California wildfires: Updates on major fires as state hits 4 million acres burned this year
It’s been California’s most severe wildfire season by several measures, and there are still nearly three full months left in 2020.
Over the weekend, the state eclipsed 4 million total acres burned this year, according to Cal Fire. No other year, dating back to the start of reliable records in 1933, surpassed 2 million acres.
The largest wildfire in recorded state history reached 1 million acres Monday morning. No other fire, dating back to 1933, surpassed 500,000.
Cal Fire reports there are still nearly two dozen major incidents being battled statewide. And conditions are volatile. Over the weekend, a red flag warning for the North Bay area expired Saturday morning — only to be reissued hours later due to as winds kicked up again. Red flag warnings are issued by the National Weather Service due to “critical” fire weather conditions.
Here ‘s an update on the latest status of the most significant fires still actively burning across Northern California as of midday Monday.
Glass Fire
Emergency officials issued a new evacuation order for northern Napa County on Sunday due to continued intense behavior on the Glass Fire, a now 65,580-acre blaze that Cal Fire says is 30% contained.
The latest evacuation is for an area east of Highway 29 at Livermore Road, up through the Napa-Lake county line.
In a Sunday evening update, Cal Fire said there were approximately 36,800 people still under mandatory evacuation orders across Sonoma and Napa counties.
Some orders and warnings have been lifted, including for the city of Calistoga and the east edge of Santa Rosa. Detailed evacuation information is available from Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit (LNU), or via the Nixle webpages for the Napa County Office of Emergency Services, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, the city of Santa Rosa and the city of Calistoga.
With damage assessments continuing as containment increases, the Glass Fire, which has been burning since its explosive start amid very gusty winds Sept. 27 in the North Bay area region known as Wine Country, now ranks among the most destructive fires in state history.
Through Monday morning, Cal Fire reported 1,235 structures destroyed, placing it No. 13 on the all-time state list for property destruction. The fire agency says nearly 22,000 structures are still considered at risk due to the Glass Fire.
Cal Fire LNU, in a more detailed breakdown of the destruction, said 487 homes have been destroyed, with another 137 damaged. Another 316 commercial buildings have been destroyed, the vast majority (304) in Napa County. Most of the remaining reported destruction has involved minor structures and outbuildings.
The Glass Fire as of Monday morning is the fourth-most destructive fire in state history among fires smaller than 75,000 acres. Nos. 1 and 3 on the list — the Tubbs Fire, which destroyed 5,636 structures and scorched nearly 37,000 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties; and the Nuns Fire, which destroyed 1,355 across about 54,000 acres — were part of the October 2017 wildfires that ravaged Wine Country.
No deaths have been reported in connection with the Glass Fire as of Monday morning.
August Complex
The August Complex, a gigantic lightning-sparked wildfire incident that started Aug. 17 at Mendocino National Forest and has flared in gusty winds since then, continued to expand its record-setting size, reaching 1 million acres Monday morning.
The U.S. Forest Service, the lead agency for most of the fire zone, reported the fire at 1,002,097 acres as of a Monday morning incident update. The complex is just 54% contained, meaning there’s only a fire line around a little more than half of its enormous perimeter.
The Forest Service currently predicts it won’t be fully contained until mid-November.
The blaze is now burning in portions of Mendocino, Six Rivers and Shasta-Trinity national forests, the Forest Service says.
Cal Fire and the Forest Service are coordinating efforts on the 130,000-acre West Zone of the fire, which has 138 California National Guard among nearly 1,700 personnel fighting the fire, Cal Fire says. Cal Fire in a Monday morning incident report for the West Zone said the fire “vigorously burned with wind-driven torching, spotting and fire runs” overnight. The West Zone is now 60% contained.
The vast majority of the fire zone is forested and sparsely populated, but dozens of structures have been destroyed and over 11,000 more remain threatened in the West Zone. Dozens of distinct evacuation orders are in place for towns and remote communities in Trinity and Mendocino counties, along with warnings in those two counties plus Humboldt. More detailed evacuation information is available from Cal Fire’s Mendocino unit and those counties’ sheriff’s offices.
A volunteer firefighter from Texas died while assisting containment of the August Complex, the Forest Service announced at the start of September.
Smoke from the August Complex has been a major contributor to poor air quality throughout Northern California over various points in the past month and a half.
Zogg Fire
Crews have made good progress on the deadly Zogg Fire, which ignited the same day as the Glass Fire, Sept. 27, in hilly areas west of Redding in Shasta County.
Now reported by Cal Fire at just over 56,000 acres and with 76% containment, more than 1,700 firefighters remain assigned to the Zogg Fire.
At 10 a.m. Monday, Cal Fire announced that most but not all of the remaining evacuation orders have been lifted for residents only, including the areas of South Fork Road, a stretch of Rainbow Lake Road, and Buel Road. Zogg Mine Road and all adjoining roads, in the most immediate area of the fire, remain closed.
The fire started just north of the communities of Igo and Ono, several miles southwest of Redding, and raged quickly upon ignition.
Authorities say at least four civilians were killed in the Zogg Fire, two of whom were transported to UC Davis Medical Center for burn injuries.
North Complex
The North Complex Fire is creeping toward full containment as the California Interagency Incident Management Team reported 83% containment Sunday morning. The complex, burning largely in the Plumas National Forest, reached a size of 318,724 acres as of Monday morning.
The North Complex continues to hold as the fifth-largest wildfire in California history, behind the LNU Lightning Complex.
The fire began Aug. 17 and has killed 15 people and damaged or destroyed 2,471 structures. All 15 of the fatalities were in the West Zone of the North Complex, which made a wind-fueled sprint toward communities north of Lake Oroville in early September. Cal Fire said last week that the West Zone was 98% contained, with no further fire activity anticipated.
Butte and Plumas counties continue to have evacuation warnings and orders near the Highway 70 corridor and the surrounding region, due to continued activity on the fire’s other two zones.
Rain, cooler temperatures on the way. Will it help?
There is a chance of rain later this week across much of Northern California, including the areas of all four above-mentioned fires, starting Thursday night or Friday and expected to last through Saturday.
A wet and cool storm track will pass through, making “widespread precipitation” possible, the NWS Sacramento office says. Temperatures in Sacramento could drop by more than 20 degrees by Friday.
Significant, widespread rain would hopefully douse the very dry vegetation that Cal Fire, the U.S. Forest Service and weather experts have described on a daily basis in incident reports as fodder for the recent wildfires.
UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, though, tweeted Sunday that this week’s weather system “is looking *unlikely* to be a fire season-ending rainfall event, unfortunately.”
It should become a bit clearer in the next few days how significant the storm will be, but as of early Monday, the NWS isn’t predicting significant rainfall to continue beyond Saturday. Still, it’s a start, and a little bit of rain is better than no rain.
The storm system could also help at least temporarily clear out some of the wildfire smoke that’s been afflicting California skies for the better part of the past six weeks.
Climate change and California wildfires
Wildfires have always been part of life in California. The past four years have brought some of the most destructive and deadliest wildfires in the state’s modern history.
Nearly 180 people have lost their lives since 2017. More than 41,000 structures have been destroyed and nearly 7 million acres have burned. That’s roughly the size of Massachusetts.
So far this year, at least 30 people have died, according to Cal Fire.
Meanwhile, this year’s August was the hottest on record in California. A rare series of lightning storms sparked a series of fires, including the August Complex that has burned nearly 1 million acres, making it by far the largest wildfire in California’s recorded history.
The 2017 wildfire season occurred during the second-hottest year on record in California and included a devastating string of fires in October that killed 44 people and destroyed nearly 9,000 buildings in Napa, Lake, Sonoma, Mendocino, Butte and Solano counties.
The following year was the most destructive and deadliest for wildfires in the state’s history. It included the Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85 people, and the enormous Mendocino Complex.
This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 11:54 AM with the headline "California wildfires: Updates on major fires as state hits 4 million acres burned this year."
