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Multiple fires merge in California’s North Bay area to burn over 215,000 acres

Bill GabbertAugust 20, 2020August 23, 2020WildfireCalifornia, California lightning fires, LNU Complex2 Comments

The LNU Lightning Complex of Fires is in Napa, Lake, Yolo, and Solano Counties

August 20, 2020 | 9:05 p.m. PDT

CAL FIRE says the LNU Lightning Complex of fires in the North Bay area of California has now burned 215,000 acres, up from the 131,000 acres announced by the agency Thursday morning. The number of structures destroyed on the complex has risen to 480.

Resources assigned to the fire include, according to CAL FIRE, 9 hand crews, 27 water tenders, 8 helicopters, 69 fire engines, and 28 dozers, for a total of 587 personnel. These are very low numbers for a fire that is closing in on a quarter of a million acres, and are indicative of how firefighting resources are having to be shared among the 367 fires that were found after the lighting bust in California. Many of those firefighters, some of whom are working double shifts, must be feeling the physical and mental strain of this battle that has been going on since Sunday when 72 hours of lighting began.

(To see all of the articles on Wildfire Today about the lightning-caused wildfires in California, including the most recent, click HERE.)

Resources are coming in from other states, and the U.S. Forest Service has increased the number of available large air tankers from 30 to 32 by bringing on two more military C-130 aircraft equipped with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS). But aircraft can’t put out these fires driven by strong winds, very low humidity, dry vegetation, and near record heat. And smoke has at times decreased the visibility to the point where it was unsafe for them to fly.

Nationwide there are 416 hand crews, 1,507 fire engines, and 194 helicopters working on fires, for a total of 19,812 personnel. Incident Management teams committed in the U.S. include 13 Type 1 and 16 Type 2 teams; in California, 10 Type 1 and 5 Type 2 teams are assigned.

August 20, 2020 | 11:40 a.m. PDT

Map LNU Complex fire fires California Hennessey LNU Complex — Map of the wildfires in the LNU Lightning Complex of fires in California’s North Bay area, updated at 4 p.m. PDT August 19, 2020 by CAL FIRE.

At least seven large fires in California’s North Bay area have merged into one huge megafire. The Hennessey, Gamble, Green, Spanish, 5-10, Morgan, and Markley Fires are now one. It is 43 miles long, from the northeast corner of Yolo County, south across Napa County and into Solano County. The new merged fire is assuming the Hennessy Fire name and is being managed as part of the LNU Lightning Complex of fires that combined has covered 131,000 acres CAL FIRE said Wednesday. The number of acres may go up substantially later on Thursday as more current data is available.

CAL FIRE’s website has gone down at times Wednesday and Thursday, removing one source for critical information about the fire.

The agency said 105 structures (residences, commercial, and other) have been destroyed in the LNU Lightning Complex of fires.

A PG&E worker based in Vacaville died while assisting first responders, said company spokesperson John Kaufman. No further details were released.

A pilot was killed August 19 in the crash of a helicopter while working on the Hills Fire, approximately 9 miles south of the City of Coalinga.

Statewide in California there are 367 wildfires. Most of them started from the 10,800 lightning strikes during a 72-hour period that began Sunday. Shortages of aircraft and firefighters are hampering the suppression of the fires. The current dry, windy, and very hot weather conditions make control of any vegetation fire difficult even when an adequate number of resources are available. Some fires are not being immediately attacked by aircraft if they are a lower priority than another situation where lives are immediately threatened. Firefighters are being asked on some incidents to work back-to-back shifts.

Evacuations

Evacuation orders or warnings are in effect in Napa, Sonoma, and Lake counties. One way to keep up with the ever-changing list is the Twitter feed of CAL FIRE’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit. An estimated 13,254 people have been told to evacuate in Napa County.

West of the fires several communities were evacuated Wednesday evening, including Angwin, Deer Park and other areas. The 50 patients that were at the 151-bed St. Helena Hospital northeast of St. Helena were ordered to be evacuated at about 7 p.m.

All non-essential personnel at Travis Air Force Base south of Vacaville were told Wednesday night to evacuate. They were ordered to not exit through the Main or Hospital Gates, but to instead use the North and South Gates.

Wednesday morning two strike teams of ambulances were mobilized in Fresno and Tulare counties in order to assist with the fires in Napa County. The two strike teams of five ambulances each will have a total of 10 paramedics and 10 EMTs with two paramedic supervisors. They were initially sent to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Vacaville. Edgar Escobedo, spokesman for American Ambulance, said their mission will be to respond and stand-by in the event of large-scale evacuations of medical facilities and to support emergency medical services and alternate care sites.

CAL FIRE’s video briefing about statewide fires, and the LNU Complex of fires

Bill GabbertAugust 19, 2020August 23, 2020WildfireCalifornia, California lightning fires, Hennessey Fire, LNU Complex1 Comment

LNU Complex of fires -- briefing — LNU Complex of fires — briefing. ABC10.

At a briefing Wednesday the first minute and a half was about the statewide wildfire situation, then they moved on to details about the LNU Complex of fires in Napa, Lake, and Solano Counties of California.

(To see all of the articles on Wildfire Today about the lightning-caused wildfires in California, including the most recent, click HERE.)

California wildfires over the last century, in 106 seconds

Bill GabbertAugust 19, 2020August 19, 2020UncategorizedCalifornia, history10 Comments

Screenshot from the video below about California Wildfires 1910 to 2019. Produced by ESRI.

ESRI has produced a short video that displays the locations wildfires in California over the last 110 years, 1910 to 2019.

UPDATE: a couple of people have pointed out that in the screenshot from the video above, ESRI has the locations of the Ranch and Carr Fires reversed.

Hennessey Fire spreads south toward Vacaville

Bill GabbertAugust 19, 2020August 23, 2020Wildfire15-10 Fire, California, California lightning fires, Gamble Fire, Hennessey Fire, LNU Complex4 Comments

The LNU Complex of fires has burned tens of thousands of acres in Napa and Solano Counties in northern California

August 19, 2020 | 7:35 p.m. PDT

More evacuations have been ordered for the Hennessey and LNU Complex in northern California, this time in Napa County, including the St Helena Hospital and the communities of Angwin and Deer Park.

August 19, 2020 | 6:36 p.m. PDT

The Hennessey Fire has crossed Interstate 80 near Vacaville, California, prompting more evacuations. At about 5:15 p.m. @CAFireScanner reported that ground units said they had about 80 acres south of the Interstate and they would not be able to catch it without support from aviation.

August 19, 2020 | 12:58 p.m. PDT

Official evacuation information for the LNU Complex of fires north of Vacaville is provided by @CALFIRELNU. Follow them on Twitter.

map fire Hennessey LNU Complex 1145 pm PDT August 18, 2020 — Map of the fires in the LNU Complex in northern California. The data is from a privately owned aircraft and mapping system operated by Tenax Aerospace under an exclusive use contract with the U.S. Forest Service. The flight was at 11:45 p.m. PDT August 18, 2020. After the information was collected the fires spread substantially to the south and southeast. The red arrows were added by Wildfire Today indicating the direction of additional spread after the flight. There is high confidence in the accuracy of this mapping data, much more than heat data collected by satellites.

The map above of the fires in the LNU Complex in northern California is from a fixed wing mapping flight at 11:45 p.m. MDT August 18. After the flight the fires spread substantially to the south and southeast. The red arrows were added by Wildfire Today indicating the direction of additional spread after the flight. This is considered accurate data, much better than information collected by an orbiting satellite passing by hundreds of miles above the Earth. The limitation is that it is just a snapshot of one moment in time while the fires are spreading very rapidly, in some cases, into populated areas. This data is usually only available once a day in the middle of the night.

The mapping flight determined that at 11:45 p.m. Tuesday the size of the multiple fires in the Complex combined (Gamble, 15-10, Hennessey, and others) was 51,223 acres.

Continue reading “Hennessey Fire spreads south toward Vacaville”

Several large fires burning north of Napa, CA in Lake Berryessa area

Bill GabbertAugust 18, 2020August 23, 2020Wildfire15-10 Fire, California, California lightning fires, Gamble Fire, Hennessey Fire2 Comments

Hennessey, Gamble, and 15-10 Fires

August 18, 2020 | 4:46 p.m. PDT

LNU Complex Hennessey Gamble 15-10 fire — Map of the LNU Complex of fires at 2:36 a.m. PDT August 18, 2020.

Hennessey Fire

At least three large wildfires are spreading rapidly in northern California north of Napa. The Hennessey Fire is about 12 air miles north of Napa near the intersection of Highway 128 and Chiles Pope Valley Road. The last size provided by CAL FIRE (which could be many hours old) was 2,700 acres but it has grown substantially since then. Approximately 205 structures are threatened and evacuation orders are in place. At around 4 p.m. Tuesday there was a report that it had crossed to the south side of Highway 128 and was burning toward Atlas Peak. Three structures have been destroyed. Tuesday afternoon it was creating a large pyrocumulus cloud, indicating extreme fire behavior. An AlertWildfire camera captured the early hours of the fire including when a passing thunderstorm caused a rapid 180-degree shift in the wind direction and the spread of the fire.

(To see all of the articles on Wildfire Today about the lightning-caused wildfires in California, including the most recent, click HERE.)

15-10 Fire

There are two large fires near Lake Berryessa. The 15-10 Fire (the name will probably change) is along Berryessa Knoxville Road near the northwest shore of the lake. Tuesday at 2:36 a.m. it had burned approximately 1,000 acres according to sensors on a satellite, but it is very active Tuesday afternoon.

Gamble Fire

At 2:36 a.m. the south edge of the Gamble Fire was two miles north of the 15-10 Fire. At that time it had also burned approximately 1,000 acres according to sensors on a satellite, and it too was very active.

Evacuations are occurring for the 15-10 and Gamble Fires. With both fires burning along the Berryessa Knoxville Road, evacuation is complicated.

The photo below with four pyrocumulus clouds forming above the rapidly spreading fires is very impressive.

LNU Lightning Complex of fires August 18, 2020

Lightning ignites fires in San Francisco Bay Area

Bill GabbertAugust 17, 2020March 10, 2021WildfireCalifornia, California lightning fires, lightning, UTF1 Comment

August 18, 2020 | 6:14 p.m. PDT

Map of the LNU Complex of fires at 2:06 p.m. PDT August 18, 2020.

Most of the wildfires in the LNU Complex were very active Tuesday. Based on data from a satellite at 2:06 p.m. the Del Puerto Fire especially increased in size.

(To see all of the articles on Wildfire Today about the lightning-caused wildfires in California, including the most recent, click HERE.)

Photo from the Black Mountain camera looking southwest, in the general direction of the Waddle, 5-14, 5-15, and 5-18 fires at 5:46 p.m. PDT August 18, 2020.

August 18, 2020 | 7:43 a.m. PDT

map fires bay area california — The map shows heat detected by a satellite on wildfires in the San Francisco South Bay Area at 2:48 a.m. PDT August 18, 2020. The names of some of the fires have changed.

Most of the wildfires that started in the San Francisco Bay area in the last three days that escaped initial attack and were already large by Monday evening continued to grow into Monday night, according to heat data collected by a satellite at 2:48 a.m. PDT Tuesday.

At least 16 fires north and south of Livermore are being managed as one “complex”, the SCU Lightning Complex. SCU is the CAL FIRE unit responsible for the counties of Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, western Stanislaus, and San Joaquin. Some of the names of the individual fires have changed in the last 24 hours, but the largest blazes in the complex are Marsh, Ohlone, Reservoir, and Del Puerto.

Very little detailed information is available about the individual fires.

The Del Puerto Fire, formerly part of the Canyon Zone Fires, is about 10 miles west of Patterson and about three miles northwest of Diablo Grande. With all the name changes the size is not clear, but it is likely 5,000 to 15,000 acres.

The Ohlone and Reservoir Fires southeast of Fremont are adjacent to the Calaveras Reservoir three to seven miles east of the 680 freeway.

Fires that have been grouped into the CZU August Lightning Complex include the Waddle, 5-14, 5-15, and 5-18 Fires, plus other smaller fires. CAL FIRE says they total about 1,000 acres.

Outside of the South Bay area there are many other fires. Further north there are more than 60 fires combined in Butte and Napa Counties, for example.

There are reports that competition for firefighting resources is intensifying as requests placed by some incident commanders are unable to be filled (UTF). Firefighters in some cases are being asked to work double shifts. This situation is unlikely to improve soon, based on the extraordinary heat predicted for this week.

August 17, 2020 | 7:21 p.m. PDT

The map above is an updated version of the one below. The satellite heat data from 2:24 p.m. August 17 shows that the Canyon Zone Fires are growing rapidly toward the southeast and the west.

The Deer Zone Fire west of Los Vaqueros Reservoir was also active on the south side, but not to the same degree. It was mapped at 1,161 acres.

The Marsh Fire east of Milpitas was active at 2:24 p.m. Monday and has burned 1,775 acres.

The three fires oddly named 5-14, 5-15, and 5-18 did not create enough heat to be picked up during the latest satellite overflight at 2:24 p.m. Monday. They are about 5 miles east of Pescadero.

August 17, 2020 | 4:14 p.m. PDT

A rare series of intense summer thunderstorms passed through the San Francisco Bay Area Sunday morning and Monday morning. Some of the cells passed through so quickly there was little chance for precipitation.

lighting strikes 48-hour period california bay area — Lightning strikes during the 48-hour period ending at 12:59 p.m. PDT August 17, 2020. The yellow strikes are the most recent.

Numerous wildfires ignited and while not all of them have been investigated, lightning is the likely cause for many. Combined with winds that accompanied the storms with gusts of 50 to 70, very high temperatures, and a Red Flag Warning, there are so many fires now that they are difficult to track, at least from this writer’s vantage point.

The southern Bay Area has quite a few and there are others in the North Bay and Napa area.

There is competition for firefighting resources. Some of the incident commanders placing orders for aircraft, dozers, engines, or crews are at times being told that a particular order can’t be filled at that time, or there may be a lengthy delay.

From the Washington Post:

In California, the heat resulted in scores of record highs over the weekend including around Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area and Sacramento. Early Sunday morning, a bizarre “heat burst” raised the temperature 20 degrees in two hours in Fairfield, about 40 miles northeast of San Francisco. The temperature shot from around 80 to 100 degrees in the hours around sunrise.

The National Weather Service in San Francisco issued an unusually large severe thunderstorm warning that covered more than 7,000 square miles from Monterey Bay to the Bay Area and north into Napa Valley. The office warned of “erratic outflow wind gusts of 50 to 70 mph wind gusts, [and] frequent lightning.” The warning, the largest ever issued by that office, was six times larger than the state of Rhode Island.

“This 20-year forecaster cant recall such a widespread [thunderstorm] event on the heels of such a heat wave,” wrote one meteorologist in the office forecast discussion late Sunday.

We will add to this post later with more details about individual fires.

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