Heat, wind forecast prompts alert

Marin County is facing elevated wildfire conditions into the weekend, while drift smoke from the wine country blazes could bringmore unhealthy air to the region.

Dry heat and strong winds prompted the National Weather Service to issue a “red flag” warning through Saturday morning. The prime fire weather conditions could worsen the Glass wildfire burning in Napa and Sonoma counties and have created an increased risk of sparking new blazes in the Bay Area.

The Marin County Fire Department has requested help from the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services for more resources. Marin fire officials are also preparing every piece of firefighting equipment, even those that haven't been used in a while, to ensure every tool is available and ready to use.

“It's all hands on deck,” Battalion Chief Bret McTigue said.

McTigue said Sonoma and Napa counties are workforce communities and that many Marin firefighters, police officers, teachers and government employees live there and have been evacuated or otherwise affected by the growing North Bay fires.

“This has become personal,” McTigue said. “It's hard for a lot of people, and when it does it home it affects the department. Our hearts go out those to have been affected and we're doing everything we can to protect our neighbors and our homes.”

With the calendar turned to October, the heart of California's fire season has arrived. Already, however, double the land that burned all of last year has been scorched in 2020— roughly 4million acres, or about five times the size of Yosemite National Park.

As of Thursday morning, there were 112 Marin County firefighters assigned to the Glass and Zogg fires, the August Complex fire, the North Complex fire and the Creek fire.

Temperatures are expected to ease Friday and Saturday as the high-pressureweather systembreaks up, but there is still a potential fire risk, theweather service said.

Strong winds are expected to be around 10 to 20 mph, with gusts reaching approximately 25 mph across higher terrains.

“It's going to be really dry,” said Gerry Diaz, a weather service meteorologist. “The really poor overnight humidity is only going to increase the fire weather concerns for the area.”

However, Diaz said if drift smoke ends up blanketing Marin County, it could serve as a sunscreen, which could result in lower temperatures than expected.

“It's looking like the smoke impacts in Marin will be fairly minimal, but we can't rule it out entirely,” Diaz said.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued another “spare the air” alert through Tuesday due to poor air quality from wildfire smoke across the Bay Area.

Marin County officials said all beaches will remain open but there are restrictions in areas with higher fire risks. The Marin Municipal Water District closed Sky Oaks in theMount Tamalpais watershed, Natalie Coffin Green Park in Ross and Leo Cronin parking lot in Lagunitas.

Route closures include Mount Vision Fire Road in Inverness, Fairfax-Bolinas Road in West Marin and several roads to Mount Tamalpais State Park, including roads north of Panoramic Highway such as Pantoll Road and Ridgecrest Boulevard. All park use permits north of Panoramic Highway have been suspended, officials said.

Meanwhile, the 4,929acre Woodward fire in the Point Reyes National Seashore remains at 97% containment. McTigue said fire officials expect some interior burning to continue until the rain comes.