With fires throughout the state, the Walbridge and Meyers fires are a priority for the CalFire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit, but resources are slim
Updated Friday, Aug. 21 at 7:51 a.m. —
According to the latest report from CalFire, the Walbridge Fire grew from 20,000 acres overnight to 21,125 acres and is 0% contained. The Meyers Fire held at 3,000 acres and is 0% contained.
After a morning of calmer winds, the Walbridge Fire is persisting. While air resources spent part of the day reinforcing the fire lines, an afternoon increase in wind has put stress on the fire, causing it to burrow deeper into the Mill Creek drainage and down into the Armstrong valley, testing the fire line at Sweetwater Springs Road.
As of the most recent CalFire update at 7 p.m. on Aug. 20, the fire had expanded to 20,000 acres from the 14,000 it was at this morning, and is 0% contained. Adding to the acreage is it combining with the smaller Stewarts Fire, which was burning at the bottom of Lake Sonoma near Skaggs Springs Road. The Meyers Fire near Jenner has held steady throughout the day at 3,000 acres, and is fully surrounded and is no longer considered a significant threat.
According to CalFire officials, the Sonoma County fires have been designated as a priority within CalFire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit’s Lightning Complex Fire grouping. While this means that the county is more likely to get fire resources as they become available, the fire fighting resources in California are spread thin from the hundreds of fires currently going on throughout the state.
“As we move forward, the resource pool that we have for the majority for the incidents is slim,” said CalFire incident commander Sean Kavanaugh. “There are multiple large fires brewing in multiple counties.”
Resources within the state are slim pickings — District 5 Supervisor Lynda Hopkins noted that, due to lack of resources and available firefighters, many firefighters have barely slept — and Senator Mike McGuire said that more resources should be coming from outside of the state to help with fires in California.
“The state of California has never faced such unprecedented fire conditions in recent memory,” Senator Mike McGuire said. “It is going to take everything we have, plus assistance from our state partners, plus assistance internationally to be able to deal with the crisis we currently have.”
“There’s no more equipment out there. The people that are on the line have been out on the line since it’s started,” said CalFire Division Chief Ben Nicholls. “They’re still out there, it’s a very difficult situation when you can’t rotate people in.”
McGuire said personnel and fire engines should be arriving locally over the next few days, as crews are released from other fires throughout the state, and that the state is requesting assistance from both states throughout the country and internationally from Australia.
When asked about the fire’s proximity to Rio Nido and Guerneville, Nicholls said that bulldozers are trying to construct a fire line from Sweetwater Springs Road up to Mount Jackson and down to Westside Road, trying to keep the fire contained on the north side of Sweetwater Springs. If the fire pushes north, Nicholls said that resources will have to go toward structure defense in Rio Nido.
“We just don’t have the resources to keep the fire out of Armstrong Woods,” Nicholls said, when asked if there’s hope to keep the fire from hitting the redwoods. Nicholls noted that, while it’s heading down to Armstrong, they’ll try to protect the area as much as possible.
As Healdsburg sits under an evacuation warning, CalFire said that the warning will turn into an order if the fire gets to West Dry Creek Road or Westside Road. District 4 Supervisor James Gore spent the afternoon near the fire and said that the fire has already claimed some homes in the Mill Creek area. He noted that the difficult terrain will make the Walbridge Fire difficult to fight.
“The reality is we’re going to be in this for the long haul,” Gore said.
Unlike the Kincade and 2017 Sonoma Complex Fires, the Walbridge Fire doesn’t burn with the same ferocity — instead of being caused and exacerbated by a wind event, the fuel for the fire is largely brush and timber.
Sonoma County officials stressed the importance of evacuating and staying evacuated when under a mandatory order. Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said that there was an incident on Wednesday where someone tried to drive back into an evacuation zone and their car stopped working, making it so first responders had to go into the area to rescue them.
As night falls, the behavior of the winds and the fire will determine what happens next.
