With burning conditions not as severe as seen in nights prior, fire crews have maintained the fire lines of the Walbridge Fire along Sweetwater Springs Road, however, despite a concentrated effort to contain the Stewarts fire burning at the heel of Lake Sonoma near Skaggs Springs Road, it is going to be allowed to burn into Walbridge in order to better allocate resources across the area, according to CalFire Division Chief Ben Nicholls.
“The Stewarts fire from yesterday, although we threw the aerial assets that we had at it and 17 fire engines both from our agency and agencies across the county, due to the surge commitment of resources here in the county unfortunately that fire continued to grow in size,” Nicholls said during a Thursday morning press briefing. “It’s been determined that we’ll allow that fire to burn into the Walbridge so that we can make sure that we’re allocating the resources that we have to make sure that we are keeping communities safe as these fires continue to grow.”
He said the Stewarts fire firefight is progressing well with the fact that Lake Sonoma is at the heel of that fire. “Stewarts” is the informal name for the incident.
“We’re working on addressing that left flank of that fire so that it does not impact the top end of the west Dry Creek Valley any more than it has to,” Nicholls said.
Even though the Meyers Fire grew in size overnight to 3,000 acres, Nicholls said it is looking much better. Crews were able to hold the Meyers Fire west of Meyers Grade Road and it is currently south of Fort Ross Road and is in a confined area.
“It’s (the Meyers Fire) not continuing to grow at this point,” Nicholls said.
In terms of resources for the Walbridge, there is a strike team of type one engines and a task force from Alameda County assigned to the incident and one specific air attack assigned to the county.
According to an update on the Walbridge Fire from District 5 Supervisor, Lynda Hopkins, “There was a substantial push of the fire towards Mill Creek and Westside Road yesterday. Unfortunately, during the afternoon substantial impacts occurred to that area and CalFre is still evaluating today. Chief Nicholls noted that the fire made it roughly ‘halfway’ down Mill Creek Road. It has not made it onto Chemise but is on the western portion of Big Ridge.”
Nicholls said it’s possible they’ll get a scooper aircraft in this afternoon that can be used at Lake Sonoma and Lake Berryessa. He said the biggest challenge with the fires at this point is still the lack of resources.
Even though the Walbridge is being considered as the top priority fire right now for the LNU Lightening Complex, there are still less resources than what would normally be used for a fire of this size and scope.
However, both Nicholls and the Sonoma County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Director, Chris Godley, reported that weather conditions have improved slightly and that winds are supposed to stay similar with what crews have experienced in the last several days.
Nicholls said there is the possibility for 20 mph wind gusts from the northwest, but overall, conditions have improved slightly, yet fire conditions can still be erratic as weather conditions can rapidly change.
In terms of how close Walbridge is to Healdsburg, Nicholls said while there has been spotting and while it did make a slight push towards West Side Road and Mill Creek, there hasn’t been concern of it getting across the Dry Creek Valley.
Nicholls said he and Healdsburg Fire Chief Jason Boaz made the evacuation warning determination yesterday afternoon for the city of Healdsburg because there was spotting that was creating containment issues as the Walbridge Fire came into the Mill Creek drainage.
“It was made out of an abundance of caution,” Nicholls said.
The Sonoma County Fairgrounds is being used as the main connection point for those under mandatory evacuation. Once at the evacuation point, the county will direct people to the appropriate place to go (RV parking, motels, hotels or other places to stay).
“We are operating a temporary evacuation point at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds as well as an emergency shelter. At this time the shelter has 15 residents out of a potential capacity of 200 beds available,” Godley said.
District 5 Supervisor Lynda Hopkins reiterated that if you are currently in a mandatory evacuation zone you need to get out now to allow firefighters to do their job.
“We need folks to follow the evacuation order … It’s still really critical this is taken seriously. If you are still in a mandatory evacuation zone, get out. We do still have space available at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds and we have staff and bilingual staff there to connect folks with additional resources,” Hopkins said.
