Thousands of Fire Evacuees Return Home as Crews Make Steady Progress on Bay Area Blazes

Fire crews continued to slowly corral the massive wildfires burning in and around the Bay Area Friday as cooler, humid weather and reinforcements aided firefighters, allowing tens of thousands of people to return to their homes after more than a week of mass destruction and uncertainty.

In the past two days, evacuation orders were lifted for at least 50,000 people in the Bay Area and adjacent counties where some of the biggest fires have raged, Cal Fire officials said Thursday evening.

In heavily damaged areas, crews were working to restore electricity and water so more people could return to their homes, Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Chris Clark said.

“I think we’re going to have good news,” he added.

Around the state, hundreds of lightning-sparked wildfires have already killed at least seven people, burned nearly 1.4 million acres of land and pushed firefighter resources to the breaking point. Two groups of blazes — in the East Bay and North Bay — are among the largest wildfires in state history.

At the peak of the fires last week, some 170,000 people — mostly in the North Bay and Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties — were under evacuation orders. But a prolonged heat wave eased this week, and in the past few days a marine layer has helped slow the spread of three massive complexes of wildfires in and around the Bay Area.

Even so, smoke continued to shroud much of the Bay Area on Friday morning, resulting in poor air quality and prompting authorities to extend a Spare the Air alert through Sunday.

And the nearly 15,000 California firefighters battling the flames have this week been aided by personnel, aircraft and bulldozers arriving from other states as well as hundreds of California National Guard troops, authorities said.

Even after the wildfires are contained, thousands of firefighters will have to remain on the fire lines to douse smoldering timber and hot spots to prevent flareups, Cal Fire spokesman Dan Olson told the Mercury News.

“We’re dealing with large, 100-year-old redwoods, that once they start to burn, it takes a lot to suppress,” he said. “This isn’t something that will be resolved in days or even weeks.”

Latest Developments

When separate fires are burning near each other Cal Fire often calls them “complexes.” Three such massive groups of fires are currently burning in and around the Bay Area:

• LNU Lightning Complex: Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Yolo, Lake counties (including the Hennessey, Gamble, Walbridge, Meyers and Green fires)
• SCU Lightning Complex: Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Stanislaus counties (including fires in the Deer, Calaveras and Canyon zones)
• CZU August Lightning Complex: San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties (including the Warnella, Waddell fires)

LNU Lightning Complex

• 24-hour information line: 707-967-4207
• Cal Fire incident information page
• Cal Fire LNU Twitter Feed
• Cal Fire evacuation information
• Cal Fire LNU damage assessment map

Click on each of the following links to see each county's evacuation updates: Napa County, Solano County, Lake County, Yolo County and Sonoma County.

The LNU complex of fires, ignited by lightning strikes in Napa County on Aug. 17, consists of seven separate blazes burning in five different counties, including Sonoma, Napa, Solano and small sections of Yolo and Lake counties.

As of Friday morning, the complex was 35% contained and had grown to 371,249 acres, making it the third largest complex of wildfires in California history (in close contention with the SCU Complex), Cal Fire said. The group of blazes have so far claimed the lives of at least five people, injured at least four more and destroyed 1,080 homes and other buildings, while continuing to threaten 30,500 other structures.

Evacuation orders were lifted Thursday in some areas of Solano and Lake counties, with residents there allowed to return to their homes.

In the heart of wine country, evacuation orders in Napa and Sonoma counties were also lifted for about 35,000 people on Wednesday.

Cal Fire said there still was “extreme fire behavior” in several areas of the complex that continues to challenge firefighting efforts. Portions of the more than 300,000-acre Hennessey Fire burning in northern Napa, Lake and Solano counties continued to advance in several directions, with ongoing major firefighting efforts directed at the northern end of the fire as it approaches Middletown. The fire was 33% contained as of Friday morning.

In Sonoma County, crews made slow but steady progress fighting the more than 55,000-acre Walbridge Fire — also part of the LNU Complex — burning South of Lake Sonoma, and were aided by additional muscle from 250 National Guard service members who arrived in Santa Rosa Wednesday evening.

Sonoma County officials on Tuesday lifted evacuation orders for thousands of people, allowing them to return to their homes.

Still, that fire has destroyed scores of homes and other buildings and remains a tough fight, Cal Fire operations section Chief Chris Waters said.

“Heavy fuels, steep and broken terrain, it's very difficult terrain to work in. Also a lot of homes and a lot of structures we have to work around,” Waters said. But, he added, crews “continue to make good progress in tying together vineyards, people's backyards, strategic points.”

[See the rest of Friday morning's LNU incident update here.]

SCU Lightning Complex

• Information lines: 669-247-7431 and 916-618-3195
• Cal Fire incident information page
• Cal Fire SCU Twitter feed
• Evacuation information

The SCU Lightning Complex is approximately 20 separate fires burning in six different counties in and around the southeastern Bay Area. The complex is broken into three zones: the Canyon, Calaveras and Deer zones. As of Friday morning, the fires have collectively burned 372,971 acres — the second largest group of fires in California history (in close contention with the LNU Complex) — with containment still at 35%, Cal Fire said.

The blazes are largely burning in steep, rugged terrain in mostly less populous areas across Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin and Stanislaus and Merced counties, and have prompted some — but not widespread — evacuation orders, mostly in Santa Clara County. The fires have so far resulted in three first responder injuries, two civilian injuries and destroyed 28 buildings, while threatening some 20,065 other structures.

Cal Fire officials reported that the entire east side of the complex had been contained as of Wednesday, and that crews have also been successful in significantly slowing its southbound spread. Crews on the ground were still actively engaged in firefighting efforts on north and west sides of the vast complex, with bulldozers cutting lines to block further expansion.

The number one threat, officials stressed, continues to be the still mostly uncontained western flank of the complex because of its proximity to densely populated areas along Highway 101 — including the cities of San Jose and Morgan Hill.

CZU August Lightning Complex

• Cal Fire information line: 831-335-6717
• Cal Fire incident information page
• Cal Fire CZU Twitter feed
• Updated evacuation information
• Santa Cruz County initial damage assessment map

The CZU August Lightning Complex consists of multiple smaller lightning-sparked fires in the Santa Cruz mountains that merged into a massive blaze in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties, ultimately forcing more than 77,000 residents to evacuate, including the entire UC Santa Cruz campus (evacuation orders for the campus have since been lifted).

By Friday morning, the more than 2,000 firefighters battling the flames had established control lines along the northeast perimeter of the 82,540-acre complex and along the coast, with containment at 26%. Lines in the south are also holding and protecting the community of Santa Cruz and the UC Santa Cruz campus, which has now begun a phased reopening.

Evacuation orders for more than 20,000 people were lifted over the past 24 hours in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Chris Clark said the process will be systematic and encouraged people to check Cal Fire updates instead of waiting at checkpoints for information.

Three people reported missing in evacuation zones had been found, Clark said.

Officials also lifted evacuation orders for Scotts Valley in Santa Cruz County on Thursday afternoon, allowing residents there to return to their homes.

The fires have burned at least 554 homes and destroyed nearly 300 other buildings, but that tally could still rise. Inspection teams were struggling to get into remote areas because bridges were damaged and roads blocked by fallen trees and power lines, fire officials said.

KQED's Matthew Green contributed to this post, with additional reporting from the Associated Press.