Officials investigating series of ‘suspicious’ fires in west Sonoma County

Fire officials are investigating a series of six “suspicious” blazes that have ignited in remote, forested terrain around Monte Rio over the past month, including two fires Tuesday that blanketed the lower Russian River community in smoke, according to Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman.

“It’s very concerning,” said Monte Rio resident Sasha Kladar, who has heard firefighting aircraft buzzing over her home several times this winter.

From her second-story apartment window on Tuesday, Kladar was watching a swarm of sheriff’s deputies drive around town in search of a suspect in a fatal shooting when she noticed firefighters gearing up for a different emergency outside their station on Main Street.

“I look behind my house and, boom, there’s smoke,” she said in a phone interview, recounting the events of the day that pulled emergency responders from around Sonoma County to the normally tranquil Russian River community.

The smoke was coming from a 7-acre blaze burning in the thick forest above Bonita Terrace, a windy, residential street south of the river and west of Bohemian Highway. It was the second fire found Tuesday on the same hillside, according to Baxman.

Firefighters contained both blazes before nightfall.

Fire investigators, Baxman said, are working to determine what caused the six blazes and whether they are connected.

He’s urging residents along the lower Russian River to “take note of any suspicious people they see in the area, especially at night.”

While Monte Rio has seen its fair share of wildfires that started as bonfires at homeless camps in the woods, “these are not those,” Baxman said.

Investigators have not found evidence of homeless camps around any of the six fires, according to Baxman. Those include a blaze that was reported Feb. 10 above Highland Terrace, three found Feb. 19 above Bohemian Highway and the two on Tuesday.

Cal Fire is in charge of investigating each of those blazes, but the agency had not completed any of the investigations on Wednesday, an official said. He said Cal Fire’s investigations take weeks and sometimes months to complete.

Baxman said investigators, who use a process of elimination to zero in on the most likely cause of a fire, have ruled out lightning and electric lines as possible causes for all of the suspicious fires.

Asked whether some of the fires could have been started by an arsonist, Baxman reiterated that investigators have not officially identified a cause of any of the blazes, but he said, “it’s not looking good.”

“These are very suspicious,” he said.

Most of the fires, according to Baxman, have burned in steep terrain that’s inaccessible to fire engines. In most cases, firefighters have hiked to the blazes and contained them by creating perimeters of bare soil around them. Cal Fire aircraft pilots have also scooped water from the Russian River and dumped it on the flames in some cases.

For people who live in the hills above the lower Russian River, the frequent fires this winter have been particularly alarming, said Gaylord Schaap, who manages the Northwood Golf Club on Highway 116 between Monte Rio and Guerneville.

Firefighters, he said, “have been successful in putting them out, but that doesn’t mean that one of them won’t get out of hand.”

Schaap said it’s concerning to see forest fires in winter, when the ground would typically be wet from rain. Sonoma County has seen only trace amounts of rain in 2022, according to data collected by the National Weather Service.

Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, whose district includes Monte Rio, said some of her constituents have told her they are interested in forming neighborhood watch groups in response to the blazes.

“We’re in see-something-say-something mode as a result of the fires,” Hopkins said. “There’s enough concern in the community about the possibility of arson that I think we all need to be on heightened alert.”

You can reach Staff Writer Matt Pera at matthew.pera@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Matt__Pera.