Wine country wildfire takes promising turn
Crews more confident as strong winds abate
SAN FRANCISCO — Easing winds gave California firefighters a break Tuesday as they battled a destructive wildfire north of San Francisco and another rural blaze, which killed three people.
Breezes replaced the powerful gusts that sent the Glass Fire raging through Napa and Sonoma counties Sunday and Monday, scorching more than 66 square miles.
At least 95 buildings in wine country have burned, including homes and winery installations. A wildfire burning farther north in rural Shasta County has destroyed 146 buildings.
The fire in wine country pushed through brush that had not burned for a century, even though surrounding areas were incinerated in a series of blazes in recent years.
As the winds eased Monday evening, firefighters were feeling “much more confident,” said Ben Nicholls, a division chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire.
“We don’t have those critical burning conditions that we were experiencing those last two nights,” he said.
The Glass Fire is one of nearly 30 wildfires burning around California.
In a forested far northern part of the state, more than 1,200 people were evacuated in Shasta County for the Zogg Fire, which has burned at least 62 square miles.
Three people have died in the fire, Shasta County Sheriff Eric Magrini said Monday.
Residences are widely scattered in Shasta County, which was torched just two years ago by the deadly Carr Fire, infamously remembered for producing a huge tornadolike fire whirl.
Pacific Gas & Electric had cut power to more than 100,000 customers in advance of gusty winds and in areas with active fire zones. The utility’s equipment has caused previous disasters, including the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people and devastated the town of Paradise in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
By Monday night, the utility had restored electricity to essentially all of those customers. However, PG&E said about 24,000 people remained without power in areas affected by two fires in Napa, Sonoma, Shasta and Tehama counties.
So far in this year’s historic fire season, more than 8,100 California wildfires have killed 29 people, scorched 5,780 square miles and destroyed more than 7,000 buildings.
The Glass Fire began Sunday as three fires merged and drove into vineyards and mountain areas, including part of the city of Santa Rosa. About 70,000 people were under evacuation orders, including the entire 5,000-plus population of Calistoga in Napa County.
Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin, who lives in Santa Rosa, said she was stuck in two hours of heavy traffic Monday night to reach safety.
“We’re experienced with that,” she said of the fires. “Once you lose a house and represent thousands of folks who’ve lost homes, you become pretty fatalistic that this is a new way of life and, depressingly, a normal way of life, the megafires that are spreading throughout the West.”