Kincade fire offers firefighters second chance to defend neighborhoods that burned in 2017 wildfires

On the northern edge of Santa Rosa, amid neighborhoods just now rising from the ashes of a deadly fire two years ago, 90 local firefighters again prepared for battle Tuesday.

All volunteered for the critical assignment.

Not far north, the Kincade fire simmered, waiting for yet another yawing pulse of wind expected to arrive in the darkness and last into the daylight hours Wednesday.

And it was again threatening Mark West Springs, Larkfield, Wikiup - north Santa Rosa neighborhoods just now rebuilding from the 2017 wildfires.

“For me, for all of us, it's very personal,” said Sid Andreis, a Sonoma County fire captain who grew up in Larkfield. “It's our community. It's where we work. It's kind of a big deal for us. It's Tubbs all over again.”

Two years ago, the flames came in the dead of night. Whipped by an epic windstorm, the Tubbs fire howled down Mark West Springs corridor, into the Larkfield and Wikiup area. The fire destroyed the Fountaingrove and Coffey Park neighborhoods as well.

The October 2017 firestorm killed 24 people in Sonoma County. It took more than 5,300 homes.

Tuesday night was a chance “to make amends for the Tubbs,” Sonoma County Fire Battalion Chief Mark Dunn said. When asked about the importance of the firefight that loomed ahead, he started to cry.

“I couldn't talk,” Dunn said. “That's what this is - a second time around.”

The stakes were high, far beyond the homes taking shape in the neighborhood surrounding the firefighters.

“If we lose those homes again, people will lose hope in our recovery,” Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane said.

While the battle would be fought in the darkness to come, the fight to preserve this sprawling neighborhood started early Tuesday with hiking and sweat.

Above Mark West Springs Canyon, north of the Mayacama Golf Club, dozens of firefighters were expanding a bulldozed, north-south fire line Tuesday afternoon by back-burning brush.

Blackhawk helicopters swam through the sky in slow, steady circles, watching for any fires sparking on the Mark West Springs side of the fire line. An incursion would bring flames directly to Safari West, and potentially send them racing down the canyon into Larkfield as they did two years ago during the deadly Tubbs fire.

“We absolutely don't want the fires, once again, to come roaring down the Mark West Springs corridor into Santa Rosa,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin, who lost her house in the North Bay fires two years ago.

In the woods west of the corridor, every minute or so, a loud pop from a flare gun rang out. Nick Babin, with the Marin Fire Department, used it to spark backfires, a strategy to burn away vegetation that could fuel a fire. Others were using drip torches or grenade-style devices that sent showers of sparks into the underbrush.

Fifty yards behind the crews, still more firefighters kept vigil over unburnt brush beyond the fire line, with shovels in hand ready to stamp out any misplaced embers.

“If it reaches that side, get out,” one said.

Not far from the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, where the crew of local firefighters were staged, Santa Rosa Assistant Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal lost his house in the October 2017 fires.

He wasn't the only firefighter who lost a house in the fires. During a 7 a.m. briefing at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, local fire leaders made sure everyone knew how important these once-burned neighborhoods are to the community.

“It's not just another fire,” said Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt, who attended the briefing and described the tone of the message delivered to 1,000 firefighters.

Lowenthal said he was concerned about another round of 60 mph winds forecast to rake the area Tuesday night and Wednesday, and the threat of embers entering the neighborhoods.

Firefighters have already done battle once with this beast intent on destroying homes in the Larkfield-Wikiup area. On Sunday night, dispatchers triggered the county's first ever “all call” tone, asking every fire district in the area to send any available firefighters as flames moved into Shiloh Ridge.

On Tuesday, preparing for a battle to save Santa Rosa, Lowenthal wanted engines and firefighters on scene at the start. No “all call” necessary.

There are 4,500 firefighters tasked with battling the Kincade fire, which by Tuesday night had reached 76,138 acres. But they work in shifts.

That means the all-Sonoma County crew assembled to defend Larkfield-Wikiup on Tuesday was also an all-volunteer crew, Sonoma County firefighter Ryan Estes said.

“Everybody has volunteered time to give up rest periods, lunches and dinner - and sleep - to keep working just because it's Sonoma County. It's home,” Estes said.

Santa Rosa Deputy Fire Chief Scott Westrope said the main team fighting the Kincade fire is well staffed, but they brought in more local resources because it's important to “protect home turf.”

Andreis, who was with the Rincon Valley Fire Department responsible for this area during the Tubbs fire, said his team has been pushing harder than normal since the Kincade fire erupted Wednesday night. They're ready to make a last stand.

“We'll give it everything we have,” Andreis said. “When you're fighting a fire that's essentially in our backyard, with all of your neighbors' and friends' houses, it's a different feeling.”

Rabbitt paused when asked about the all-local crew protecting Santa Rosa again. Whether weariness from being up for days, or some buried emotion welling up, Rabbitt had difficulty voicing his answer.

“I can't even talk,” he said. Finally, he acknowledged the thought gave him comfort.

“It's fitting that our own firefighters are there to take that stand and not just to save one house, but to save a community.”

Staff Writer Randi Rossmann contributed to this story. You can reach Staff Writer Tyler Silvy at 707-526-8667 or at tyler.silvy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @tylersilvy.