Officials Order 180,000 People to Evacuate Due to Kincade Fire in Sonoma County

Updated on Sunday at 8:35 a.m.

Evacuation orders for Kincade Fire have expanded to include parts of Santa Rosa on Sunday morning, the number of residents being displaced from their home increased from 90,000 to a total of 180,000 residents.

Authorities issued the order early Sunday as historic winds fueled the fire overnight and prompted PG&E to shut power to 2.3 million people to prevent additional wildfires. The National Weather Service says wind gusts topped 90 mph Sunday morning near the fire.

The current evacuation maps can be found here and the Sonoma County incident map here.

Previous coverage:

Officials issued a mandatory evacuation on Saturday of up to 50,000 people due to strong winds expected this evening near the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County. Additional evacuations were announced during a CalFire press conference Saturday night.

Residents of Healdsburg and the town of Windsor have been ordered to flee their homes.

Meteorologists expect fierce winds — as fast as 60 to 80 miles per hour — to whip through Northern California tonight. The winds are expected to fuel the fire, making it behave erratically, and they could push the blaze into populated areas.

By Saturday night, the Kincade fire has consumed 25,955 acres and is 10% contained.

The entire community of Geyserville and the hills east of the area are under mandatory evacuation orders, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office. Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said the decision wasn’t made lightly and done in consultation with CalFire and meteorologists.

“We're evacuating because this fire is very dangerous, and it is expected to move towards Healdsburg in Windsor this evening,” Essick said. “The winds that we're going to experience will be much like what we experienced in October of 2017.”

The North Bay fires of October 2017 ravaged Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino Counties, leaving entire neighborhoods destroyed. Forty-four people were killed and 21,000 homes were either damaged or destroyed.

The North Bay fires broke out late at night and high winds carried them into populated areas leaving law enforcement officials flat footed. Officials weren’t able to warn residents in time and there was a breakdown in communication.

Officials on Saturday were clear they didn’t want to make the same mistake.

“We are in a position where we are reliving something, but we're ahead of it,” said Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore.

During the North Bay fires emergency responders couldn’t evacuate people because the fires spread so quickly. Officials ordered Saturday’s mass evacuations knowing that some might consider it aggressive but Cal Fire Division Chief Jonathan Cox said it is essential in preventing the loss of life.

“We are really prioritizing safety right now for what is potentially the worst case scenario,” Cox said.

Law enforcement officials pleaded with residents to evacuate quickly rather than delaying and causing traffic jams. During last year’s Paradise fire, which killed 85 people, the roads got so congested that some residents were unable to leave as the fire descended on them.

Traffic jams also create a blockade for emergency response vehicles trying to get into the fire zone, said Gore.

“Everybody in our community needs us to get the heck out of the way of the first responder so they can do their job,” Gore said. “Two years ago, those first responders couldn't deal with a disaster because they had to evacuate people.”

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.