Firefighters make steady progress on Glass fire, reaching 15% containment after first week

Fire officials reported continued progress on the week-old Glass fire Saturday evening even as gusting winds returned to the region, prompting a new red flag warning and kicking up flames around the burn zone, though mainly in Napa County.

The 63,450-acre fire was 15% contained as the firefight entered its seventh night, however, and Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mark Brunton, operations chief for the Glass fire, said crews were prepared for what lay ahead.

He expressed particular satisfaction with advances on containment and mop-up in Sonoma County, where threatened flare-ups just one and two days earlier raised concerns about risks to Kenwood, Glen Ellen and even the Mark West Creek corridor.

Instead, even the town of Calistoga, which is completely evacuated and just Friday was considered in peril, was “looking a lot better than it has been the last few days,” Brunton said in a Facebook briefing.

Brunton said the same of Angwin on the east side of the Napa Valley, and in Sonoma County. He said perimeter lines built in Sugarloaf Park to protect the Sonoma Valley were holding well, as was Highway 12 above Oakmont and Calistoga Road.

“Oakmont’s looking fantastic,” he said, “and we’re getting a few days closer to repopulation of that, but that won’t be for a little while. But that is on our radar, something we are looking at. We just want to make sure it’s completely safe.”

Brunton said later in an interview there had been a few “smokes” whipped up in the Sonoma County area of the burn zone, though he did not specify where. But he said they were quickly addressed by fire crews and are common when residents are allowed to begin returning to previously evacuated neighborhoods, and “there are more eyes in there.”

Though Sonoma County and the city of Santa Rosa downgraded several evacuation zones on Friday, and despite evacuation warnings being lifted in neighborhoods around Spring Lake and Summerfield Road, no one else was allowed to return home Saturday.

Between city and county evacuations, 14,520 people remained under mandatory evacuation order. Another 13,005 were out of their homes in Napa County.

Those areas of the city still closed to residents include east and northeast Santa Rosa neighborhoods where the fire came through last Sunday night and Monday, largely below the Mayacamas ridgeline connecting Sonoma and Napa counties.

To help residents learn the status of their homes, the city activated an interactive online map Saturday showing the locations of 29 destroyed structures and 12 damaged ones, as well as those that survived the fire.

The highest concentration of fire damage was in the Skyhawk Community, with other losses scattered around the Piedmont area east of north Calistoga Road and neighborhoods south of Highway 12 around Melita Road, Stonebridge and Oakmont.

Residents can plug in their street addresses to learn the condition of their homes as well as view the map online at bit.ly/3lcspRk.

Residents affected by the Glass fire also may seek help beginning Monday at a Local Assistance Center being established at Maria Carrillo High School, 6975 Montecito Blvd., in Santa Rosa.

The center will be open from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, offering help with replacement of documents like drivers licenses, insurance claims and rebuilding assistance.

Brunton said forecast winds had been “teetering” on speeds high enough to warrant another red flag warning. But with temperatures hovering around the century mark for the past few days and ultra-dry fuels around the region, the firefighting conditions were going to be difficult no matter what.

“We always plan accordingly and expect the unexpected, even if there wasn’t a red flag warning,” he said. “We really aren’t having to change our strategy so much.

“It’s not going to be a significant wind event,” he added. “It’s just going to be a little more increase than we were expecting by a few miles per hour.”

Fire chiefs had hoped earlier in the week that fire suppression challenges would subside slightly once Saturday morning passed and, with it, a two-day red flag period imposed earlier in the week.

Instead, breezy, gusty conditions were evident on the floor in Sonoma County, and the National Weather Service issued a new warning at 4 p.m. calling for slightly stronger winds over the North Bay hills and the Glass fire until about 6 a.m. Sunday.

“We’re looking at up to 35 mph gusts, so not the strongest winds since the Glass fire started, but strong enough,” meteorologist Brayden Murdock said from the agency’s Monterey office.

The weather cooperated in one critical way, however. Cleared skies opened the way beginning Saturday morning for substantial utilization of aircraft in support of a small army of what by Saturday night were 2,773 firefighters assigned to the incident, including an influx of firefighters from the beleaguered state of Oregon.

Aircraft targeting the area Saturday included members of Cal Fire’s tanker fleet, several “very large air tankers” and at least one Global Supertanker — converted DC-10s and a Boeing 747 outfitted to carry up to 12,000 and 18,000 gallons of retardant, respectively. The Supertanker can deliver 19,200 gallons of water, as well.

Smoky conditions that prevented air support for most of the state’s other 23 major wildfires made it “so we don’t have to share,” Brunton said.

In addition to fixed-wing aircraft, 22 helicopters assigned to the Glass incident were airborne, as well, he said.

“They’re all flying and dumping water,” Brunton said late Saturday afternoon. “We’re making the most of that aircraft today.”

Air resources were focused largely on the northern fire front spanning several miles of rough country at the head of the fire below the Napa-Lake county line and east of Highway 29, where flames have been running roughshod through mountainous, wooded landscape.

Additional trouble spots including an area west of Pope Valley, where a Friday night wind gust scattered embers beyond a containment line, creating spot fires in tinder-dry vegetation that crews were still mopping up Saturday.

Firefighters had secondary control lines to which they could fall back, Brunton said, adding, “We were planning for it. We were prepared for it.”

But rising winds on Saturday pushed flames into Bothe-Napa State Park for the first time, though increased fire activity had been anticipated.

“They’re in there battling right now,” Brunton said. “We have the resources available, so they’re doing what they do. We’re anticipating we’re going to have success with that.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.