Crews Focusing On Northern End Of Hennessey Fire Wednesday

– photo credit: firebomber68 photography – Dan Dinneen –

A major firefighting effort is being directed Wednesday at the northern end of the Hennessey Fire, which is burning just south of Middletown in Lake County, Cal Fire officials said.

“It’s our top priority,” said Cal Fire operations section Chief Chris Waters at a Wednesday briefing.

“All the resources on this fire have started to coalesce in that area so we can start to close this thing off,” Waters said.

Firefighters have made steady progress on the two blazes in Sonoma County: the Meyers Fire near Jenner, which is 97 percent contained, and the Walbridge Fire, which is 19 percent contained. Sonoma County officials on
Tuesday lifted evacuation orders for thousands of people, allowing them to return home.

Still, the Walbridge Fire — which has burned a large though as yet not precisely tallied number of homes — remains a tough fight, Waters said.

“It offers some significant challenges, heavy fuels, steep and broken terrain, it’s very difficult terrain to work in,” he said. “Also a lot of homes and a lot of structures we have to work around.”

He added: “We continue to make good progress in tying together vineyards, people’s backyards, strategic points … and we’re still working to tie a lot of line together and put some line around this whole fire.”

Both the Walbridge and Hennessey fires are part of the LNU Lightning Complex fires that are burning in six counties — Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Solano, Yolo and Colusa — and have killed five people and destroyed 978 homes and other buildings. It is the third-largest fire in the state’s recorded history.

As of Wednesday, 293 engines, 66 water tenders, 11 helicopters, 18 hand crews, and 56 bulldozers — a total of 2,207 personnel — are engaged in the LNU Complex firefighting effort, said Cal Fire Incident Commander Sean Kavanaugh.

Kavanaugh noted that number includes support personnel other than firefighters and said, “That’s 162 acres per person. That’s just for a perspective. It is a very large incident with a lot of ground that has to be covered by the folks out on the fire lines.”

Of the Walbridge Fire, Kavanaugh said, “We do have the cooperation of the weather right now. We have to take advantage of that, we have to be opportunistic.”

As firefighters have started to bring the blazes to heel, government officials have started to speak of recovery.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St.Helena, on Tuesday called attention to federal funds disaster relief funds that are now available.

Individuals are eligible for up to $35,000 in grants to meet needs including building or repairing property, temporary housing, counseling or legal services. Individuals are also eligible for Small Business Administration recovery loans of up to $40,000, while nonprofits and businesses are eligible for loans of up to $2 million.