Forecasted gusty winds failed to materialize with the new Red Flag Warning Thursday night, allowing fire crews in the North Bay to beef up containment lines on the Glass Fire and prevent any further structure damage.
Winds are still expected to create unpredictable fire conditions Friday afternoon and evening, and as National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Garcia tells the Chronicle, "Conditions are still very critical. That’s why we are continuing the Red Flag Warning. We want people to be aware." The warning lasts until 6 a.m. Saturday.
Sonoma County fire Chief Mark Heine tells the Press Democrat there was minimal growth in the Glass Fire in Sonoma overnight, with some growth in Napa County at the northern flank of the fire — which is in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park. This portion of the fire has essentially begun overlapping with the burn scar from the LNU Lightning Complex to the east of Mount St. Helena.
Containment rose to 6 percent as of Friday morning, up from 5 percent on Thursday. And the fire grew by 1,348 acres overnight from 58,800 acres to 60,148 total acres this morning.
The official count of structures destroyed now stands at 589. The Chronicle says that 220 of those were homes, and one home just south of Calistoga was seen burning Friday morning.
The firefight on Friday is going to concentrate on the community of Angwin, on the Napa side, and the areas of Kenwood and Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in the Sonoma Hills, south of Santa Rosa and north of Glen Ellen, according to Heine.
The National Weather Service has predicted winds out of the northwest of 10 to 20 miles per hour, with gusts up to 30 miles per hour at higher elevations. But predicted gusts on Thursday night reportedly only reached about 9 miles per hour on Mount St. Helena.
As of Thursday afternoon, Cal Fire Operations Chief Mark Brunton was saying that there was a "50/50" chance that fire containment lines already dug through Kenwood would hold in the wind.
Great fire break in Sugarloaf State Park. #GlassFire #Firefightersftw pic.twitter.com/GTZ1MZ5F6e
— Sonoma Sheriff (@sonomasheriff) October 2, 2020
"It's unpredictable with what type of wind patterns," says Cal Fire Incident Commander Billy See, speaking to KTVU. "There's an old saying, 'Where the wind blows that's where the fire's going to go,' and that's pretty much how we're going to watch this for right now, and plan for, and be aggressive with our tactical decisions on the ground."
