Vegetation fire north of Geyserville held to 10.9 acres

Firefighters quickly contained a vegetation fire north of Geyserville on Saturday, on a day that temperatures in the 10.9 acre blaze’s vicinity hit 101 degrees.

The fire near Pocket Ranch Road and Bridge Oaks Road was contained at 12:20 p.m., about an hour after it was reported, said Cal Fire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit spokesperson Jason Clay.

The cause is under investigation, he said.

He said the firefighting effort was aided by the presence of two air tankers and a heli-tanker stationed at Sonoma County airport, about 22 miles south as the crow flies.

“Those helped to really lay down target lines and get water on it to help box it in pretty quickly,” he said. “It's nice in this case that they were close by.”

The fire was reported at about 11:20 a.m., with smoke visible from a distance and on wildfire surveillance video. Air attack -- the aerial incident command station -- at that time reported it to have potential to grow to 150 acres.

No structures were threatened and no injuries were reported, Clay said. Crews from the Northern Sonoma County Fire Protection District, Cloverdale Fire Protection District and Healdsburg Fire Department also responded, Clay said. About 90 firefighting personnel were involved all told, he said.

The fire was dubbed the Pocket Fire, and was in the burn scar of the 2017 wildfire of the same name, which torched 17,357 acres and was part of the Central LNU Complex fires that included the Tubbs and Nuns fires and wrought havoc on Sonoma County.

This year’s fire season is well underway: In Sonoma County, the first major blaze of the season, the Point Fire, blew up June 16 on the east side of Lake Sonoma.

It spread to 1,207 acres before it was contained. It destroyed 10 structures, three of them homes, and damaged two. More than 300 residents were ordered to evacuate and more than 400 more received an evacuation warning in that blaze.

In Napa County, the Crystal Fire started northeast of St. Helena on June 5 and burned 90 acres before being contained. The July 2 Toll Fire near Calistoga burned 41 acres and forced some evacuations.

So far this fire season, 150,000 acres have burned statewide, Clay said, compared to 8,647 acres last year and an average of 34,000 acres over the past five years.

“It’s been a really active early fire season,“ he said. ”The fuels are really dried out and subject to ignition and rapid spread.”

The weather service said Saturday there had been “some improvement” for next week’s forecast, with temperatures expected to begin cooling today and through Tuesday.

The region, however, will continue to be above normal through the week, but most locations will stay under 100 degrees, the agency said.

If that forecast holds, the weather service could revise its current heat advisory. But that decision won’t be made until Monday, officials said.

Braden Murdock, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service said North Bay temperatures should be around three to five degrees cooler Sunday, which may not be that noticeable.

“It’s not going to be super, super cooler,” he said.

On Saturday, the highs across Napa and Sonoma counties varied but hit triple digits in many locations.

Santa Rosa hit a high of 100, while Rohnert Park and Cloverdale hit 106 and 108 respectively.

The Napa high reached 91 and Kentfield got to 94. Further north, temperatures easily topped 110 degrees.

Ukiah got to 113 in town and the airport there reached 117.

Staff Writer Jeremy Hay contributed to this article. You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.