Evacuation orders issued for wildfire near Lake Sonoma

The vegetation fire sparked around 12:30 pm on Sunday. Smoke from the fire can be smelled and seen across the Bay Area. photo credit: KRCB's Marc Albert

Fire crews continue battling a wildfire that sparked early Sunday afternoon. As of Tuesday morning, overnight conditions helped firefighters get a better handle on the blaze.

"So coming in today, forecasted winds are supposed to be less than we experienced yesterday, which should allow the resources assigned for this operational period to build and strengthen the control lines that were put in place yesterday, as well as continuing a tactical patrol and mop up operations in and around the structures that were impacted by the fire yesterday," said CalFire Division Chief Ben Nichols on Monday morning.

The Point Fire is burning south of Lake Sonoma. It started in the 4200 block of Stewarts-Point Skaggs Spring Road.

As of Monday morning, it has scorched over 1200 acres, according to CalFire. The blaze is considered 40 percent contained as of Tuesday afternoon.

The fire was reportedly spreading southward, toward Mountain View Ranch Road.

Evacuation warnings impacting more than 1,000 homes have also been issued.

"We currently have one zone under full evacuation order,  that's zone 2E2. That affects 428 people," said Sonoma County Sheriff's Deputy Brandon Jones.

"That zone is under full evacuation order and everybody who resides in that zone needs to vacate their property immediately if they have not already done so. We have a second zone that's only under an evacuation warning. Obviously with the direction the fire is heading, that would be the next zone that the fire would enter. That zone is 2E3 and there are 4,400 residents in that zone," Jones said.

Jones detailed the area under an evacuation order. photo credit: Courtesy of Watch Duty A map of the evacuation area 8am Monday June 17

"The area in question we're taking is off of West Dry Creek Road. basically, the land between Lake Sonoma and the West Dry Creek area. All of our road closures are either on Stewarts Point-Skaggs Springs Road and then along West Dry Creek Road," Jones told KRCB News late Sunday afternoon.

The fire was first reported Sunday afternoon at 12:44 pm on Father's Day. The first evacuation warning followed two hours later. It was then upgraded to an order.

Jason Clay is the spokesperson for CalFire's Sonoma Lake Napa unit. He told KRCB News all available firefighting resources are being called in to fight the Point Fire. Late this afternoon, Clay said the fire has reached the Bradford Mountain area.

“With some homes on the northeast side that are also threatened at this time, and that has been an area with intense fire activity," Clay said. "Crews have reported seeing flames coming up a hundred feet coming off of the top of the mountain there. So again, it's a really wind-driven fire at this point.”

Clay detailed further what's going into the fire fight.

“We brought in additional orders of various different types of both fixed wing and helicopter aircraft, in addition to a very heavy complement of ground forces from fire engines, hand crews, bulldozers, water tenders," Clay said. "It’s just been a significant augmentation of resources and where we are at currently is a lot of those ground resources have transitioned to structure defense, particularly in the area along West Dry Creek Road north of Yoakum Bridge Drive.”

According to PG&E's outage map, up to 500 households are without power Sunday evening due to the fire.

The utility is reporting a wide area surrounding Lake Sonoma, along with areas west of Dry Creek Road northeast of Healdsburg.

Other outages are reported in areas west of Lake Sonoma along Stewarts Point Skaggs Spring Road.

The Sonoma County Office of Education says the Point Fire is affecting Healdsburg Unified School District. All summer school classes canceled on Monday because of evacuations, power outages, and smoke from the fire.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag fire warning for inland areas of the North Bay above 1,000 feet. It expires at 9 p.m. Monday night. The weather service says winds could reach 30 miles per hour. Watch Duty says three night-capable helicopters have been requested for tonight.

An evacuation center has been established at Laguna High School, also known to many as El Molino High School, located at 7050 Covey Road in Forestville.

This is a developing story. We will continue updating this story as more information becomes available.