The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency Friday afternoon, Aug. 21, in response to the Walbridge Fire burning down to Armstrong Woods that continues to threaten the Rio Nido, Guerneville and lower Russian River communities.
The ratification of an emergency declaration allows counties and cities to receive funding for disaster recovery from federal entities like FEMA. Earlier today in a press conference with CalFire, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state is working on securing federal support.
The state also has a federal, bi-partisan request for a major disaster declaration for the state of California.
“That has two purposes, fiscal and logistical. It helps individuals, but also helps with accessing resources and allows us to be more resourceful from a flexibility perspective,” Newsom said.
Additionally, Bob Fenton, the western regional coordinator of FEMA and his team with the support of Congressman Mike Thompson, have secured five Fire Management Assistance Grants (FMAGs) for the state, according to Newsom.
In terms of additional firefighting resources, Newsom said the mutual aid system has been activated and the state is formally engaged with mutual aid from 10 different states.
“We’ve been trying to reach out as far as the east coast to see if we can get resources into the state of California to address the stress that we’ve placed on the 12,000 plus firefighters that are on the lines as we speak,” he said.
The state of Arizona has sent 10 engines, the state of Oregon sent 25 engines and the state of Washington is providing some surveillance equipment including an RC26 Fixed wing surveillance plane. Texas, Idaho, Utah and Montana have also provided support and the state of California has also reached out to Canada and Australia for firefighting aid.
With the winds picking up this afternoon and a fire watch issued by the National Weather Service for the area this weekend due to the possibility of more dry lightning, additional resources come at a critical point of the firefight.
The Walbridge Fire continues to creep southward towards the lower Russian River area and while it may not have the speed that the Tubbs and Kincade Fires had, it does have a high level of intensity from the ample amount of timber and dense vegetation that’s accumulated and hasn’t burned in decades.
Instead of burning in a consistent path or straight line, the fire can be erratic, making its way down a drainage basin only to lick its way laterally back up a ridge by feeding off of the timber and tree canopy of a forest.
“The fire continues to creep towards the lower Russian River area and it’s well into Armstrong Woods at this point, maybe half-way down the valley,” said Chris Godley, the director for the Sonoma County Emergency Operations Center. “We’re looking at above Rio Nido and above Monte Rio, that is kind of where the fire is poking around, and Mount Jackson has been impacted by fire.”
On the eastern edge, the fire continues to probe and progress into the Wallace Creek drainage.
“At this point, it has been a relatively modest day for fire progression, but right now as we speak, we expect the winds potentially to change that,” Godley said.
Currently, 13 zones of the county’s evacuation map are in an evacuation warning zone, meaning 8,793 residents are subject to an evacuation warning. Thirteen zones of the county evacuation map are in a mandatory evacuation zone, affecting 12,153 residents.
CalFire, county and law enforcement officials, assembly members and Newsom have reiterated the importance of heeding mandatory evacuation orders. While folks may be anxious to return to the area to check on their homes, officials stressed at the morning press conference, that the fire is still extremely active and evacuation order zones are put in place for that reason.
As CalFire Unit Chief Shana Jones said at the morning press conference, “We are not out of the woods, not by far.”
