Red Flag Warning in Bay Area Canceled as Crews Continue Battling Massive Blazes

A barrage of lightning strikes last week sparked hundreds of fires across California, charring some 1.4 million acres statewide since Aug. 15 — more than the size of the state of Delaware.

The largest of them — three massive sets of fires on the outskirts of the Bay Area, burning to the north, east and south of San Francisco — remain largely uncontained, forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate and killing at least six.

On a more positive note, the region dodged a bullet Monday, with most of the predicted storms in the forecast moving north of the area, diminishing the threat of additional fire-sparking lightning storms, and prompting the National Weather Service to cancel its previously issued “red flag warning.”

Latest Developments

When separate fires are burning near each other Cal Fire often dubs them “complexes.” There are three such massive groups of fires 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

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 raging across five different counties, including Sonoma, Napa, Solano and small sections of Yolo and Lake counties.

As of Monday evening, the fire complex had grown to more than 350,000 acres and was 25% contained, Cal Fire reported, making it the second-largest wildfire in California history. Firefighting efforts are challenged by the multi-directional movements of the fires, which are impacting multiple communities. The group of blazes have so far claimed the lives of at least five people, injured four people and destroyed more than 900 homes and other buildings, while continuing to threaten 30,500 more structures.

In the western area of the fire complex, crews made good progress over the weekend fighting the Meyers Fire north of Jenner near the Sonoma County coast, with containment at 96%, and were working on reopening Highway 1 and lifting evacuation orders, Cal Fire said Monday.

The Walbridge Fire, south of Lake Sonoma, was 7% contained as of Monday evening, with crews working to “connect the dots” and secure the fire from moving any farther south toward Guerneville and other Russian River communities. In the eastern part of the LNU Complex, officials said the highest firefighting priority is now an area near Calistoga, where efforts are being made to prevent the fire from moving north into Lake County.

SCU 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 broken into three zones: the Canyon, Calaveras Zone and Deer zones. As of Monday evening, the fires have collectively burned 360,055 acres — making it the third largest complex of fires in California history — and were 15% contained, 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 counties, and have led to some evacuation orders, mainly near San Jose. The fires have so far caused 2 civilian injuries and destroyed 12 structures, while threatening around 20,065 others.

Cal Fire officials on Monday afternoon said fires in the Deer Zone, south of Mt. Diablo, had been completely contained. Meanwhile, in the Calaveras and Canyon zones, the fires had merged, with crews managing to contain half of the blaze’s northern boundary and the majority of its eastern boundary, while still trying to thwart it from spreading south.

The top firefighting priority, officials said, is to contain the fires on the western front along the Calaveras zone, where they continue to pose a serious threat to more populous areas along the Highway 101 corridor.

CZU Lightning Complex

• Cal Fire information line: 831-335-6717
• Cal Fire incident information page
• Cal Fire CZU Twitter feed
• Updated evacuation information

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, forcing more than 77,000 residents to evacuate, including the entire UC Santa Cruz campus. As of Monday evening, the fires had burned 78,684 acres and remain 13% contained. 276 homes and buildings have been destroyed, mostly in Santa Cruz County, while nearly 25,000 others are threatened, according to Cal Fire.

Jonathan Cox, deputy chief of the San Mateo/Santa Cruz unit of Cal Fire, shared in Monday evening’s press briefing that the number of firefighting personnel has increased to 1,609.

“Obviously, every number of firefighters that comes on the line has a direct correlation to the percent increase in containment that we can gain, so that’s a welcome development for us,” Cox said.

Cal Fire explained that the progress made on Monday was attributed to the day’s favorable weather and clearer air, which allowed for more resources and equipment to be brought in.

This comes on the heel of Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office announcement on Sunday evening that a 70-year-old man died near the town of Davenport, the marking first reported fatality linked to those fires.

Additional Reporting from the Associated Press