LNU Lightning Complex Fires: 58% Containment; 375,209 Acres Burn

NAPA, SONOMA, SOLANO, YOLO, LAKE and COLUSA COUNTIES, CA — Firefighters worked to contain the massive LNU Lighting Complex fires Sunday for a second week, focusing on the northland of the Hennessey Fire, burning south of Middletown in Lake County.

As of Sunday night, the LNU Lightning Complex fires, which were ignited by lightning strikes Aug. 17 in Napa and Sonoma counties, had burned 375,209 acres and was 58 percent contained.

Although favorable weather was predicted for the weekend, the National Weather Service issued an air quality alert until Sunday at midnight in Lake County.

"The smoke and haze within Lake County has impacted all areas of the Lake County Basin," the alert read. "At UNHEALTHY smoke levels, everyone needs to take steps to protect themselves from exposure."

Damage inspection teams were been brought in to asses the fire ravaged communities as evacuated families are increasingly allowed to return home.

Collectively, the fires have burned in Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Solano, Yolo and Colusa counties.Firefighters continue the active battle against the Hennessey Fire, the largest in the LNU Lightning Complex fires (Merged Fires - Gamble, Green, Aetna, Markley, Spanish, Morgan, Round).

Cal Fire made the Hennessey its top priority Friday for firefighting efforts on the LNU Lightning Complex fires. The Hennessey blaze was logged at 317,909 acres with 56 percent containment Saturday morning.

"We're going to try and close up this last piece of line down through the area immediately above Angwin and Calistoga and some other communities in Napa County," said Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Chris Waters at a Friday briefing.

The blazes have destroyed 1,209 homes and other buildings, according to Cal Fire's Friday update. Those numbers remained unchanged overnight. Five people have died in the fires.

Another 30,500 structures were threatened by the fires. At the fire's height, about 42,000 Sonoma County residents had been ordered to evacuate or warned that they may have to soon.

As of Friday afternoon, 2,127 residents were still evacuated and 1,507 residents were in evacuation warning zones, county officials said. Up to the minute evacuation orders can be found on the Cal Fire's LNU Lightning Complex fires update page.

In Sonoma County, where the Walbridge Fire has consumed 54,940 acres, officials reported that to date, 91 structures have been either destroyed or have suffered major damage. The Walbridge Fire was 55 percent contained as of Sunday morning.

The damage assessment isn't complete, Chris Godley, the county's director of emergency management, said at a Thursday evening virtual community meeting.

"We're not done with this by a long shot," he said, "We've been hit and many of our communities are going to be feeling it for a long time."

Firefighters have made notable progress this week, with evacuation orders that had applied to thousands of people being lifted around the complex of fires.

At the peak of the fires in Sonoma County, for example, about 42,000 people had either been ordered to evacuate or warned that they might be. Thursday evening, about 2,100 people remained under evacuation orders and 1,500 were in warning zones, Godley said.

One Sonoma County blaze, the 2,360-acre Meyers Fire north of Jenner, is "all done," Waters said Friday. The far more destructive Walbridge Fire is 28 percent contained and remains "very challenging" due to its rugged terrain, the type of fire fuels present and the many structures it
encompasses, he said.

"It's going to take a significant commitment to get that cleaned up," Waters said.

Still, Cal Fire Deputy Incident Commander Ron Myers said at the community meeting, "The good news is that fire has not moved in five days.

That's making us feel really good about the progress that's been completed there."

More than 1,000 personnel — out of the 2,670 assigned to the LNU Lightning Complex — are assigned to the Walbridge Fire, Meyers said.

Late Thursday afternoon, most residents of Guerneville, the Russian River community that had been in the fire's sights since it started, were allowed to return to their homes.

Around the breadth of the Hennessey Fire, Waters said that on Friday "a lot of repopulation efforts will be taking place and trying to get folks back home."

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--Bay City News and Patch Staffer Susan C. Schena contributed to this post