Crews Make Gains on Glass Fire, Allowing Thousands to Return Home

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Update, 10 a.m. Tuesday: As of the morning of Oct. 6, the Glass Fire had burned 66,840 acres and was 50% contained. It had destroyed over 1,000 structures, including 310 single-family residences in Sonoma County and 290 in Napa County. Nearly 21,785 other structures were still under threat. 

Original post, 3:30 p.m. Monday:
Firefighters made steady progress over the weekend in their battle to rein in the Glass Fire in Napa and Sonoma counties, keeping much of the fire at bay, despite windy, critically dry conditions and temperatures that reached into the triple digits.

Crews by Monday morning had increased containment of the voracious blaze to 30%, successfully holding control lines and allowing thousands of residents to return to their homes.

Warnings of powerful winds that officials feared could further drive flames never fully materialized, and ground crews received much-need assistance from above, as skies in some areas cleared enough to allow large air tankers — previously sidelined because of smoke — to drop retardant on some of the most active parts of the fire.

“In certain areas, we were able to get quite a bit of aircraft in. So we really pounded a couple different areas hard with aircraft,” Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean said. “If the weather does what is predicted, we’re on that glide path I hope. But that doesn’t diminish the amount of work that still needs to be done.”

The fire, which ignited Sept. 27 in the hills above the Napa Valley and spread rapidly westward toward Santa Rosa, has already charred more than 65,500 acres in Sonoma and Napa counties, destroying at least 1,200 structures, including nearly 500 single-family residences in both counties. Almost 22,000 structures are still under threat.

The Glass Fire is the fourth major blaze in the region in three years — burning between the scars of previous blazes — and comes just ahead of the third anniversary of the 2017 Tubbs Fire which killed 22 people.

More than 2,700 firefighters continued to work in revolving 24-hour shifts on the Glass Fire, one of the state's top firefighting priorities among the 23 major blazes currently burning across California. Fire officials on Monday offered a fairly optimistic outlook, reporting no major movement of the fire for several days near the communities of St. Helena and Calistoga on the eastern side of the Napa Valley, as well as to the east, near the hillside community of Angwin.

“Everything's looking really good. we've had no movement of the fire in there,” said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Sean Norman at a Monday morning briefing.

Control lines in Sonoma County's Sugarloaf Ridge State Park had also held through the weekend, Norman said, blocking flames from reaching the adjacent community of Kenwood.  And further west, on the Highway 12 corridor into the community of Oakmont on the outskirts of Santa Rosa, the fire hadn't advanced in over four days, he added. All operations in that area are now centered around “mopping up” hot spots, with most evacuation orders reduced to warnings.

“We’re feeling good about our lines,” Norman said. “We don’t consider the fire contained or controlled — it’ll be weeks before we get to that benchmark. But that doesn’t mean we feel an imminent threat to any specific community.”

On Sunday, officials reduced evacuation orders to warnings for both the Oakmont and Kenwood communities, as well as those living along the Porter Creek Road corridor and the Mark West Springs drainage.

“Welcome back all the residents of Oakmont. I'm glad your home,” said Santa Rosa Fire Chief Tony Gossner on Monday morning, urging residents to stay off the roads if possible.

In Napa County, residents of Calistoga — who had been under evacuation orders since last Monday — were also allowed to return to their homes Sunday, even as new evacuation orders were issued for areas to the north near Mount St. Helena and into the southern edge of Lake County.

That region, of steep, rugged terrain and heavy fuel loads, remained the biggest challenge for firefighters, where shifting winds on Sunday repelled ground crews and sent a huge tower of smoke high above the ridge, Norman said.

Officials also said high temperatures and winds were expected to diminish throughout the week, yielding more favorable conditions for firefighting operations.

“I think with pretty high confidence we can say that we've gotten past the peak of the most extreme conditions that we've seen across the fire since its initiation a week or so ago,” Cal Fire meteorologist Tom Bird said Monday.  He added, however, that above-average temperatures and very low humidity would likely linger until Wednesday, when slowing northeast winds would allow a marine layer to form, bringing moisture and noticeably cooler temperatures — at least until next week, when dry hazardous conditions could return.

“That will really work in our favor,” Bird said. “Going forward, we are trending in a better direction.”

The positive outlook came as California reached a grim milestone — wildfires have now burned over 4 million acres this year.

Cal Fire said the state hit that mark Sunday with about two months still remaining in the fire season. The previous record was set two years ago when wildfires destroyed 1.67 million acres.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 8,200 California wildfires have scorched “well over 4 million acres” or 6,250 square miles, killing 31 people and destroying more than 8,400 buildings, Cal Fire reported on Sunday.

Numerous studies have linked bigger wildfires in America to climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas. Scientists say climate change has made California much drier, meaning trees and other plants are more flammable.

One of those fires — the still active August Complex in Northern California's Coast Range — surpassed 1 million acres on Monday, more than double the previous record of any single incident. The blaze, which began when dozens of smaller fires were ignited by lightning in mid-August in Mendocino National Forest, has burned more than 1,500 square miles and is just over 50% contained.

“The 4 million mark is unfathomable. It boggles the mind, and it takes your breath away,” said Cal Fire's McLean. “And that number will grow.”

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This story includes additional reporting from the Associated Press.