Wine Country burned acreage up as Stubborn Pocket Fire flares. Containment creeps ahead. Death toll up by 1 – Crisis mode segues to long slog toward control as evacuees return home- Updated 8:13 a.m., 10/19/17

This article and headline updated at 8:13 a.m., 10/19/17 to reflect new data from Cal Fire and from the most recent 12-hour satellite pass.

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See previous coverage here (May be useful for historical Cal Fire data):

 

• N. Calif wine country wildfire situation expected to intensify as wind picks up.
• Fires continue to grow; Red Flag Warning Tonight + Today’s current fire maps and status updates – Updated 6:26 am PDT 10/13/17
• Fire pushes into City of Sonoma’s NE corner driven by Red Flag winds. Containment advances on other fires. Death toll rises — Updated 5:36 pm PDT 10/14/17
• Favorable winds make for progress in wine country fires fights but Nuns Complex flares in Kenwood & City of Sonoma. Death toll hits state record. Updated 9:11 a.m. PDT 10/15/17
• Truck driver hauling water to firefighters killed – Newest fires strike Sugarloaf area, Rutherford as Nuns Complex spreads over the Mayacamas. Sonoma City battle eases – Updated 8:19 a.m. PDT 10/16/17
• Nuns Surpasses Atlas as largest active fire. Firefight focused on protecting Kenwood, Oakmont & Rutherford/Oakville area (Updated 8:27 a.m., Oct 17).
• Cal Fire fights wildfires to a standstill, increases containments on wine country wildfires. Most evacuation orders lifted – Latest maps & status data updated 8:16 a.m., Oct 18

WINERY DAMAGE/SAFETY ASSESSMENT: Status on 105 wineries (and wine businesses): Good, bad or gone – UPDATED 3:05 p.m., Oct. 18

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By Lewis Perdue, Wine Industry Insight Executive Editor/Publisher

SUMMARY:

Total burned acreage inched up to 199,421 — up a little over 5,400 acres more than yesterday due mostly to flare-ups in the Pocket Fire near Geyserville. Containments have been slow according to Cal Fire data (scroll down for details).

That makes it less likely that the fires will fully contained by the end of today as Cal Fire hoped.

The death toll in wine country inched up to 38 as one more body was found in Sonoma County.

Satellite data (maps below) indicate that there were no  hot spots at all detected in the four-counties. Satellites only view the area every 12 hours, so current conditions on the ground will inevitably vary. This will be updated after the satellite pass later this morning.

Most evacuation orders have been lifted, but the thousands who have lost their homes, now face a dilemma caused by an ongoing housing shortage that existed before the fire.

 

TODAY’S STATUS UPDATE:

Cal Fire  acreage and containment data will be updated again 12 hours or so from now.

 

• Death toll*: 38 (Sheriffs statements – Sonoma County: 23, Mendocino County: 8, Napa County: 7)
  
• Containment (CalFire): Tubbs at 92% — no change from 10/18 (82%-10/17), Atlas at 84% — 83%  on 10/18 (77%-10/17), Nuns at 85%  — 83% on 10/18 (68%-10/17)
• Acres Burned (CalFire): 199,421 (194,016 on 10/18 – 193,516 on 10/17) – Scroll down for containment and detailed fire-by-fire info, below maps.
• Wineries damaged or destroyed (click here for updates)
• People Evacuated: 90,000+ most returning. (Sheriffs)
• People without power: was 20,000 but PG&E said on 10/17 that 97% had been restored.
• Structures damaged: 5.700+
• Weather (NWS): Today: Areas of smoke after 11am. Patchy fog before 11am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 78. Light and variable wind becoming southwest 6 to 11 mph in the afternoon. Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 46. South wind 6 to 11 mph. Thursday: A 30 percent chance of rain after 11am.

* According to Cal Fire, the current fires have caused the largest death toll of any wildfire since accurate records were kept: California wildfires.

 

In addition, the death toll has exceeded the Griffith Park Fire which is considered the state’s largest single deadly fire with an official toll of 29.

 

Additional deaths in current fires in Yuba and Butte Counties have pushed the overall Northern California wildfire death toll to at least 40.

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INCIDENT NOTICES: Go to Nixle and get local push alerts: text your zip code to 888777

Also see the latest Cal Fire Incident Update for more information.

 

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Stubborn Pocket Fire alone in showing new hotspots –  Updated 7:52 a.m. PDT 10/19/17

PREVIOUS MAP BELOW EARLIER THIS MORNING BEFORE MOST RECENT 12-HOUR SATELLITE PASS

Source: National Wildfire Coordinating Group.

Click here for the interactive version.

CAUTION: Satellites update images every 12 hours, so the lack of hot spots in this image may change when we update this in a few hours.

 

 

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DETAILED FIRE INFO FROM CAL FIRE

These numbers are the most recent at this time, but will be updated around 8 a.m. Check back here after 9 a.m. when new numbers are likely to be available.

 

Tubbs Fire (Central LNU Complex) Updated: October 19, 2017 7:08 am
County: Napa County
Location: off of Hwy 128 and Bennett Ln, Calistoga
Acres Burned – 36,432 acres – 92% contained

 

Pocket Fire (Central LNU Complex ) Updated: October 19, 2017 7:25 am
County: Sonoma County
Location: off of Pocket Ranch Rd and Ridge Ranch Rd, Geyserville
Acres Burned – 16,552 acres – 73% contained

 

Atlas Fire (Southern LNU Complex) Updated: October 19, 2017 6:40 am
County: Napa County,Solano County
Location: off of Altas Peak Rd, south of Lake Berryessa
Acres Burned – 51,624 acres – 85% contained

 

Nuns / Adobe / Norbbom/ Pressley / Partrick Fires/Oakmont (Central LNU Complex) Updated: October 19, 2017 7:18 am
County: Sonoma County
Location: Hwy 12, north of Glen Ellen
Acres Burned – Containment – 54,423 acres – 82% contained

 

Redwood Valley Fire Complex (Mendocino Lake Complex) Updated: October 19, 2017 6:59 am
County: Mendocino County
Location: North of Hwy 20, west of Mendocino National Forest, south of Black Bart
Acres Burned: 36,523 acres – 85% contained

 

Sulphur Fire (Mendocino Lake Complex) Updated: October 19, 2017 6:59 am
County: Lake County
Location: off Hwy 20 and Sulphur Bank Road, Clearlake Oaks
Acres Burned: 2,207 – 96% contained

 

37 Fire: Updated: October 12, 2017 9:02 am
County: Sonoma County
Location: Hwy 37 & Lakeville Highway
Acres Burned – Containment: 1,660 acres – fire out.

 

Information Links

NAPA COUNTY

Napa County Sheriff’s Office:

SONOMA COUNTY

Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office

SONOMA CITY

City of Sonoma — A mostly poorly done effort with incomplete data and lacking both timeliness and specific information.

MENDOCINO COUNTY

LAKE COUNTY

Lake County CA Sheriff’s Department

SOLANO COUNTY

Fairfield, CA Police

Solano Sheriff

Twitter accounts & #hashtags

#sonomafire

Santa Rosa

@ MendoSheriff

@ CityofNapa

#GOES16

@ NWSBayArea

From Sonoma County

News Links

• KPIX-CBS
• ABC7
• NBC
• KRON4.com (Good coverage ruined by CPU overload and too many crappy auto-run flash and animations running.)