Kincade Fire: Firefighting force doubled in push before stout winds return
It was supposed to be a tense, but ultimately triumphant race against time: a day for 1,300 firefighters to take advantage of a lull in the wind and pound the threatening Kincade Fire in Geyserville.
Instead on Friday, the fire grew, streaking up hills and sending huge plumes into the azure skies of Wine Country, amid an ominous forecast for the weekend. Residents who had spent the day watching tanker planes from their backyards now braced for what officials warned could be the driest, windiest conditions in the state’s history. Starting Saturday evening, offshore gusts could be stronger than the powerful winds that drove the 2017 North Bay wildfires.
Tina Tavares, who was evacuated from her Geyserville home Wednesday, said she’d spent much of Friday praying.
“I can’t explain it,” the 70year old said, clutching her dog, Savannah, outside the Healdsburg Community Center on Friday afternoon “It’s like you’re in a bad earthquake, the ground is opening up swallowing people and you’re seeing it and don’t know what to do.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Sonoma County after the 23,700acre
fire destroyed or damaged at least 21 homes and 28 other structures. The flames threatened another 600 structures and forced roughly 2,000 people to flee as the fire roared over a ridge toward them. No fatalities or missing persons have been reported.
Fire officials doubled the number of people on the ground — to more than 1,300 — Friday in an attempt to beat back a conflagration that spread at an astonishing rate. By evening it expanded on the east flank, lashed by winds that blew from the northwest. The steep Wine Country terrain caused the fire to burn faster — “classic fire behavior” as heat radiating from the blaze toasted the fuel above it, said Cal Fire Division Chief Jonathan Cox.
The fire, which was only 5% contained, was expected to burn well past Saturday evening when Pacific Gas and Electric Co. planned to preemptively shut off power for as many as 850,000 customer accounts in 36 counties, including nearly 400,000 Bay Area residents, in every county except San Francisco.
The blaze burned in a southwesterly direction on the east side of Highway 128 and eastern Geyserville in the Alexander Valley area. Firefighters built containment lines on the edge of Geyserville, where 735 structures were under threat.
Crews spread out with hand tools the length of Pine Flat Road east of town Friday afternoon, using the pavement as a fire break. They patrolled the smoldering brush on the west side, knocking down any flareups that jumped the road.
Their job: To prevent flames from jumping the road and sweeping upward into the green hillsides dotted with cabins and ranches. Choppers roared overhead, dumping loads of water on spot fires.
“It’s better than it was yesterday,” Capt. Chris Rickert said with a laugh as he fed a hose down a 150foot embankment to his tired colleagues, sweating profusely in the 80degree windless heat. “So we’re going to try to take advantage of the weather how it is.”
His engine crew of four then moved their truck down the road about 500 feet, where they put green chaps over their fireretardant suits and bushwhacked through thickets of brush down a steep hill while lugging chainsaws.
Sitting on the sidelines were fire refugees like Tavares. who slept on cots at the Healdsburg evacuation center wondering what happened to their homes.
Joan Terry and her caretaker, Jeff Urton, had just signed a twoyear lease on a ranch when they were told to evacuate.
“The fire isn’t even contained yet,” said Terry, 65, looking up anxiously at Urton from her wheelchair.
Urton glanced back and then stared at the ground.
“It’s frustrating that you’re not able to control anything; you’re helpless,” he said. “You just have to ... preserve yourself as best you can and hope that nature doesn’t truly throw you a curveball.”
It wasn't clear when residents would be allowed to see what survived in the burn zones, but a sheriff's deputy let Jessica Banda enter her house off Pine Flat Road in Geyserville, to pick up breathing equipment for her asthma.
Banda, 42, and her son, George Rose, took the liberty of feeding their 20 chickens and six ducks, which they couldn’t carry with them when they evacuated early Thursday morning.
“We left pretty much thinking we weren’t going to come back to a house,” Banda said with a sigh of relief.
Newsom toured the devastation Friday, visiting residents, meeting local officials and praising firefighters for their “extraordinary heroism.” The governor also stepped up his criticism of PG&E as state regulators look into whether the utility company’s equipment played a role in the fire.
The company told state regulators Thursday that equipment on a transmission tower broke near the origin point shortly before the Kincade Fire was reported at about 9:25 p.m. Wednesday. That’s despite the fact that power had been shut off in the area — but not on that transmission line — in an effort to prevent such an event.
“We should not have to be here,” the governor said, claiming that PG&E neglected infrastructure for decades. “They simply did not do their job. It took us decades to get here, but we will get out of this mess and hold them to account like they’ve never been held in the past.”
PG&E has been blamed for sparking numerous fires in California, including last year’s Camp Fire, which killed 85 people in and around the Sierra foothills town of Paradise.
Newsom’s emergency proclamation will secure grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for resources to fight the fire. The governor also announced the state will spend $75 million to soften the impact of power outages. Local governments will receive half of the money, with those most affected by outages getting more. Oakland and San Jose will each receive $500,000, as will Los Angeles and San Diego. Each county will receive at least $150,000.