Area residents are hoping that fire crews can knock down the fire enough to give them a control handle in time for an uptick in the wind speeds slated for tomorrow night. The local fairgrounds look like a D-Day staging area. This morning I watched fire truck refueling operations, a line of 100 trucks of different types and sizes. Must have been a dozen large tractor trailer rigs with huge Cat bulldozers waiting to deploy and cut fire breaks and roads.
I spoke with a two woman water tanker crew from Oregon about their tactics and com nets. They had been briefed earlier this morning on their target zone and were waiting deployment orders. The Fairground marshaling yards contained about 10 acres of fire trucks, tankers, tent cities, a corner made up of several dozen 10 man yurts and even vendor tents selling toiletries, hats, shirts, etc. Trucks were from departments all over the state, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. They will have their work cut out for them tomorrow night.
The strategy at this point is to keep the fire away from populated areas. The mountains to the east are extremely rugged and few defensive positions can be taken. Strategy 1 will be to keep the fire east of Healdsburg and put a defensive line across Shiloh Ridge. Strategy 2 will be to create a defensive line on the flanks of Mt. St. Helena to keep the fire from entering Napa Valley and threatening the town of Calistoga at the north end of Napa Valley.
The fire front is about 8 miles north of Santa Rosa and its first victims if it breaks through the lines to the south will be the same area ravaged by the Tubbs Fire two years ago. Maximum effort will be directed to prevent this.
The current calm weather conditions are a two edged sword. They allow the building of fire breaks but also curtail air operations as much of the smoke is hovering over the area and filling the valleys.
We have a friend who just rebuilt and moved in in August, she and her husband are now evacuated.