LNU Lightning Complex growing slowly as California weather improves, Cal Fire says
Fire crews are achieving better containment and growth is slowing on the LNU Lightning Complex, one of the two largest among several hundred wildfires that have sparked across California in the past week and a half amid widespread thunderstorms, state fire officials said Tuesday morning.
The complex of fires burning primarily in Napa, Lake and Sonoma counties has killed at least five people, destroyed more than 930 structures, damaged 250 others and continues to threaten about 30,000 more buildings — many of them homes, with long lists of evacuation orders and warnings still in place for the North Bay, according to a 7 a.m. update from Cal Fire.
But the cluster of wildfires, which sparked Aug. 17 and grew to become the second-largest in state history for a few days, has grown minimally since Monday. It has now dropped to California’s third-largest fire ever, with the raging SCU Lightning Complex overtaking it.
As of Cal Fire’s Tuesday morning update, the LNU Complex was mapped at just over 352,900 acres (about 550 square miles), up from 350,000 acres since Monday morning’s update. Containment grew from 22% to 27% in those 24 hours.
The two biggest fires within the complex are the Hennessey Fire, burning just over 296,000 acres in Napa and Lake counties, now at 29% containment; and the 54,000-acre Walbridge Fire, west of Healdsburg in Sonoma County, which is 17% contained.
Fire crews were assisted by improving weather conditions Sunday and Monday, including lower temperatures and calmer winds. A system of thunderstorms that brought hundreds more lightning strikes across California early Monday missed both the LNU Complex in the North Bay and the SCU Complex east of San Jose, a huge relief after forecasters warned that dry thunderstorms with plenty of lightning but little to no rain could lead to flare-ups on existing fires.
Even with good progress and improving conditions, Cal Fire’s Tuesday morning situation report continues to warn of “extreme fire behavior” challenging firefighting efforts.
Evacuation orders for the LNU Complex were lifted Tuesday for parts of Sonoma County, days after Yolo and Solano counties were allowed back in. Cal Fire officials, however, say residents should still be ready to go at any time even if they’re not immediately impacted by an evacuation order or advisory. As last week proved with rounds of mandatory orders being issued in the middle of the night for Vacaville, wildfire situations change rapidly.
On Tuesday, Cal Fire issued new evacuation warnings for parts of Napa County, with a full list on the agency’s incident page.
Nearly 2,200 fire personnel are now battling the LNU Lightning Complex, an increase by more than 300 since Monday morning, Cal Fire said Tuesday.
California’s firefighting resources have been stretched thin by the sheer volume of major and minor wildfires burning in the state.
“We’re deploying every resource we have” to combat a total of 625 fires across California, including about two dozen considered major incidents, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a news conference early Monday afternoon.
They missed the major ones already burning, but lightning strikes elsewhere in Northern California sparked 10 new fires Monday, Newsom said.
Including the LNU Complex fatalities, at least seven people have died in California’s wildfires, the governor said.
Businesses, homeowners react to wildfire’s destruction
On the southeast corner of Lake Berryessa, family-owned Markley Cove Resort had stood since the late 1950s, offering cabins and a launch for boaters visiting the east side of Napa County.
The LNU Complex burned the resort to the ground.
“Something like COVID hits, and then something like this (fire), and all of a sudden these people come out of the woodwork — I couldn’t pick them out in a crowd, and they’re telling me, ‘Man, anything you need ... I’ll help you,’” owner Chad Frasier said.
Speaking to media in front of the rubble of his business, Frasier kept things in perspective.
“We will get by, and we will be OK,” he said. “I worry about the folks further up this road that have lost everything. Everything: houses (families) have been in for generations, their livestock, family members. That’s the important stuff. This is a building, and we can rebuild it.”
He said locals have offered to start GoFundMe campaigns for Markley Cove, which has said was “flattering,” but “not for us.” Frasier asked anyone considering those sorts of donations to instead direct them to homeowners who “lost their entire life history.”
Several miles to the west along Lake Berryessa, Spanish Flat resident Gary Pratt said Cal Fire crews pulled up to his home around 4 a.m. on Aug. 18.
“We took about 10 minutes and just threw together whatever we could,” Pratt said, mainly clothes and his girlfriend’s two cats. “... we didn’t even know it was so close, but there was fire on both sides of the roads as we were getting out. It’s really tough to see.”
Pratt said he found out the house burned down after being sent a link to a BBC News story that included a photo of it up in flames. The striking photo, one of many dramatic images captured by Associated Press photographer Noah Berger, has topped multiple news reports at the state, national and international levels.
As he sifted through the wreckage Monday, Pratt said some of his cast-iron chairs were “almost recognizable,” but not much else survived.
“It’s not really looking like anything’s gonna come out of this.”
This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 8:38 AM with the headline "LNU Lightning Complex growing slowly as California weather improves, Cal Fire says."
