Kincade Fire now is fully contained
Cause of 77,758-acre blaze remains under investigation
GEYSERVILLE » The Kincade Fire in Sonoma County is fully contained, authorities announced Wednesday evening.
The blaze, which broke out northeast of Geyserville on Oct. 23, burned 77,758 acres and destroyed 374 structures, including 174 residences, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. Flames damaged an additional 60 structures.
Cal Fire said no one was killed, but at least four first responders were injured on the job.
Dry and windy weather in the opening days of the wildfire stoked concerns it would cause even greater destruction. Gusts peaked at 93 mph in the hills north of Healdsburg on Oct. 27.
Fears that the fire would spread into population centers spurred the evacuation of 180,000 residents, all of whom finally were allowed to return home Tuesday morning.
Conditions improved Oct. 30, and the 4,000 firefighters assigned to the blaze started to turn the tide.
Containment surged to 65% on Halloween and steadily grew over the weekend, reaching 100% a day ahead of schedule Wednesday.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. The fire erupted just before 9:30 p.m. Oct. 23 in The Geysers, the world’s largest complex of geothermal plants where steam from deep in the ground has been tapped for nearly a century to generate electricity.
Though Cal Fire said there were no confirmed reports of wires down in the area, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. acknowledged a problem with The Geysers’ No. 9 Lakeville 230kV line.
In a regulatory filing, the utility said a “transmission level outage” occurred about 9:20 p.m. on the 001/006 tower. Cal Fire later discovered what appeared to be a broken jumper.
The line was not among those de- energized by PG& E as part of a widespread public safety power shutoff to prevent wildfires from breaking out amid the dry and windy conditions.