Some 180,000 people were ordered to evacuate because of the fire "Kincade Fire" north of San Francisco, said Sunday the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office, where the flames have already ravaged more than 12,000 hectares.
"The most important sheriff's memory evacuation"
According to California Fire Agency Cal Fire , the disaster, which began Wednesday night, was contained only 10% Sunday morning, supported by exceptionally favorable weather conditions. "This is Sonoma County's largest sheriff's memory evacuation," said the sheriff's office via his Twitter account. Earlier Sunday morning, he announced the order to evacuate several areas immediately north of Santa Rosa, a city that itself has about 180,000 inhabitants. The city police then ordered the evacuation of the northern half of the commune.
Several emergency shelters were full, the local ABC7 news channel reported , and Santa Rosa had to close one of them, the Finley Community Center, which was in the area to be evacuated. All detainees at North County Detention Facility have been relocated and Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital evacuated. Part of Highway 101, the main road through Santa Rosa, was briefly cut off.
The progression of the fire from north to south was facilitated by dry weather, a very low humidity (14%) and a sustained wind, with gusts of up to 130 km / h. The National Meteorological Service (NWS) predicted strong winds throughout the day Sunday, before a lull on Monday. The week ahead was just as dry as the weekend.
Master the fire "will take a lot of time"
Relatively preserved in previous fires in recent years, several properties in Sonoma County, known worldwide for its wines, have been attacked by the flames. Several videos have shown the main building of the 150-year-old Soda Rock Winery, a giant fire in Healdsburg. According to the San Francisco Chronicle , another Healdsburg property, the Field Stone Winery, was also affected by the fire, as was Moville Vineyards.
"It will take a long time" to control the fire, Sonoma County Technical Authority David Rabbitt told ABC7 . Some 3,000 people were mobilized to fight the fire, which started north-east of Geyserville on Wednesday night. Electricity supplier PG & E announced plans to cut off power to 940,000 homes from Saturday afternoon in 36 counties in the region due to the extreme weather conditions.
The local authorities have not yet determined the cause of the incident, but PG & E reported an incident on one of its lines near the point of origin of the "Kincade Fire", only seven minutes before the departure of the refugees. flames, according to several local media. Further south of California, where another fire, the "Fire Fire" was taking place, most evacuation notices were lifted. The fire forced tens of thousands of people to leave their home near Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles.