcement and remains in custody.
"Our arson arrest involves someone who is known to the deputies," said Giordano. He went on to say the suspect frequents Maxwell Farms Regional Park in Sonoma and "is known to sleep there."
The wildfires now raging in Northern California have claimed at least 41 lives and are responsible for the loss of more than 5,700 structures in several counties, including Sonoma and Napa. The fires wiped out entire neighborhoods in portions of Santa Rosa, the largest city in Sonoma County.
Dozens of people remain missing, and around 200 search and rescue workers were in the field Tuesday conducting searches for more possible victims of the disaster. Authorities also said they are using drones to find hot spots still in scorched areas.
Cal Fire said "repopulations" of evacuated areas remain a "priority." Over the last 24 hours, the state agency said 13,956 homes and 36,225 people were repopulated. "That's a pretty brisk pace and about as fast as we can do it," said a Cal Fire official.
Recent reports have cited PG&E's power lines as a possible cause of some of the current wildfires.
Despite the arson arrest, Cal Fire said it continues to investigate the cause of the various fires in Northern California.
"Cal Fire investigators continue to work on cause and determination," Bret Gouvea, a Cal Fire incident commander, told reporters at a press briefing Tuesday afternoon in Sonoma County. "And they are working closely with local law enforcement on those efforts to find a cause for each one of these fires."
The arson suspect is Jesus Fabian Gonzales, 29, Sgt. Spencer Crum, a spokesman for the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office told CNBC. Crum described him as "a transient out of Sonoma" and said the suspect was "arrested for setting a small fire in a park in Sonoma on Sunday."
Speaking at the Tuesday afternoon press conference, Giordano said the arson suspect was seen "walking away from a small fire" and stopped by deputies. Also, the suspect allegedly had "a fire extinguisher and a lighter with him," said the sheriff.
Giordano said the suspect was asked whether he started the fire and responded that "he started the fire to warm himself up — something to that effect."
In an SEC regulatory filing Friday, PG&E's parent company acknowledged that the causes of the fires are being investigated by Cal Fire, adding that the probe includes "the possible role of power lines and other facilities" of its Pacific Gas & Electric utility subsidiary.
The San Francisco-based utility has about $800 million in liability insurance for potential losses in connection with the wildfires, according to its SEC filing.
"If the amount of insurance is insufficient to cover the utility's liability or if insurance is otherwise unavailable, PG&E Corp's and the utility's financial condition or results of operations could be materially affected," the company's filing stated.
On Tuesday, PG&E shares closed up 7.5 percent. It recouped some of the losses from the past few days following investors getting nervous about its potential liability over the current wildfires.
An attorney specializing in wildfire lawsuits said PG&E could potentially be on the hook for up to $6 billion in damages if found liable for the deadly Northern California wildfires.
[So this illegal was known to authorities but because CA is a sanctuary hellhole ICE was not allowed to take him away. Therefore the state of CA is guity of any arson the illegal committed, as an accessory before the fact and assistant, by allowing him to remain n CA despite being an illegal and "known to them".]
Bardou
Veteran Member
Also that area gets the fog coming in from the bay, I don't see that fire going any where.
Damn... I was right about good ol' Jesus' citizenship. Big surprise.
You know, you'd think if the good citizens of Kalifornia would learn that a big part of the reason they just lost dozens of lives, hundreds of beloved pets and valuable livestock, and billions of dollars in homes, and irreplaceable historic structures was directly and deliberately due to an illegal alien, they'd rise up against Governor Clueless Moonbeam and say "enough of this sanctuary crap". (And no, I'm not claiming that Jesus had a hand in all the fires, but I think it's pretty obvious that many were started by arson, and it's pretty likely that many involved, um... "other than American citizens")
You really have to wonder what they have in the water or the air out there, that makes more than half the people lose all common sense and any sense of self preservation.
Summerthyme