A new wildfire designated the Gates Fire broke out in Sonoma County on Friday afternoon, igniting on private land as dry offshore winds and a sweeping power shutoff put much of Northern California on edge. The blaze was first discovered just before 2 p.m., though its cause remains undetermined and containment status unknown.
According to the Sacramento Bee, which cited the National Interagency Fire Center, the Gates Fire was reported at 1:51 p.m. Friday in Sonoma County and had burned on private land. The story, credited to United Robots Sacramento, is one of several automated wildfire dispatches the paper has run this fire season as new blazes crop up across the state.
The fire’s emergence comes as Sonoma County residents were already bracing for elevated wildfire danger. PG&E de-energized 2,041 customers in the county as part of a statewide Public Safety Power Shutoff that could affect about 88,000 customers, the utility said, citing extreme fire weather conditions.
Dry Winds and Red Flag Conditions Set the Stage
The power shutoff wasn’t an isolated precaution. The National Weather Service had issued fire weather advisories across Northern California in mid-October, with humidity levels dropping between 15% and 30% and offshore wind gusts reaching 35 mph in the North Bay mountains, as reported by SFGATE. Those conditions are the classic recipe for rapid wildfire spread in Northern California’s dry autumn landscape…