Surprisingly, Curtis and Audubon are not all that upset since much of their work in recent years was ridding the presrve of invasive, non-native plants, which weren't helping the birds. This is California -- they expect the land to replenish itself quickly.
Ashes evidently fell as far away as Santa Rosa. Every once in a while, the fire would get close to the crest at some point, and traffic on the freeway would slow to a crawl while people watched the flames over hills, within ten miles of #101.
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State Department of Forestry inmate crews, part of an 11-agency strike team from the state Department of Corrections, rest inside the Cloverdale Citrus Fair Auditorium on Tuesday. The fairgrounds is part of the west staging area for The Geysers Fire. (KENT PORTER / The Press Democrat)
Full containment due this morning; PG&E reactivates power lines
Wednesday, September 8, 2004
By KATY HILLENMEYER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The Geysers wildfire, which has scorched 12,525 acres in Sonoma and Lake counties, was 90 percent contained Tuesday, and PG&E restored power to four transmission lines that had been shut because of the blaze.
The 2,621 firefighters who fought the fire six miles northeast of Geyserville were on track to fully contain the fire by 8 a.m. today.
"Last night, they really had a strong push and got a lot accomplished," said Frank Kemper, a division chief with the state Department of Forestry. "The weather has been working for us: It's still hot and dry, but the winds haven't come up, so we're making a lot of progress."
The fire began Friday in the rugged Mayacmas Mountains where The Geysers geothermal steamfield straddles the Sonoma-Lake county line. The cause remains under investigation.
"It often takes days to weeks to determine" a cause, Kemper said.
Seven firefighters have suffered minor to moderate injuries - mostly joint and muscle strains blamed on the steep terrain. CDF reported one case of heat exhaustion.
The fire destroyed four homes, a commercial communication relay station, eight outbuildings and 12 vehicles. It also triggered evacuations along Pine Flat and Briggs Ranch roads in Sonoma County and Dry Creek Road in Lake County.
By Tuesday afternoon, Briggs Ranch, Red Winery and Geysers roads had been reopened, CDF volunteers said. But traffic on Pine Flat and Dry Creek roads remained restricted to residents because of heavy use of those narrow, twisting roads by emergency vehicles.
Suppression costs have topped $6 million. But with the fire burning for five days around multimillion-dollar homes and vineyards in the Alexander Valley and near the Lake County communities of Anderson Springs and Cobb, CDF spokeswoman Linda Galvan said fire crews "feel good" about minimizing the damage.
"It's bad enough that four homes were destroyed, but it could have been much, much worse," she said. "There were some good saves."
As temperatures climbed Tuesday to 102 degrees in Middletown and 101 in Healdsburg, PG&E echoed the California Independent System Operator's call for power conservation.
But PG&E overcame a major supply hurdle Monday, re-energizing four transmission lines from power plants at The Geysers that had been idled as a precautionary measure.
Power plants at The Geysers are the major source of power for the North Bay. PG&E rerouted power from elsewhere over the holiday weekend but was concerned about meeting demand throughout Northern California if the plants remained off-line when work-week demands resumed Tuesday.
After days of smoke and ash drifting throughout the region, hospitals in Healdsburg and Clearlake reported no increase in the number of respiratory ailments they have treated.
But air quality officials in Sonoma and Lake counties cautioned against unnecessary exertion by people with asthma or other sensitivities to respiratory irritants.
In Healdsburg, the Northern Sonoma County Air Pollution Control District reported particulate matter levels that peaked over the weekend at 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air - the state's health standard.
The readings measure small particles in the air, including dust from unpaved roads, wildfire debris and exhaust from vehicles, that can be inhaled.
"When the air is getting up to or over 50 micrograms per cubic meter, that's where you begin to see impacts on the people breathing the air," said Barbara Lee, air pollution control officer for the northern Sonoma County district.
"It's not so high that people experience acute respiratory distress," Lee said. "The average person is not going to experience any discomfort."
The extended heat wave and the fire have combined to create problems for the Sonoma County Water Agency, which is asking customers to voluntarily limit water use until the heat subsides. At the request of PG&E to curtail energy use, the Water Agency on Monday turned off two of the 10 pumps that move water from the Russian River into an aqueduct system serving about 570,000 people.
Meanwhile, heat-driven water demand is exceeding the aqueduct's capacity, which means a back-up water supply in tanks and reservoirs is tapped. Ordinarily, the backup water storage would be replenished overnight when water demand declines. But with pumps turned off to save power, the agency can't refill water tanks and reservoirs quickly enough.
"We've watched the storage get lower each day as the heat continues, especially after we turned our pumps off," said Pam Jeane, the agency's deputy chief engineer. "We're not having any problems with pressure or anything like that at this point. The heat is supposed to last all week. The longer it lasts, the worse off we'll be."
Cutting back on watering lawns and gardens is a good way to limit water use, agency officials said.
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