The latest reports coming from Cal Fire say that evacuation orders are being lifted in some parts of Sonoma County, including areas south of the Oakmont neighborhood, despite the Oakmont Fire's continued growth in other directions in Santa Rosa. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat detailed the areas, per a Cal Fire evacuation update report. As they explain, the following areas had their orders lifted:
Oakmont south of Highway 12 east of Calistoga Road to Pythian Road. That includes Mountain Hawk, but not Skyhawk or Rincon Valley east of Calistoga Road. Northbound roads off Highway 12 remain closed.The Oakmont Fire broke out over the weekend between two areas previously scorched by the Tubbs Fire to the north, and the Nuns Fire to the south.
As of 1 p.m., evacuations also were lifted for the area north of Highway 128 until Varoni Road outside the perimeter of the Pocket fire burning in the northern county.
Certain parts of unincorporated Sonoma are also being cleared for re-entry, according to the same report:
The unincorporated areas east of Sonoma to include the following areas east of 4th Street east to Lovall Valley Road at Thornsberry including Lovall Valley Court, south of Lovall Valley Road to East Napa Street. The area east of 7th East to the fire perimeter and highway 121 and all streets south from East Napa Street to Napa Road.
Current Cal Fire estimates say the Oakmont fire has burned through 1,029 acres of land. Containment has gone up since the initial fire broke out on Saturday, and now stands at 27%.
There's some other bittersweet news as well, as the number of missing persons has gone down, according to the Chron, who report that the tally has dropped to 65 people still missing in Sonoma County. That's a major drop from yesterday's count, which said there were still 99 people missing, and from last week when the number was well over 1,500. As officials had hoped, those reports of missing people were mostly because of cell towers affected by the wildfire preventing families from getting in contact with each other.
Related: Video: Watch A Berkeley Fire Crew React As They Approach The Tubbs Fire In Its First Hours