California on Fire . . . again

Fire conditions statewide made California “a tinderbox,” said Jonathan Cox, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Of the state’s 58 counties, 43 were under red flag warnings for high fire danger Sunday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in response to the wildfires, powered by gusts that reached more than 102 mph (164 kph). apnews

apnews The communities are in an area where a 2015 blaze killed four people and burned nearly 2,000 homes and other buildings. . . The cause of the fire near the Sonoma County town of Geyserville has not been determined. But PG&E has said a transmission line in the area was not shut off and malfunctioned minutes before the fire began Wednesday night.



apnews  The biggest evacuation was in Northern California’s Sonoma County where 180,000 people were told to pack up and leave, many in the middle of the night. . . To prevent its power lines from sparking in the high winds and setting off more blazes, Pacific Gas & Electric said Sunday that preventative shut-offs impacted 965,000 customers and another 100,000 lost electricity because of strong gusts, bringing the number of residents impacted by blackouts to nearly 2.7 million people.

HERO Mike Costlow tries to save his neighbors homes by spraying water on them during the Kincade fire in Windsor, California, on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019. Mike defied the evacuation order and has been staying home to protect his house and his neighbors homes.Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle



cbsnews. Hurricane-force winds created blowtorch-like conditions overnight in Northern California as the Kincade Fire continued to rage Sunday. As of 6:30 p.m. PT, the fire had burned more than 54,000 acres and was only 5% contained. . . Approximately 180,000 people are under evacuation orders, the Sonoma County Sheriff tweeted. "This is the largest evacuation that any of us at the Sheriff's Office can remember. Take care of each other,” The Kincade Fire grew to more than 54,000 acres on Sunday but the containment had gone down to 5%.

Tree still standing?

California’s New Normal: 

Wildfires, ash and power outages could last a decade [?]

The window of Soda Rock Winery burst from the heat after the fire jumped
Highway 128 fueled by strong gusting winds as the Kincade Fire
burns outside Healdsburg, Calif., on Sunday, October 27, 2019.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

seattletimes HEALDSBURG, Calif. – Ryan Schmaltz raced in his Ford F-150 down Highway 101 two weeks ago during the first set of rolling blackouts here to pick up the only industrial generator available within 60 miles.  Without it, the winemaker risked losing 160 tons of fruit, much of it zinfandel. He couldn’t cool the grapes to temperature with glycol or mix the wine in tanks of up to 3,700 gallons. At the height of the winemaking season, the family-owned winery would be paralyzed. But now, as yet another blackout rolls through Sonoma County, he needs to fire up the generator again. He is worried he won’t know how to operate such a complicated machine. So he called an electrician.

Calif. Wine Region

“We just can’t wait, and we know it’s gonna happen again,” Schmaltz said in an interview inside a 7,000-square-foot storage cave, one of the only places at Bella Winery where it was safe to breathe without an air mask as new fires raged a few miles away.










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WHY IS THE WIND COMING 
FROM THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION?