The investigation has begun into how the Glass fire started. The fire burning across Napa and Sonoma counties are reportedly zeroing in one rural, gated property where they say the fire started early Sunday morning on Howell Mountain, a hilly area of eastern Napa Valley. The Press Democrat reports CAL FIRE is investigation two possible places the fire might have started on the western side of the valley too. Two more fires started in that area, the Shady and Boysen fires which reportedly started from embers from the Glass fire that blew over the valley. So the east and west side of the Valley had three fires that merged to become the Glass Fire. It burned another 2,100 acres yesterday to be a nearly 60,000 acres by last night. 153 homes have been destroyed in Napa County and 67 more in Sonoma County.
Some of the worst air quality in North America in the Emerald Triangle. Mendo Fever reports a meteorologist at National Weather Service says the record breaking wildfires have brought unhealthy air quality in areas of Humboldt and Mendocino counties. The weather service reports some of Humboldt County was recorded as having Hazardous air quality that came from the August Complex and Red Salmon Complex fires. There wasn’t a lot of wind last week so the smoke was hanging in the air. The Ukiah Valley also recorded Hazardous air quality. Out near the Mendocino coast, for example Fort Bragg had a Moderate measurement.
A man arrested after being seen in the parking lot of Purity Market in Fort Bragg after entering a home. Police say they got a call the man was seen leaving his bike alone, went into a home, then re-emerged after walking thru several area neighborhoods. Police say the man was seen weaving in and out of backyards, emerging through an alley. He’s been identified as Shalom Lewis who was on parole and had a felony warrant. He was taken to jail, no word on his bail or if he’s been released due to the pandemic rules on jailing those arrested.
The Mendocino National Forest is offering free firewood permits through the end of the year. The Forest Service says woodcutters have to have one of the personal-use firewood permits and follow all regulations. Since the National Forest offices are closed to the public due to the pandemic and the fires, the permits will be mailed out. You will receive a permit, a firewood map and firewood tags for the Mendocino National Forest lands only. You’ll have to also be up on the latest, daily firewood-cutting restrictions in effect.
A man arrested in Willits after a call to a possible burglary at Brown’s Corner. Cops say when they arrived, there was a broken glass door and several items were found scattered inside and outside of the store, and there was damage to other store property. Video surveillance showed a man, who’s been identified as Bryan Elias of Vallejo, drove his car into the front door of the businesses, hit reverse, got out smashed the glass out of the door, went inside and took a bunch of booze and tobacco products, then left. He was found soon after and arrested. Police went to a home with a search warrant where they say they found most of the stolen items. His car was impounded, and Elias was booked into county jail for burglary and felony vandalism.
The Lake County Public Health Officer says there’s been high levels of bacteria found at multiple sites around Clear Lake. Dr. Gary Pace reports samples were taken two weeks ago at 19 sites to look for cyanobacteria, and that results showed concerning levels of the toxic bacteria. The Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians and Elem Indian Colony do regular monitoring across Clear Lake. Big Valley says on tests done Sept. 15th at 24 sites and found cyanobacteria blooms in most of the locations so they did more testing. Some of the tests showed danger level, so they urge to stay out of the water and not to allow pets in the water either.
It’s supposed to get very hot in the coming days and firefighters only have the latest massive wildfire at 5%. The Glass Fire burned over 2,000 more acres yesterday reaching almost 59,000 acres with only 5 percent containment. Nearly 29,000 structures are threatened and almost 590 have been destroyed. Another 110 structures have been damaged. The fire was reportedly actively burning yesterday with spot fires of as far away as one mile. The red flag warning has been extended through tomorrow. The August Complex has burned several thousand more acres. It’s now up to 956,084 acres and is 47 percent contained. The fire’s burning on the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests. It’s currently threatening 2,200 structures and has destroyed 100. Firefighters continue to monitor the east side of the fire and are monitoring and maintaining containment lines in the Lake Pillsbury region.
It looks like cases of COVID-19 are waning in Calif, after an explosion of cases in July. There were also a record number of deaths in August, but we don’t yet have the final numbers for all of September. But it looks as though less than half the cases than in August and a lower amount of deaths as well. We reported another death in Mendocino County this week, for a total of 19 deaths in the county. There have been many more cases reported in the county and in Lake County. The Lake County Public Health Officer has said he believes the county could enter the Purple, most restrictive tier next Tuesday. Each Tuesday is when the state looks at county numbers and makes decisions about what tier they will be in. As of yesterday there were 971 positive cases in Mendocino County, 569 in Lake County and 11 deaths. The latest numbers in Calif, 813,687 and 15,888 deaths.
The August Complex fire still burns, about ½ not contained. The massive 950,000 acre fire has caused evacuation orders and warnings since the middle of August, new ones in fact called for just yesterday. The Forest Service reports substantial work on the southwestern corner of the south zone of the fire near Big Signal Peak as there was unburned fuel in the control line. Fire personnel was assessing areas farther north along the southwestern edge of the zone and moving resources to areas where the fire was more active. They’re working today on the western edge, where there is good containment. There are evacuations continuing in this zone for Mendocino and Lake counties.
Forest Service officials say they have been getting push back from residents who didn’t want to evacuate even though there were orders in place in Trinity County in part of the August Complex. The service pleading with residents in the North fire zone. Officials are also expressing concern the fire could merge with the Zogg Fire burning northeast in Shasta County and into part of Tehama County. That one started Sunday outside Redding in a Red Flag Warning and killed four people.
In Paradise, there’s talk about moving all utility lines underground. Last year PG&E in the town discussing moving all utilities underground, but word that some telecommunications companies said they were not made aware of PG&E‘s plan and it would cost too much to do it. That was a year ago. The town of Paradise though says PG&E had only buried about 30 miles of electrical utilities since their May 2019 announcement. They’re having a meeting October 13th in Paradise to discuss an Underground Utility District. They’d have to pull out all utility poles and overhead infrastructure for the underground work to begin. The town also reportedly filed a California Public Utilities Commission complaint against Comcast and AT&T saying those companies had not been maintaining safe and adequate facilities as related to the Camp Fire and how utility poles and wires were in the way of evacuation efforts.
As the Glass Fire continues to burn mostly out of control, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has agreed to use about $2.5 million for immediate response costs. They have also approved an emergency declaration by the emergency services director on Monday. That helps the county get emergency funds from the state and allows mutual aid support from the state and other regional partners. The Press Democrat reports the county has also submitted a preliminary damage estimate of public assets that so far total over $18 million.
We may see some relief for all of the fires as a hurricane southwest of Baja Mexico could bring us some rain. There’s a 15-20% chance for the Bay Area, but not until the end of next week. That of course could change by the time the hurricane makes landfall.
Some of the fires that have been burning near us are 100% contained, that includes the LNU Lightning Complex. The fire broke out at the same time as the August Complex. It burned over 363,200 acres. The Glass fire is burning 4 miles east of Calistoga and has so far blackened almost 60,150 acres and is 6% contained. The massive August Complex also continues to burn, 51% of the entire complex is contained. The fire continues to creep up to almost one million acres. Right now it’s at 970,563 acres, growing 15,000 acres yesterday. As we’ve reported the fire’s been divided into three zones, the South Zone has burned almost 491,000 and is 70% contained, the North Zone burned nearly 356,490 acres, and is 32% contained. The West Zone burned over 123,300 acres and is 55% contained. We still have people who’ve been evacuated in both Mendocino and Lake counties. 159 structures have been destroyed.
