To view updated county evacuation alerts, click here.
SATURDAY, AUG. 22, 11:40 a.m.
During an 11 a.m. briefing from CalFire following the significant increase in county evacuation warnings and orders (scroll down to the previous update for a complete list), CalFire officials stressed the importance of residents evacuating their homes when under a mandatory evacuation order.
The Walbridge Fire slowed down over night, growing by roughly 7,000 acres. The fire has routinely been seeing the most growth in the afternoon around 2 p.m., as wind begins to increase.
The Meyers Fire north of Jenner has seen no growth and is expected to be “good” following a day or two of monitoring, CalFire officials said.
CalFire Incident Commander Sean Kavanaugh said that it’s especially important to remain prepared in the coming days, since California is predicting another storm event beginning on Sunday and continuing until Tuesday. While weather can be unpredictable, there’s a possibility that the upcoming storm may bring more lightning to the area, sparking more fires.
“My ask of the public though is, if you are in areas that fires start and orders come out, please adhere to those orders,” Kavanaugh said. “Be ready to go. We have time right now for everybody to prepare themselves, prepare their homes, prepare their livestock, prepare their families to leave safely.
SATURDAY, AUG. 22, 10:40 a.m.
The following evacuation orders and warnings have been issued, per the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office:
Map Grid 2F1 Order
East of Dutcher Creek Road and the Dry Creek (the actual creek)
North of Canyon Road
West of Highway 101
Ma Grid 2F2 Order
South of Canyon Road
East of the Dry Creek (the actual creek)
North of Lytton Springs Road
West of Geyserville Avenue
Map Grid 2F3 Order
South of Lytton Springs Road
East of the Dry Creek (the actual creek)
North of Westside Road
West of the Healdsburg city limits.
Map Grid 2K1 Order
All areas North and East of Westside Rd.
West of Highway 101
West of the Russian River
Map Grid 2K2 Order
All areas west of Highway 101
East of the Russian River to the Windsor Town limits
North of where Windsor River Rd. dead ends extending west to the Russian River.
Map Grid 4A1 Order
All areas East of the Russian River
North of River Road.
West of Trenton Healdsburg Road and Eastside Road
South of the area between the western dead end of Windsor River Road and the Russian River
Map Grid 4C1 Order
North of Guerneville Road
East of Covey Road and Highway 116
West of Laguna Rd
South of River Road
Evacuation Warning has been expanded to include all residents in the following area:
Map Grid 4A2 Warning
East of Trenton Healdsburg Road
North of Mark West Station Road
West of the Windsor City Limits and Windsor Road
South of Windsor River Road
Map Grid 4A3 Warning
East of Trenton Healdsburg Road
North of River Road
West of Slusser Road
South of Mark West Station Road
Map Grid 2A2 Warning
North of the Dry Creek and the norther fork of Lake Sonoma County
West of Dutcher Creek, City of Coverdale city limits and Highway 128
South of the Mendocino County line
Map Grid 2C4 Warning
South and West of Asti Road
East of Highway 101
North of Highway 128
Map Grid 2G1 Warning
East of Highway 101
South and West of Highway 128
North of Alexander Valley Road
Town of Windsor Zone A Warning
North of Windsor River Road
West of Highway 101
All to the Western and norther town limits west of 101
SATURDAY, AUG. 22, 7 a.m.
Sonoma County’s Walbridge Fire grew to 50,069 acres over night, and remains 0% contained.
The Meyers Fire has decreased in reported acreage to 2,345 acres. While the fire isn’t seeing any continued growth, it is also 0% contained.
CalFire will be holding its daily press conference to talk about the fires, as well as the other fires in the LNU Lightning Complex Fire, at 11 a.m. Those who want to watch the livestream of the conference can do so at CalFire LNU’s Facebook page.
7 p.m.
The Walbridge Fire has over doubled, now at 43,286 acres from the 21,125 acres it was at during CalFire’s 7 a.m. update this morning. The fire merged with the Stewarts fire yesterday.
The Meyers Fire, north of Jenner, remains at 3,000 acres.
During a fire briefing Friday afternoon, CalFire Chief Sean Kavanaugh said that the fire has routinely increased in size during the day as wind picks up around 2 p.m. Despite its acreage growth, Kavanaugh said that the county saw increased crews and air tankers working on the fire on Friday. For the first time, they’ve had enough crews fighting the fire to hit it from all four directions.
Resources finally starting to come in, fire still moving towards Guerneville area
Overnight, the Walbridge Fire grew from 20,000 acres to 21,125 acres and continued its push backing down into the Armstrong Woods grove, Sweetwater Springs and the Mount Jackson area. Over at the eastern flank of the fire, the Wallace Creek drainage continues to give fire crews difficulty, with the upper Mill Creek, Sweetwater Springs and McCray Ridge areas getting hit hard.
“The Wallace Creek drainage continues to give us difficulty in the afternoons. The afternoon winds are picking up between 2 p.m. through 8 or 9 p.m. each night, which is what’s pushing the fire along the Wallace Creek drainage/Mill Creek Road area and it’s creating issues for us for structure defense as the fire continues to advance down to West Dry Creek Road and Westside Road,” said CalFire Division Chief Ben Nicholls.
An additional struggle last night was the defense of a critical communications infrastructure at Mount Jackson. According to Nicholls, crews were able to successfully defend the structure.
“There was a defensive firing operating conducted last night to ensure that we had as much protection around that critical communications infrastructure as possible and so far it seems to be accomplishing what we wanted it to do,” he said.
The southern tip of the fire continues to move south toward the communities of Rio Nido and Guerneville, prompting the expansion of the evacuation warning.
The mandatory evacuation order has expanded to the following areas (see attached map for each area):
• All areas in Map Grid 1F2 which includes all areas south of the Russian River, east and north of Hwy. 116 (Pocket Canyon) and west of Martinelli Road,
• Area 4B1, which includes all areas south of River Road from Martinelli Road to the intersection of River Road at Trenton Road, west of Covey Road, north of Front Street and Highway 116 and east of Martinelli Road
• Area 2A3, which is defined as north of Stewarts Point Skaggs Springs Road to the eastern edge of Lake Sonoma, everything west of the eastern edge of Lake Sonoma to the western boundary that runs north along the ridge line from the intersection of Stewarts Point Skaggs Springs Road at Old Stewarts Point Skaggs Springs Road to the interception of Rockpile Road at Cooley Ranch Road north to the Mendocino County Line.
• Area 2A3
With the weather behaving similar to what crews have been seeing the past several days, Nicholls said the fire still wants to push toward the intersection of Westside Road and Sweetwater Springs and south towards Guerneville.
“While backing down into Guerneville and Armstrong Woods, the right flank of the fire threatening Cazadero Canyon is high on our list because we would have a canyon alignment with the wind at that point if it were to get all the way into the upper King Ridge Road area,” Nicholls said. “Resources are being deployed into the Cedars area today to ensure that we close up the corner at that side of the fire.”
Bulldozer crews are slated to come into that area to cut into the fire’s edge. Bulldozer crews will also be working in the Korbel area to keep the fire above River Road.
“With those wind conditions, the concern would be that right now, the wind is pushing it in the direction that we’ve been fighting it. When that northwest wind comes off of it, now the fire becomes more of a fuel and slope driven fire, which could create issues for us out in the upper Cazadero Canyon area,” Nicholls said.
The good news is that more resources are starting to come in and firefighters who have been on the lines for 72 hours can finally get some rest. There are also no expected shortages of fixed wing aircraft today.
While smoke dictates where aircraft can be used, Nicholls said they’ll be using the Very Large Air Tankers (VLATs) and CalFire S2 tankers where the air is clear to “pinch off the head” of the fires as it works its way out to Westside Road. This is done in tandem with the work of hand crews and dozers to reinforce lines.
