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NORTH COAST, Calif. – After a week of rapid growth, the advance of the Kincade fire was slowed to no new acreage on Wednesday as firefighters strengthened the lines around it.
Cal Fire said firefighters held the Kincade fire to 76,825 acres on Wednesday, raising containment to 45 percent.
The fire has been burning since Oct. 23, beginning in The Geysers geothermal steamfield in northern Sonoma County before making a run to the south, fanned by high winds.
There have been four injuries for first responders but none reported for civilians, Cal Fires said.
Updated damage assessment numbers show 266 structures have been confirmed destroyed and 47 damaged.
With 90,015 structures still threatened, Sonoma County officials said many evacuation orders and warnings remain in place.
The fire’s approach to Cobb Mountain led Sheriff Brian Martin on Friday to issue an evacuation warning for Cobb and surrounding communities, expanding the warning to the Middletown area on Monday.
“We know how fast fires move around here,” Martin said at a Wednesday evening community meeting on the Kincade fire held in Middletown. For that reason, Martin said he issued the warning.
While the fire has been seen creeping toward Middletown, Martin said he’s confident that firefighters are getting the fire under control.
However, until it’s no longer a threat, Martin said evacuation warnings will remain in place.
The latest mapping from Cal Fire issued overnight showed that the fire moved into Lake County’s border near Dry Creek Road, about four miles southwest of Middletown.
The edge of the fire nearest to Cobb Mountain has containment line around it, while the edge that runs from Burned Mountain south past Middletown and close to the Napa Valley line – which it hasn’t yet crossed – is still uncontrolled, based on the map.
Martin said that his agency’s personnel have contributed 24 shifts of mutual aid coverage to help law enforcement in Sonoma County. He said Lake County has similarly benefitted during its big fires, and this was an opportunity to return the favor.
Martin said the county’s emergency operations center has been activated and he has declared a state of emergency, which the Board of Supervisors will meet to ratify at a special joint meeting with the Clearlake and Lakeport city councils on Thursday morning.
Committed to the Kincade fire as of Wednesday night were 5,245 personnel, 627 engines, 48 water tenders, 27 helicopters, 97 hand crews and 67 dozers.
Officials reported that a massive amount of aircraft – air tankers, very large air tankers and helicopters – have worked the incident, with every large tanker in the state working the fire.
An estimated $24 million has been spent on air and ground support so far, and two million gallons of water and one million gallons of retardant have been dropped on the fire, according to information shared at the Middletown meeting.
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