North Bay fire season ends on Monday
The North Bay’s disastrous fire season, among the worst ever, ends Monday morning, Cal Fire said.
North Bay's disastrous 2020 fire season, among the worst ever, will officially end on Monday morning, Cal Fire said Thursday.
Recent rainstorms and cooler temperatures prompted the agency to allow its Sonoma-Lake-Napa firefighting unit, covering Sonoma, Lake, Napa, Colusa, Yolo and Solano counties, to transition out of the prolonged wildfire stretch that lasted nearly a month longer than the previous two seasons.
Cal Fire will draw down its seasonal firefighting teams in the region, since the most dangerous fire weather conditions finally have subsided.
The move will close the chapter of one of the most destructive wildfire seasons in North Bay history. In 2020, Cal Fire's SonomaLake-Napa unit responded to more than 600 wildfires that burned over 434,000 acres across its six- county area.
The bulk of that acreage was torched by the LNU Lightning Complex fire — the fifth largest blaze ever in California at 363,220 acres — and the 67,484acre Glass fire, which together devastated large swaths of Sonoma and Napa counties.
This most recent fire-ravaged summer and fall in the North Bay follows a series of catastrophic fire seasons, an alarming trend scientists agree is largely due to human- caused climate change.
Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman was in charge of crews that fought both the LNU Complex fire, which included the Walbridge inferno that destroyed more than 150 homes in west Sonoma County, and the Glass fire, which leveled over 600 homes in Sonoma and Napa counties.
In recent years, Baxman has battled the Valley fire in 2015, the Tubbs and Nuns fires in 2017 and the Kincade fire in 2019.
“This last year didn't really seem that much different because we're getting more used to it, which is a sad thing to say,” Baxman said.
Across the entire state this year, wildfires have scorched a record 4 millionacres, more than double the previous record set in 2018 for the most land burned in a single year, according to Cal Fire.
“This year was extremely challenging because we really had a significant amount of fire for well over two months,” said state fire agency spokeswoman Christine McMorrow said. “At one point, we had all six incident management teams deployed. That's a very rare occurrence, and when we deploy those teams, that's a major incident.”
With the 2020 fire season coming to an end in Sonoma County, the Monte Rio Fire Protection District has begun swapping its wildland fire equipment for swift-water rescue gear to prepare for winter floods, Baxman said. The Santa Rosa Fire Department announced it was making a similar transition earlier this month.
Meanwhile, about half of the 12 Cal Fire units assigned to Northern California will have ended their fire seasons by Monday, McMorrow said. In 2018 and 2019, Cal Fire had called the end of wildfire season for all of Northern California by Dec. 10.
In much of Southern California, fire season is still in full swing, with a fastmoving blaze in San Diego County triggering evacuation orders just Wednesday night.
In parts of the state where fire season is ending, Cal Fire will continue to maintain enough firefighting resources to respond to any new blazes, McMorrow said. It will also monitor weather forecasts and can bolster staffing levels to handle any fire threats.
As fire season gradually comes to a close statewide, Cal Fire will turn its attention to wildfire-prevention efforts such as conducting prescribed burns, clearing vegetation and educating the public about fire safety.
Even if fire weather conditions may be through in the North Bay, Cal Fire officials are urging residents not to let their guard down.
“We are transitioning out of peak fire season, however, we haven't had a lot of rain and the fuels are still very dry,” McMorrow said. “There is still fire danger, and we're always encouraging residents to have their go bag ready and be aware and prepared.”