Crews bracing for surge in wind
‘The spread of the fire is almost imminent as we speak,’ Cal Fire warns
Dry, windy weather threatened to propel the Glass Fire on a destructive path through the heart of California’s famed wine country Thursday, as new evacuation orders were issued and worried firefighters on the front lines did all they could to keep the huge blaze at bay.
Residents in the rest of the Bay Area were hit with a familiar lineup of bad news — a heat wave, unhealthy, smoky air and the possibility of rolling blackouts. With a heat advisory in place until 8 p.m. today and poor air quality expected to linger, people stuck sheltering in place without air conditioning once again faced a miserable choice — open the windows and breathe smoke, or close them and feel the heat. Even those with AC were asked to use it as little as possible as California’s grid operator urged residents to conserve power or risk another round of rolling blackouts.
“It will be hard to escape some of this heat, especially for those interior locations,” said Brayden Murdock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service of the Bay Area.
In the North Bay, the heat, coupled with wind gusts and very low humidity, created extreme fire conditions that are expected to last into Saturday morning.
“The spread of the fire is almost imminent as we speak,” Cal Fire Chief Mark Brunton said during a virtual press briefing Thursday.
The Glass Fire, already the fifth largest of the 23 major fires burning in the state, has engulfed more than 58,880 acres in the North Bay, damaged or destroyed nearly 400 buildings, and was just 5% contained. As the flames edged closer to Calistoga, firefighters were working to keep them from sweeping down Highway 29, home to some of Napa Valley’s most famous wineries. The small Napa
County community of Angwin on the east side of the fire also was at risk, as were Kenwood and Glen Ellen in Sonoma County.
“We’re doing everything we can and allocating our resources as best as we can to try to mitigate the threat,” Brunton said, “but it is something we’re extremely concerned about.”
Napa Valley was covered in a thick blanket of smoke Thursday morning as dozens of fire engines headed up Oakville Grade Road, lights flashing and horns blaring.
Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the area Thursday, where he assured Californians he intends to expand funding for the state’s thinly stretched firefighting force. He spoke from the badly burned Foothills Adventist Elementary School, a private school in St. Helena that had recently reopened for in-person classes.
“I’ve got four young kids in elementary school, and I can’t imagine for the parents what’s going on in their minds, with all the anxiety going into the school year, to see their precious school burned down,” Newsom said. “We have your backs.”
New evacuation orders and warnings were issued around Calistoga, as well as in the Rutherford and Oakville areas of Napa County, where a spot fire broke out Thursday morning. Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said there was a “very real possibility” new evacuation orders could also be issued for Sonoma County in the next 24 hours. And officials worried the fire could spread to Lake County.
At the same time, there was good news for Santa Rosa. The city ravaged by the Tubbs Fire in 2017 appeared to be in the clear, thanks to strong fire lines, Brunton said.
But with dozens of major fires burning throughout California, there is little relief in sight. Air crews already have dumped 80,000 gallons of fire retardant and 3,000 gallons of water on the Glass Fire, Cal Fire Director Tom Porter said during a media briefing. In a record-shattering fire season, crews in California have cut fire control lines that could stretch from San Diego to New York City.
Addressing a problem exacerbated by climate change will take decades and require an all- encompassing approach — from more air tankers and firefighters to better land management, Porter said.
“Every acre in California can and will burn someday,” he said. “We need to embrace that and become resilient to it, by embracing the entire system approach.”
Meanwhile, the Bay Area continues to bake in an unseasonable October heat wave. The mercury rose into the 90s in San Jose, Concord and San Francisco on Thursday. A regionwide Spare the Air alert — signaling poor air quality and banning wood burning — has been extended through Tuesday. And red flag alerts for the East Bay hills, Diablo Range and Santa Cruz Mountains remain in effect through early Saturday.
San Jose and San Francisco surpassed 150 on the air quality index Thursday, meaning the air was unhealthy for anyone to breathe. Parts of Contra Costa County also had unhealthy air, while air in Oakland and the Peninsula was unhealthy for sensitive groups. A coming wind shift may help blow the smoke out of the area this weekend, but that will happen gradually, Murdock said.
The smoky conditions contributed to threats of a power shortage, with the California Independent System Operator — which manages the state’s power grid — warning that smoke could limit solar energy production. But the biggest problem was the unseasonable heat. With demand for energy expected to skyrocket as people blast their air conditioners, the grid operator warned it didn’t have as much power lined up as it typically does during summer months, when heat is expected.
California has employed Flex Alerts several times during heat waves over the past two months but, thanks to conservation efforts, hasn’t had to resort to rotating blackouts since August.