North Bay Area News Roundup: Fires, Evacuations, Deadly Crash

NORTH BAY, CA — Potentially thousands of Sonoma County workers have new rights to remain home and still get paid if they are sick with COVID-19 or have to care for a senior family member or a child.

County supervisors on Tuesday passed a sick leave ordinance that labor advocates have campaigned for since March. It was the second big victory for labor in a month; Santa Rosa passed a similar ordinance in July.

However, like so much associated with coronavirus, the new ordinance's future is uncertain beyond the end of this year, when it sunsets. The cost to small businesses in particular is also unknown.

The ordinance applies to employees at about 12,000 businesses in unincorporated Sonoma County, including 275 that have more than 500 employees nationwide, according to county staff reports.

Under the ordinance, those businesses must provide at least 80 hours of paid sick leave to employees who are sick with COVID-19 or need to care for a child or senior family member because a school or caregiving facility is closed due to coronavirus. A key last minute amendment on Tuesday also guarantees the rights of health care workers to get leave because of those caregiving circumstances.

Hennessey Fire

More mandatory evacuations driven by the fast-spreading Hennessey Fire in rural Napa County have been ordered Tuesday for residences and commercial buildings along Steele Canyon Road from state Highway 128 (near the state Highway 121 junction) northeast to the Berryessa Highlands housing development just south of Lake Berryessa.

The fire, first reported about 6:45 a.m. Monday, had as of Tuesday afternoon burned about 2,700 acres of vegetation southwest of Lake Berryessa, and was moving quickly eastward toward Highway 128. There was zero containment reported as of 5 p.m. Tuesday.

The Hennessey Fire is one of three main fires now being called the LNU Lightning Complex Fires. Mandatory evacuations had been ordered Monday in heavily wooded areas covering Sage Canyon Road from Chiles Pope Valley Road to Lower Chiles Road, Highway 128 at Silverado Trail to Chiles Pope Valley Road, including Pritchard Hill, and Highway 128 at Lower Chiles Valley Road to Turtle Rock.

The Napa County Office of Emergency Services said an evacuation shelter has been established at Crosswalk Community Church 2590 First St. in Napa.

13-4 Wildfire

Mandatory evacuation orders for an "immediate threat to life" have been expanded due to the 13-4 wildfire, Cal Fire and the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday evening.

Residents in the areas south of Stewarts Point Skaggs Springs Road, west of West Dry Creek Road and Westside Road, north of Sweetwater Springs Road and McCray Ridge Road, and east of East Austin Creek are being told to leave immediately.

The 13-4 fire is part of three main fires now being called the LNU Lightning Complex Fires.

Power Outages

Calls for public conservation of electricity paid off Tuesday as California's power grid operator called off expected rotating power outages.

The California Independent System Operator credited consumers for cutting back and averting outages for the second straight day.

Officials said "The ISO grid also received some imported energy, and wind plants churned some resources into the system late in the day."

The state had been under a Stage 2 emergency due to a heat wave that started Friday and increased power demand, particularly for air conditioning. Planned outages for Tuesday were announced, but called off at 7:37 p.m. when demand was lower than expected.

User conservation also averted outages on Monday.

Coronavirus Testing

Santa Clara County opened a new COVID-19 testing site Tuesday at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose that will be able to test 1,000 people daily by the end of the week. It will have the ability to expand up to 5,000 tests per day - making it the largest test site in the Bay Area.

The new site will be run by Valley Medical Center and offers language services such as Spanish-speaking staff, and lanes dedicated to those who may need language assistance.

The fairgrounds site will also be used for large-scale flu shots in the fall and a COVID-19 vaccine site for when it becomes available, officials said.

Currently there are 10 lanes that will be open, but that is expected to increase. Most will be used for drive-thru vehicle traffic, but some lanes will be dedicated to walk-up and bicycle traffic as well.

Woodward Fire

The Woodward Fire has burned at least 700 acres with zero percent containment Tuesday night in part of the Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County, according to the county Fire Department.

Marin County issued an evacuation warning to people in a sparsely populated area west of Shoreline Highway, otherwise known as state Highway 1, and set up an evacuation center at West Marin School in Point Reyes Station.

Read more: Woodward Fire Burns 800 Acres, Prompts Evacuation Warning In Marin

Marin County Fire Department crews first responded at 4:27 p.m. to the fire just south of the Woodward Trail, located a few miles west of the Bear Valley Visitor Center in Olema and about a mile inland from Limantour Beach.

No structures have been damaged in the blaze and no injuries have been reported. Lightning is suspected as the cause of the fire, according to Fire Battalion Chief Bret McTigue.

August Lightning Complex

Evacuations have been ordered Tuesday in areas of southern San Mateo and northern Santa Cruz counties as fire crews try to get a handle on a group of fires being called the August Lightning Complex.

Lightning is believed to be the cause of the fires, which broke out around 3 a.m. Sunday and have burned some 7,500 acres, with no containment as of Tuesday night.

No structures have burned, but about 1,200 are threatened. Two firefighters have been injured.

Five large fires — three in San Mateo and two in Santa Cruz — make up the group, but there are also other smaller fires in the two counties.

Caramel, River Fires

As the River Fire grew in size Tuesday, two more fires confronted crews in Monterey County.

The Carmel Fire started at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Carmel Valley Road at Cachagua Road in the unincorporated community of Carmel Valley and by 7 p.m. it had burned 1,200 acres, with zero containment and 60 structures threatened.

Evacuations were ordered for the area east of Cachagua Road including Sky Ranch, Tributaries and Via Cielo.

The cause is undetermined.

An active fire also started Tuesday evening near John Little State Natural Reserve on the Big Sur Coast, but official details were not immediately available.

The River Fire, sparked by a lightning strike in Monterey County on Sunday, had grown to 4,500 acres by Tuesday night and was only 7 percent contained, Cal Fire said.

Deadly Crash

A 75-year-old Sonoma man died when his SUV collided with a fuel truck Tuesday morning in an unincorporated area of Sonoma County near Petaluma, the California Highway Patrol said.

Officers, called to the crash scene on Bodega Avenue at Pepper Road in unincorporated Petaluma about 6:20 a.m., determined that a man driving a Ford Explorer turning into the path of a three-axle fuel truck going westbound on Bodega.

The collision rotated the Explorer off the road and into a dirt embankment, where it overturned.

The driver of the Explorer was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity is not being released pending notification of his family. The fuel truck driver, a 65-year-old Petaluma man, was uninjured.

Excessive Heat

Excessive heat warnings continue through Wednesday, with moderate cooling expected late in the week and into the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

San Francisco will be sunny with highs in the mid 70s, and lows in the upper 50s at night.

Oakland will also be sunny with highs expected in the low 80s before cooling to 60 at night.

Santa Rosa will be hot and sunny. Highs are set to reach the mid 90s during the day, with clear skies and lows near 60.

Redwood City will have clear and sunny skies with highs in the low 90s Wednesday. Lows at night will reach the low 60s.

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