Sonoma County wildfire grows to 43,286 acres Friday evening

A stubborn wildfire burning in rugged west Sonoma County timberlands doubled in size over the past several days, growing to 43,266 acres and continuing to threaten communities north of the lower Russian River and west of Healdsburg Friday.

The Walbridge fire sent flame fingers and fire fronts in multiple directions through rough terrain and forested communities with significant flareups late Friday visible on wildfire detection cameras, including flames threatening key communication towers on Mount Jackson.

A still-slim firefighting force worked to hem in the blaze — still entirely uncontained five days into the firefight — though its potential to torch more populated areas has finally begun drawing more firefighting resources to the area.

Cal Fire Division Chief Ben Nicholls said the fire posed challenges on all fronts.

“All sides of the fire are moving,” Nicholls said.

Cal Fire’s estimate of the fire’s size doubled throughout the day Friday — from 21,125 acres in the morning to more than 43,000 acres by evening. Nicholls said most of that growth actually occurred over several days but they had been unable to capture its full size because of the remote and difficult terrain.

Local firefighters made significant progress with the Meyers fire near the Sonoma Coast, still at 3,000 acres, holding the fire at Meyers Grade Road and letting the western front burn down to the beach.

On Mount Jackson’s southern flank, crews were slated to begin digging fire breaks to keep the Walbridge’s southeastern edge from spreading into Rio Nido and other river communities, a concern that led the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office Friday morning to call for precautionary evacuations in Forestville.

The fire crept with lower intensity around some areas, while tough-to-tackle hot spots broke out in areas such as Pool Ridge near Armstrong Redwoods State National Reserve, along Sweetwater Springs Road further east. The fire’s northeastern heel near Lake Sonoma belched dark smoke as the blaze flared up in dry oak and chemise hillsides west of Dry Creek Valley — its most active front Friday.

A sustained air attack the past two days on that portion of the fire, which was once a separate blaze called the Stewart fire before it merged Wednesday with the larger Walbridge, “has bought us time to get those bulldozers and ultimately the hand crews in to get those lines cut so we can keep those out of those critical areas” Nicholls said.

The firefight has been hobbled by a lack of reinforcements for local crews performing grueling work for days on end without relief. The fire ignited Monday and was just one wildfire that broke out amid a mostly dry lightning storm that officials said started dozens of fires across California. By Friday, there were 771,000 acres ablaze statewide.

Crews released from other wildfires in California on which more progress has been made are starting to work their way to the North Bay, where they will serve as reinforcements for weary firefighters who have worked long days to keep the Walbridge and other fires in the region from doing more damage than they have.

"This is really good news,“ Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said. ”This is dozens of new engines coming into this entire complex. Some of this will wind up in Guerneville helping to defend our community."

State officials also have secured commitments from neighboring states, who are sending several dozen engine companies to the state for deployment here. It's not clear exactly how many out-of-state crews will be assigned to the LNU complex, which includes fires in three counties, and from there to Sonoma County.

Smoke from the fire degraded air quality in the county and further south into San Francisco and other coastal areas. The Walbridge fire burned in dense timber that hasn’t burned in years, though the county has been repeatedly tested by major fires and other calamities, including a major flood last year and the current coronavirus pandemic, since 2017.

“I am tired of being resilient,” said Forestville resident Duskie Estes, a local celebrity chef, on Friday afternoon.

Earlier fires set Estes and her husband, chef and pork master John Stewart, into action making food for fire victims. She and her husband closed their restaurant, Zazu Kitchen & Farm, after it was flooded along with much of the rest of The Barlow retail center in Sebastopol in early 2019.

Estes recalled, too, that her mother’s house off Chalk Hill Road was in direct peril from the Kincade fire when it was saved by the valor of firefighters last fall.

As sheriff’s deputies on Friday afternoon used their sirens and loudspeakers to urge those Forestville residents within the mandatory evacuation zone to leave, Estes and Stewart packed their dogs and cats — and freshly plucked vegetables — into their vehicles. They left their small farm in Forestville and went to stay with Estes’ mother near Windsor.

“We went around the farm and harvested every bit of food we could get to bring over to my mom’s house,” Estes said.

Friday afternoon, the fire was about a half-mile from Rio Nido but moving slowly with low intensity, Nicholls said.

At a bend in the river near Korbel Winery on River Road, a trio of helicopters rotated to the water, scooping up water and returning to the firefront in the hills above Rio Nido, a dramatic dance that continued for hours.

Sonoma County District Fire Chief Mark Heine was guiding the fight along the fire’s southern perimeter to protect the Russian River communities. He said they were prepared to make a stand to protect Rio Nido and Guerneville, one he hoped they could avoid by halting the fire’s momentum — that is, unless stronger winds arrive.

“If there’s a threat of it getting into Guerneville that’s probably days away,” Heine said. “I hesitate to say that because it depends on the wind. If we get a strong wind, it’s a different story.”

Standing in front of the Rio Nido Roadhouse, which they call “the community center,” Scott Ades and Lionel Burns reflected on the floods, mudslides and now fire that had threatened their wooded enclave.

Last year, they said, they had floodwater up to the Live Music sign hanging outside the roadhouse, like 8 feet off the ground.

“Floods aren’t so bad as fires,” said Burns, who has lived in Rio Nido all his life.

“I’ll take a flood right now, I’ll tell you what,” Ades said.

A storm forecast to arrive Sunday could bring another round of lightning strikes and, therefore, fires.

The National Weather Service issued a new fire weather watch for the North Bay, forecasting scattered dry thunderstorms could develop Sunday afternoon into Monday morning. A second round of storms is expected to arrive later Monday into Tuesday.

The weather service warned “lightning will likely spark new fires across the region, including remote areas.”

No official estimate was available for how many structures were destroyed in the Walbridge fire, with most destruction appearing to be in the in forested communities along the upper reaches of Mill Creek and Sweetwater Springs roads.

Cal Fire lumped its reports on the Walbridge fire with a group of other wildfires in Napa and Lake counties, and did not provide specific information on damage or containment for each fire.

Those fires in three counties burned a collective 302,388 acres and were considered 15% contained. But it was unclear if firefighters in Sonoma County had made and held any containment lines around the Walbridge fire.

Local firefighters made significant progress with the Meyers fire near the Sonoma Coast, still at 3,000 acres, holding the fire at Meyers Grade Road and letting the western firefront burn down to the beach.

But firefighters had made significant saves, including a late Thursday stand to defend the critical repeater site and communications tower that was again being threatened Friday night on Mount Jackson. If that tower burns, crucial radio service for firefighters and other first responders could be knocked out, along with cell phone communication for western Sonoma County.

Crews spent hours late Thursday afternoon removing brush, cutting down trees and trimming lower limbs to remove fuels near the tower and other equipment.

They were ready when flames arrived sometime before 10 p.m. Thursday, and they lit a backfire that caused the fire to burn into itself and diminish.

“Those are critical,” Heine said.

Friday was day five of the firefight yet the first when fire officials had enough resources to put engines, hand crews, bulldozers and other resources in places around the fire, Cal Fire officials said.

Yet fire officials acknowledged a major obstacle to knocking the Walbridge fire down continued to be that there still were not enough firefighters and equipment in the county.

“Many of my crews have been out there for three, four days in a row with no rest period,” Heine said. “That’s very challenging for their health and their safety when they’re operating on a large-scale fire with no relief.”

Staff Writer Mary Callahan contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.