Sonoma County Farm Bureau
Wildfires tragically are not new to Sonoma County but, farmers and ranchers say the latest fires to hit the area were different.
Tawni Tesconi, Executive Director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau says the Kincaid fire has been more intense than past wildfires.
Tesconi: “It burned a little differently. I think we’re going to find that many more of our small hobby ranches, cattle ranches burned this time around. Tragically previously it was a lot of houses and but our ag community got hit pretty hard on this one.”
Tesconi says the Soda Rock and Fieldstone Wineries were destroyed and there may be others. The blaze also did significant damage to vineyards, although they tend to be significant fire breaks. So many homes surrounded by vineyards were saved. Many of the structures that burned did so because of gusty winds sending burning embers onto them.
Tesconi says she credits county officials and emergency crews and clear evacuation plans with the fact that no lives were lost.
Meanwhile firefighters made pretty significant progress battling the Kincade blaze by mid week according to Cal Fire representative Jonathan Cox.
More than 5,000 people were still under evacuation orders on Thursday Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said 10 people were arrested Wednesday for illegally entering evacuation zones.
