Glass fire 92% contained, but more dangerous weather could be in store by Wednesday

Two weeks after it started, the Glass fire was 92% contained Sunday evening and could be fully contained by Wednesday, when another run of possibly dangerous fire weather, including high winds, could hit he region.

Firefighters were aided by light rains and high humidity on Saturday that sped up the timetable to reach full containment, said Erick Hernandez, spokesman for Cal Fire.

“The weather did cooperate a lot. The high humidity is very well appreciated. It’s the same thing we are expecting today and we hope to wrap this up,” Hernandez.

Fire officials, though, say they’re monitoring the forecast for extreme fire weather that could reach the region later in the week, leading PG&E to warn of an elevated risk for power shut-offs to reduce the risk of the utility’s equipment sparking wildfires.

Early forecasts from PG&E experts show the potential for Diablo winds to gust as high as 50 mph in the North Bay mountains and the Northern Sierra Nevada starting Wednesday evening.

By Sunday evening, Cal Fire still had 879 firefighters and 93 engines working the Glass fire, particularly in harder hit areas like Deer Park in Napa County, said Tyree Zander, a Cal Fire spokesman. And they’ll continue those efforts to guard hotspots for the next three days before recalibrating plans, he said.

“No matter whether the event is coming or going, we’re constantly working to get people back in their homes and get the fire out,” Zander said.

The firefighting effort is mopping up so that utility crews and Caltrans can perform their work and make certain areas in the fire zone livable. “We are just trying to secure areas, clear trees and let PG&E and the utility companies get in there,” Hernandez said.

Nearly all areas once under evacuation orders have had those orders lifted, including swaths of hard-hit eastern Sonoma County where more residents were allowed to return Sunday. But other restrictions remain in place, including part of St. Helena Road that is still closed; Hood Mountain Regional Park and Sugarloaf Ridge State Park also are both closed for repairs.

Firefighters on Saturday put out a small 2-acre fire in Pope Valley that flared up separately from the Glass fire, Hernandez said. “Since we still have a lot of resources in the area, we were able to get on that right away,” Hernandez said.

The 67,484-acre Glass fire destroyed 338 single- and multifamily homes in Sonoma County and damaged an additional 84 homes while destroying or damaging 21 commercial buildings.

In Napa County, it destroyed 308 homes and damaged 77 while destroying 343 commercial buildings and damaging 32.

No deaths have been reported in the fire.

The cause of the fire, which started on the 200 block North Fork Crystal Springs Road in Napa County, remains under investigation.