LIVE UPDATES: Firefighters gain on Sonoma, Oakmont, Napa, Mendocino fires
Here is the latest on the fire and related issues from Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties.
5:30 p.m.
Classes will resume Wednesday at Sonoma State University, 10 days after the North Bay fires struck the region and one week after the campus was closed.
University said they plan to hold two events that let the campus community gather and express gratitude in the fires' wake. All students, faculty, staff and the news media are welcome, a campus statement said.
5 p.m.
Firefighters took to steep and rocky terrain on Mount St. Helena to battle the northern spread of the Tubbs fire Tuesday, said Cal Fire Section Chief Steve Crawford.
“(We) had some really aggressive firefighters who took the initiative to create a great plan,” Crawford said at a Tuesday afternoon press conference at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.
The steep slopes didn't allow for crews to use a bulldozer to create a containment line in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, Crawford said. The fire has burned a large section of the park in both Napa and Sonoma counties, according to Cal Fire maps.
The ground was covered with fire retardant and made the rocky slope very slippery for hand crews working to create a fire break, he said. Bulldozers worked up from the bottom of the ridge with helicopters working from the sky to put out active fires, he said.
“Crews have made very good progress yesterday and today” Crawford said.
3 p.m.
An evacuation order has been lifted for a portion of Geyserville from Highway 128 north to Vanoni Road, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office announced in an update.
The Pocket fire has burned 12,243 acres between Geyserville and Cloverdale. The blaze was 58 percent contained as of Tuesday morning, Cal Fire said.
“Our biggest struggle had been to keep (the fire) from moving to the east and to the south,” said Cal Fire Division Section Chief Steve Crawford. “Our comfort level is pretty good there.”
On the north flank of the Pocket fire, crews are back burning containment lines to avoid a dangerous active fight in difficult terrain, Crawford said. There will be a lot of smoke, but fire officials hope northern progress of the wildfire will burn out on the fire break, he said.
3 p.m.
Napa County officials have identified the victim of a fire-related water tender crash Monday as a volunteer firefighter from Missouri named Garrett Paiz.
Paiz, 38, died Monday morning while trying to negotiate winding Oakville Grade into Napa County in the dark of Monday morning.
The CHP said he was on his way to refill a large water tanker being used to battle the Nuns fire, which has spread north from Sonoma County into neighboring Napa County.
The tanker went off the road, broke through a guardrail and plunged about 20 feet into a ravine not far from the bottom of the grade and Highway 29, authorities said.
Paiz is a volunteer firefighter with the Noel Fire Department in southwest Missouri but was working as a driver under contract to Cal Fire and would have been unfamiliar with the steep and curving roadway.
The 1993 Kenworth water tender overturned, and the tractor detached from the tanker during the 6:45 a.m. crash, authorities said.
2 p.m.
The number of missing people dropped to 53 and total fatalities in Sonoma County remained at 22, Sheriff Rob Giordano said at a Tuesday afternoon press conference at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.
While active firefighting is ongoing in some areas of Sonoma County, emergency response officials are transitioning to recovery efforts to clean up destroyed homes and get people back on their feet, said Incident Commander Bret Gouvea at the same press conference.
Nearly 60,000 people were ordered to evacuate in Tubbs fire that has ravaged the area since Oct. 8., but as of Tuesday afternoon roughly 36,000 people have been allowed back into their homes, Gouvea said.
The Sheriff's Office and the Santa Rosa police have broken up the search for the remaining missing persons and are handling cases of people who lived within their jurisdictions, Giordano said.
1:30 p.m.
Cal Fire announced the lifting of several more evacuation orders around Sonoma County as firefighters continued to gain control over the blazes burning around the region.
Orders were lifted for Oakmont south of Highway 12 east of Calistoga Road to Pythian Road. That does not include Skyhawk or Rincon Valley east of Calistoga Road. Northbound roads off Highway 12 remain closed.
View an evacuation map here.
As of 1 p.m., evacuations also were lifted for the area north of Highway 128 until Varoni Road outside the perimeter of the Pocket fire burning in the northern county, Cal Fire said.
Additionally, residents will be allowed back into some unincorporated neighborhoods east of Sonoma, including areas stretching from 4th Street East to Lovall Valley Road at Thornsberry Road, Lovall Valley Court, south from Lovall Valley Road to East Napa Street, east from 7th Street East toward the fire perimeter and Highway 121 and all streets south between East Napa Street and Napa Road, Cal Fire said.
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