SF News PG&E Reveals $3B Wildfire Safety Plan for 2021 Ahead of Possible 'Very Extreme' Season PG&E has been found responsible for around 1,500 wildfires — and that estimation was published back in 2019, well before last year’s dystopian wildfire season. Going into 2021, the utility company hopes its new multi-billion-dollar wildfire mitigation plan will help it spark fewer blazes.
SF News A Rare December Red Flag Warning Possible For Parts of Bay Area Sunday Gusty winds and persistently dry conditions are potentially going to create fire danger for parts of the Bay Area between Sunday and Monday, which is the last thing that anyone in fire-prone areas wants to hear after an exhausting fire season.
SF News Small Fire Breaks Out In Sonoma County Just After Power Is Restored, Downed Power Lines Found Nearby Another possible near-miss for PG&E was recorded Tuesday night in northern Sonoma County when a vegetation fire broke out just minutes after power was restored in one area — and apparently there were two downed power lines in the vicinity that were missed in the utility's inspections.
SF News Extreme Wind Event Arrives Early Next Week With Even Greater Potential Fire Danger, More PSPS Likely The relentlessness of 2020 with its anxieties and miseries lumbers on with yet another fire weather forecast that no one wants to hear. But a coming wind event that begins Sunday brings the most danger so far, according to one meteorologist.
SF News Glass Fire Reaches 100% Containment as North Bay Braces For More Power Shutoffs The Glass Fire is officially, fully contained as of Tuesday, right on schedule per earlier announcements by Cal Fire. As with other wildfires, it has taken many days than might seem intuitively necessary to get from 97-percent to 100-percent, and here we are.
SF News PG&E Warns Of More Power-Shutoffs Later This Week For North & East Bay A Red Flag Warning goes into effect Monday night that's currently scheduled to expire Wednesday morning. But starting Wednesday evening, PG&E's forecasters are saying there is an elevated risk of another Diablo wind event that could lead to a two- or three-day PSPS.
SF News Wildfire Breaks Out On Hillside Next to Famed South San Francisco Sign, Threatening Homes A wildfire that's been given the name the Diamond Fire broke out just after 12 p.m. on Friday afternoon on the dry hillside in South San Francisco that's home to the famed "Industrial City" sign, and it has led to evacuation orders for nearby homes.
SF Politics [Update] Trump Administration Denies CA Request For Wildfire Disaster Relief, Then Reverses Itself After a late September request to the White House from Governor Gavin Newsom for a federal major disaster declaration in the wake of six of California's recent wildfires, FEMA and the president have responded with a big NO.
SF News PG&E Gives County-by-County Timelines For Likely Shutoffs Wednesday A full schedule of public safety power shutoff (PSPS) duration estimates is now available for October 14 to 16, and PG&E says around 54,000 customers in 24 counties are likely to be affected.
SF News 'We Can't Keep Living Like This': Dave Eggers Offers Firsthand Account of the Early Hours of the Glass Fire One of the Bay Area's most renowned writers, Dave Eggers, has offered up his own account of the Glass Fire for The New Yorker.
SF News Predicted Mid-Week High Winds Means More Likely Power Shutoffs for North Bay Higher temperatures and gusty offshore winds later this week have PG&E warning customers in the North Bay and elsewhere that there could be another PSPS (public safety power shutoff) in their future.
SF News Glass Fire Reaches 74% Containment; 1,545 Structures Burned The Glass Fire remains largely under control in Sonoma and Napa counties as we close out its second week since igniting, and Cal Fire reported Friday morning that it has reached 74-percent containment.
SF News Glass Fire 58% Contained; Toll of Destroyed Homes Hits 616 The Glass Fire is largely under control in Napa and Sonoma counties as of Wednesday morning, though several thousand residents remain under evacuation orders. Cal Fire reported reaching 58-percent containment, as damage assessments continue.
SF News Entire West Coast Marijuana Crop Threatened By Fire, Smoke, and Ash In not just California, but Oregon and Washington too, where even cannabis plants that are hundreds of miles from the fires suffer smoke damage that renders the pot unsmokable.
SF News Glass Fire Reaches 30% Containment as Some Evacuation Orders Are Lifted Predicted high winds never materialized late last week or over the weekend, and firefighters were able to raise containment levels and tamp down the Glass Fire threat for much of Sonoma County. On the Napa side, Calistoga was able to breathe easy Sunday as the fire shifted east.
SF News Firefighters Still Bracing For High Winds After Calm Night Fighting Glass Fire; Containment Reaches 6 Percent 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.
SF News SF Air Quality to Worsen Thursday Night, Improve By Friday Afternoon According to the latest smoke forecast, while fires may get scarier to our north — and while the East Bay hills are under Red Flag Warnings too — the smoke situation in San Francisco will get worse before it gets better.
SF News Ignition Point Of Glass Fire Identified and It's *Possible* It Wasn't PG&E's Fault Cal Fire investigators appear to have found the general area where the Glass Fire first ignited around 3:30 a.m. on September 27. A PG&E transmission line runs through the area, but an initial investigation has not pointed immediately to PG&E as the likely culprit, for a change.
SF News [Update] New Fire Near Yountville Quickly Contained What's being called the Campbell Fire has just broken out Thursday morning in the vicinity of Oakville Grade Road and Campbell Creek Road in Napa County, just outside of Yountville on the west side of Highway 29.
SF News Glass Fire Continues to Grow As Containment Reaches 5 Percent Overnight Firefighters in Sonoma and Napa counties are bracing for two days of bigger and faster flames as high winds return, but containment on the Glass Fire inched up overnight to reach 5 percent.
SF News Glass Fire Gains 1,800 Acres Overnight As Dry Conditions and Another Red Flag Warning Are on the Horizon Wednesday morning brought news that the Glass Fire had not significantly expanded its footprint compared to the day before, and all but around 14,000 residents have been allowed to return home in Sonoma County.
SF News Glass Fire Grows to 36,000 Acres, Dozens of Structures Confirmed Destroyed The Glass Fire, which remains zero-percent contained as it continues burning in Sonoma and Napa counties, more than tripled in size between Monday and Tuesday, though calmer wind conditions overnight will hopefully lead to some containment today.
SF News Tuesday Morning Topline: Santa Rosa Senior Community Saved From Fire Three people have died in the Zogg Fire in Shasta County, Calistoga is a ghost town right now, the evacuated senior community in east Santa Rosa appears to have been spared from flames, and Oakland has had a disturbing recent spate of homicides.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink [Update] Parts of Meadowood Resort, Including Michelin Three-Star Restaurant, Burn In Glass Fire In St. Helena Parts of the luxury Meadowood resort caught fire early Monday morning, and despite their best efforts firefighters were unable to save the restaurant building after they drained the pool and ran out of water.
SF News PG&E Power Outages Hitting NorCal Hard, Nearly 100,000 Homes May Be Without Power as Utility's Share Price Drops It’s that time of year, as the Napa and Sonoma fires have knocked out some 37,000 homes’ power, planned outages hit another 65,000 homes in the Sierras, and even Oakland and SF have a few areas without power.
