Fire fighters with the California Office of Emergency Services monitor spot fires on Big Ridge, seen smoldering in the background, during the Walbridge portion of the LNU Lightning Complex fire in Sonoma County, California, U.S., on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020. More than 360 blazes are burning in California, forcing mass evacuations in the northern part of the state and creating an air quality emergency. Photographer: Philip Pacheco/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Firefighters will be working Wednesday to make it possible for people to move back to homes within the perimeter of the Walbridge Fire in Sonoma County, Cal Fire officials said.
"The real big development today is that the interior of this fire area is going to be repopulated and fire operations are going to be in support of that activity," Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Chris Waters said at a Wednesday morning news conference.
The fire has burned 54,940 acres. Containment, growing rapidly, is 85 percent, up from 70 percent Tuesday night, according to the latest Cal Fire report.
Waters also said the 2,360-acre Meyers Fire, north of Jenner, is "out."
Overall, the LNU Lightning Complex fires -- of which the Walbridge and Meyers fires are a part -- remained at 375,209 acres overnight and are 76 percent contained. Waters said much of the Hennessey Fire, which has burned 317,909 acres, is out. The fire is 74 percent contained with mop up work in its interior continuing from Vacaville to Calistoga, he said.
With final firefighting efforts expected to conclude Wednesday on a section of the fire just south of Middletown in Lake County, and within a day on another section further north near Capay Valley and state Highway 16, "that will be the entire (Hennessey) fire with control line all the way around it," said Waters.
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Cal Fire reported Wednesday that across Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Lake and Yolo counties, 768 single family homes, one multi-family residence and one mixed-use commercial and residential building were destroyed in the LNU Complex fires.
