Sonoma County Wildfires: 20 Fatalities Confirmed; Over 2,300 Firefighters Assigned To Tubbs, Nuns, Pocket Fires

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — The city of Healdsburg issued a fire evacuation advisory just after 5 p.m. Friday for the northern area of the city. Evacuation is not mandatory as this time, but residents in the Parkland Farms neighborhood, areas east of Healdsburg Avenue and north of Paul Wittke Drive and Poppy Hill Drive, should be prepared to evacuate, city officials said. The advisory was issued in anticipation of stronger winds coming from the north/northeast Friday night which city officials said may fan the Pocket Fire. The city was not currently being threatened by the fire; the notice was being given as a precautionary measure, according to the city.

Additionally, Healdsburg city officials said an earlier alert from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office about a mandatory evacuation for Highway 128 was for an unincorporated area outside of city limits. Being prepared to evacuate means rounding up one's pets, packing a bag with medications and ID, and staying tuned in the event an evacuation alert is issued, city officials said.

The Pocket Fire north of Geyserville actively burned overnight Thursday on the southern and eastern portions of the fire, Cal Fire officials said in a Friday morning incident update. The slope- and fuel-driven fire was 9,996 acres and 5 percent contained at the time.

Earlier Friday, a mandatory fire evacuation order was issued for residents and businesses in an area of northern Geyserville. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office at 3 p.m. Friday said residents and businesses north of Highway 128, from Geysers Road to Chalk Hill Road, "need to evacuate now due to the fire." A list of evacuation shelters, which include Healdsburg Community Center, Guerneville Elementary School, Windsor High School, Sonoma County Fairgrounds and several more, is on the county's fire information page.

Meanwhile, an evacuation advisory remained in place Friday for Agua Caliente.

"Advisory evacuation means residents should consider preparing for potential to leave should the incident worsen," sheriff's officials said in an alert at 3:17 p.m. Friday. "Residents in Agua Caliente, particularly Cavedale, Moon Mountain, Kearney, La Placita, Richards, Theodore, Hooker, Oak Tree, London and E Agua Caliente Roads, are under an advisory evacuation. Because of the forecast for increased winds this evening, please stay vigilant in being prepared to evacuate if a mandatory evacuation is ordered."

Residents can sign up to receive evacuation notices and other emergency alerts from local agencies by texting their zip code to 888777.

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SONOMA COUNTY, CA — More and more resources were continuing to arrive Friday in Sonoma and Napa counties, ramping up the effort to put an end to a series of deadly and destructive wildfires that have scorched more than 150,000 acres since Sunday across the heart of northern California's wine country. Some 2,333 firefighting personnel from across the state and nation are now on the front lines of the Central LNU Complex fires in Sonoma County, where the Tubbs, Pocket and Nuns fires have collectively scorched 89,620 acres. Attacking the fires from the air are six air tanker crews and 12 helicopter crews.

Meanwhile, the Tubbs Fire between Calistoga in Napa County and Santa Rosa in Sonoma County was 34,770 acres and 25 percent contained Friday morning. That fire continues to burn on the northern and eastern flanks of the fire, with backing and flanking occurring, officials said.

South of the Tubbs Fire in the Sonoma Valley area, the Nuns, Adobe and Pressley fires continued to actively burn overnight in heavier fuels, officials said. Now being fought as one large wildfire, the Nuns and Adobe fires combined were 44,381 acres and 5 percent contained Friday morning, while the Pressley Fire east of Rohnert Park was 473 acres and 10 percent contained.

As of Saturday afternoon, 20 fatalities have been in the Sonoma County fires.

Some 33,943 Sonoma County homes, businesses and other structures were still threatened by the fires, which have already destroyed at least 2,800 structures and damaged countless others.

Crews are working to prevent further loss of life and property.

Firefighters are also keeping in mind the high winds forecasted to begin Friday afternoon. The winds coupled with low humidity have prompted weather officials to implement another red flag warning for the area Friday afternoon through Sunday, according to the National Weather Service Bay Area.

Tens of thousands of Sonoma County residents remain evacuated or under advisories to evacuate should conditions worsen near them.

The county of Sonoma website has a fire information page with the latest evacuation and shelter information.

County officials including District Attorney Jill Ravitch, Sheriff Rob Giordano, Assistant Cal Fire Chief Bret Gouvea, Santa Rosa Police Chief Hank Schreeder, Santa Rosa Fire Chief Tony Gosner, CHP Santa Rosa Chief Mike Palacio, Sonoma County District 3 Supervisor Shirlee Zane and Santa Rosa Mayor Chirs Coursey gave a fire update midday Friday.

Addressing the fire situation, Gouvea said progress was being made not only on the construction of fire lines, but on plans for allowing some residents to return to their homes.

"We understand everyone affected by this disaster is eager to return to some normalcy; we will not stop until this mission is accomplished," Gouvea said.

Giordano said the biggest push yet was being made Friday in fielding missing person reports that have now topped more than 1,300. The sheriff's office has taken 1,308 reports he said, with 1,052 of those people now accounted for but 256 still outstanding. Friday, he said search-and-rescue team members were out in force as were dozens of detectives.

DA Ravitch advised the community that the county's courts will remain closed through at least Wednesday of next week. Anyone with questions about previously scheduled court appearances, restraining orders or other pressing court-related matters can call her office at 707-565-2311. Ravitch also said anyone who sees price-gouging, which she described as raising prices more than 10-percent, to report it to her office. Additionally, she said, the county is taking looting very seriously and will prosecute anyone caught doing it.

Mayor Coursey and Supervisor Zane announced the opening Saturday, Oct. 14 of a local disaster assistance center for those affected by the fires. The center, inside part of the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat building at 427 Mendocino Ave. in Santa Rosa, will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m daily for at least the next two weeks.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Motor Vehicles and other service providers will be available. Residents who need to file insurance claims or apply for small business assistance should bring any pertinent documents.

"We know these are stressful and taxing times, and people have gone through a tremendous amount of loss," Zane said. "That said, recovery and rebuilding has begun."

Coursey said about 5 percent of the city's housing stock — at least 2,800 homes — was lost to the fires. It's an estimated loss of $1.2 billion, the mayor said. Opening the assistance center to help residents get back on their feet was the first step recovery from the disaster. Residents are urged to bring whatever forms of identification they may have to the center. If they lost even their ID, they should come to the center and will receive help, he said.

"It's a huge hill we’ve got to climb," Coursey said. "Our job right now is to get through this emergency then we’ll start taking the next steps."

Police Chief Schreeder reminded everyone to stay out of evacuated areas.

Fire Chief Gosner said officials have been working toward resuming operations soon at Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center within the next 12 hours. The Kaiser hospital and Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital were evacuated in the fires Monday. The closures of the two hospitals left only Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital operating for most of this week, putting a strain on the county's emergency management system, he said.

"We are doing everything we can to bring back to some kind of normalcy," Gosner said.

Regarding road conditions in the county, Palacio said California Highway Patrol is aware that traffic lights are not operating in several locations. He urged caution at affected intersection. Palacio also encouraged motorists to avoid using the left traffic lane as they travel local roadways, instead keeping the lane open for fire and law enforcement vehicles. Motorists should heed road closures, he said, and can find updates posted on Roadconditions.sonoma-county.org.

"Our hearts go out to you," Palacio said.

The cause of the fires remains under investigation.

No firefighter injuries have been reported.

Patch will update this post throughout the day as more information about the Sonoma County fire situation is gathered; please refresh the page for the latest.

Bay City News Service contributed to this report.

Photo: Firefighters put out a hot spot from a wildfire Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017, near Calistoga, Calif. Communities in wildfire-prone Northern California have an array of emergency systems designed to alert residents of danger: text messages, phone calls, emails and tweets. But after days of raging blazes left at least 23 dead, authorities said those methods will be assessed after some residents complained those warnings never got through. (Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)