50,000 face evacuations in Sonoma County as Kincade Fire peril intensifies

Oct. 26--The Kincade Fire in Sonoma County took an ominous turn Saturday morning as Cal Fire expanded evacuation orders to include Healdsburg and other areas of the county, a move affecting 50,000 people.

The evacuation orders came as crews furiously tried to contain the fire, which was reported at 24,455 acres, before ferocious winds kick in. The fire was only 10% contained.

Cal Fire spokeswoman Tricia Austin said the evacuation order was somewhat "precautionary" with the high winds looming, but she made clear that people should leave. The fire "is not bearing down on the cities but it is active and the winds are coming," she said. "It's a threat."

Besides the mandatory evacuation orders, Cal Fire also issued an evacuation warning for portions of western Sonoma County, through the Russian River Valley to Bodega Bay.

Ryan Walburn of the National Weather Service said the fiercest winds were expected to start around 8 p.m. and could rival the winds seen in the October 2017 wine country fires. Gusts could reach 80 mph. "We're up for a long-duration wind event, high intensity," he said.

Jonathan Cox, another Cal Fire spokesman, called the evacuation orders a preventive measure against "a worst-case scenario for this fire." Capt. Stephen Volmer, a fire behavior analyst with the agency, said the winds were expected to start blowing the fire in a southwesterly direction beginning about 8 p.m. toward Highway 101.

"Any ignition that does happen will travel immediately fast with erratic behavior," Volmer said.

Sheriff Mark Essick said people should be out of the area by 4 p.m. The fire "is very dangerous and is expected to move toward Healdsburg and Windsor this evening," he said. "The winds that we're going to experience are going to be much like we experienced in October of 2017." The wine country fires that year killed more than 40 people.

He said residents could evacuate to the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Hall, the Petaluma Veterans Hall and the Petaluma fairgrounds. The Santa Rosa Fairgrounds was open for livestock only.

At the Petaluma Veterans Hall, Craig Allison and his wife Pat Sherman arrived early from their home in Windsor with their three dogs Ronny, Keith and Cookie.

There was a slight smoky haze in the late afternoon, and hardly a breeze, and Allison wasn't completely convinced he needed to leave. "If I didn't have my wife and dogs, I would have sent them away and stayed myself, and seen what shook out," he said.

But he added it was probably just as well to leave Windsor behind. "Better safe than sorry," he said.

Healdsburg, population 11,000, is one of the most popular tourist towns in Sonoma wine country. Windsor, a few miles south, has a population of 27,000.

With a total of 50,000 ordered to leave, it marks the largest evacuation in Northern California since the Camp Fire last November.

"It is a significant number of people to move out and we want to get a head start," Austin said.

At midday, the city of Healdsburg was already beginning to empty out.

"It's probably been a nonstop line of cars leaving town," said Dylan Sanders, front desk supervisor at the Harmon Guest House, a 39-room hotel in Healdsburg's picturesque downtown. "People are handling it pretty well -- not too much frantic behavior."

Sanders said that although the fire was still probably 15 miles north, the smoke was enveloping Healdsburg.

"The town is hazy, the smell of smoke is pretty much everywhere," he said. "Even the lobby here in the hotel, it works its way in."

Terry Fowler, a Healdsburg real estate broker, said he and his wife Louise were lucky to secure a hotel room in Santa Rosa. "In the process of packing up right now," he said.

Fowler said he and his family were on alert but never had to evacuate during the October 2017 fires. "Knowing what's happened in the past, it's surreal in a way," he said.

His wife evacuated before him and told him to expect a slow drive with thousands of others.

"The lines on 101 going south are just backed up, it's going to take a few hours to get out of here," Fowler said.

The expanded evacuation zone, taking in thousands of people, includes the Highway 101 corridor south from Geyserville, where the fire started Wednesday night, to Healdsburg and Windsor and east to the Chalk Hill Road area. Cal Fire also said people living in the Dry Creek Valley west to Forestville should evacuate, as well as the Larkfield area.

"They don't want another Tubbs incident," said Healdsburg firefighter Jonah Bren, referring to the 2017 fire that killed 22 people. "They want everyone cleared out of Healdsburg and Windsor so first responders can actually fight the fires and not worry about evacuating people."

City spokeswoman Rhea Borja said the mandatory evacuation order was issued in enough time to allow residents until 4 p.m. to clear out of the city.

"We are really emphasizing to people that its only 11 a.m., and they have a few hours to prepare," Borja said. "Do not panic. Southbound 101 may be congested due to the amount of people heading away, so be patient."

Borja said that city workers will be going door-to-door Saturday to encourage people to leave and will be helping vulnerable people such as the elderly leave the area. Updates to the city's plans will be available on Facebook and the city's website.

Earlier, the agency announced evacuation warnings were in effect for several Lake County communities to the east, including the area around Cobb Mountain. The Cobb Mountain area was devastated by the 2015 Valley Fire.

Until Saturday, the evacuation orders were limited to about 2,000 people living in an around Geyserville.

In an early morning update, Cal Fire said the Kincade Fire "is burning in remote steep terrain making access difficult and slow due to narrow roads." Cal Fire officials have been anxious to make progress on the fire while weather conditions were more favorable.

After nearly two days of calm, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for much of Northern and Central California amid forecasts of winds exceeding 60 mph.

PG&E Corp. announced it expects to shut power, starting Saturday afternoon, to an estimated 940,000 homes and businesses in the largest of its "public safety power shutoffs." It originally said the shutoffs would affect 850,000 homes.

The blackout is expected to last at least 48 hours, span parts of 36 counties and cover an estimated 2 million or more Californians. Nearly one in five PG&E customers would be left without power.

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