Windstorm will complicate the battle against Calif. fire
Northern California is bracing for another windstorm that will complicate efforts to contain the immense Kincade Fire — a blaze that has forced nearly 200,000 wine country residents to evacuate.
The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for parts of Sonoma and Napa counties between noon Tuesday and 11 a.m. Wednesday, with the most powerful gusts expected during the overnight hours. The increased wind will create “rapid fire growth potential,” the Weather Service said.
“The forecast is on track. So what that means is a challenging afternoon and evening of strong, dry offshore winds that will impact the fire area,” Ryan Walbrun, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said in a news conference Tuesday. “We’re in this critical 24-hour window.”
At the same time, conditions in Southern California, where the Getty Fire scorched the western edge of Los Angeles on Monday, were expected to be even more dangerous: The Storm Prediction Center warned of “extremely critical fire weather” beginning late Tuesday, when record-setting Santa Ana winds are expected to whip across the region.
The dire weather warnings came just days after Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, declared a statewide emergency over wildfires — and amid an unprecedented wave of blackouts ordered by Pacific Gas & Electric.
PG&E said Tuesday’s blackouts would affect about 1.5 million people in 29 counties, including 1 million still without power from a shut-off over the weekend.
The state’s largest utility has told regulators that a jumper on one of its transmission towers broke close to where the Kincade Fire started, near Geyserville. The cause of the fire, which has been burning since Wednesday, is under investigation. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the Kincade Fire barely grew overnight, though at 75,415 acres — an area more than twice the size of San Francisco — it is already California’s biggest fire of the year. The fire is now 15 percent contained.
At least 124 structures have been destroyed in the fire, but no injuries of civilians have been reported — and there have been no deaths attributed to the blaze.
Emergency responders on the other end of the state are trying to control a fastmoving brush fire that has consumed about 656 acres on the western edge of Los Angeles and forced the evacuation of more than 7,000 homes.At least 12 homes have been destroyed, officials said.
The Department of Water and Power said Tuesday that strong winds drove a tree branch into a power line, causing it to arc and spark the fire.