SANTA ROSA, Calif. _ Aided by light winds and cooler temperatures, firefighters made significant progress overnight and early Sunday morning on two of the biggest wildfires raging across Northern California, but officials cautioned that they still face major challenges.
The winds that bedeviled firefighters Saturday were expected to remain mostly calm Sunday, allowing them to go back on the offense after a day of new evacuations. Humidity levels were also forecast to increase up above 20 percent, with temperatures expected to hit a high of 85 in Santa Rosa.
Officials said they are making good progress on the massive Tubbs and Atlas fires, which are both more than 50 percent contained. Firefighters will now increase their focus on the Nuns fire, which is 30 percent contained and continues to threaten communities on its eastern and western flanks.
At a Sunday afternoon briefing, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) Cmdr. Bret Gouvea told reporters that "overall things are feeling optimistic for us _ we are very cautious about that."
But while firefighters have made significant progress on several fronts, Gouvea said some spots have proved stubborn.
"We have some areas out there that are just fighting us, they are bucking us," Gouvea said. "We have good resources on them, we have a lot of aircraft on them, but they are just bucking us back. ... They're not going down easy, but we are getting them and we feel a lot better about that."
The Atlas fire, which has burned more than 51,000 acres in mountain areas east of Santa Rosa, is now 56 percent contained, fire officials said.
"Most of the fire is pretty much blacked out," Battalion Chief Chris Waters told crews early Sunday as they prepared to head into the wilderness. "It was a really good night."
More than a dozen fixed-wing aircraft focused on the Atlas fire can now be diverted to the 47,000-acre Nuns fire. The fire is burning southeast of Santa Rosa and officials worry it could merge with the Tubbs fire.
"We have shifted resources from other incidents over to the Nuns fire to bolster support," said Chris Anthony, a division chief with CalFire.
Also Sunday afternoon, CalFire and Napa County officials announced that mandatory evacuation orders were lifted for Calistoga residents who live east of the Tubbs fire and locals who live south of Lake Curry, east of the Atlas fire.
Over the next few days, weather conditions are expected to improve significantly, said Charles Bell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Winds from the southwest could bring cooler temperatures and more moisture.
There is a 70 percent chance of rain forecast for Santa Rosa on Thursday evening, with relative humidity in the area expected to increase to more than 90 percent ahead of the rain system, Bell said.
"It will bring more moist air, which is extremely beneficial for the firefighters," he said. "It's a big change that's going to happen."
Fire officials warned that while winds have died down, the fire could still behave erratically, sending embers up to a quarter-mile away to ignite new fires. They also said fire continues to threaten the outskirts of Sonoma.
Sonoma County officials on Sunday released the names of four fire victims. They are Sharon Rae Robinson, 79, of Santa Rosa; Daniel Martin Southard, 71, of Santa Rosa; Lee Chadwick Roger, 72, of Glen Ellen; and Carmen Colleen McReynolds, 82, of Santa Rosa.
As of 2:30 p.m. Sunday, 174 people were still missing in Sonoma County, according to the sheriff's office joint information center.
Napa County was to release new information regarding missing people Sunday afternoon.
Another major concern of officials is a fast-moving wildfire near the Oakmont area of Santa Rosa. The fire ignited early Saturday and has more than doubled in size to more than 700 acres, pushing east and west and burning at 15 percent containment.
"It's giving us trouble," said Santa Rosa Fire Chief Tony Gossner. "We're doing everything we can. We'll get there _ I promise you, we'll get there."
The fires are among a series of blazes burning across Northern California that have scorched more than 220,000 acres since they began Oct. 8. As many as 10,000 firefighters from throughout California and surrounding states have battled the fires around the clock.
"I know a lot of you are hurting, bleeding," CalFire Cmdr. Gouvea told firefighters at a Sunday morning briefing at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. "It's been a long road. You couldn't do any more for us, and I sincerely appreciate the effort. We are going to get this done, very shortly."
The death toll from the fires has now hit 40, but officials believe that number will rise as searchers make their way through the neighborhoods in Santa Rosa that burned down as well as mountain communities across wine country.
It's delicate, sensitive work.
On Saturday, more than two dozen law enforcement officials converged in Santa Rosa's Fountaingrove neighborhood, along a street where every home had been destroyed. Two officers opened the trunk of their patrol car, retrieved a drone, and launched it above the wreckage.
The drone hovered above the crumbling walls and destroyed homes, slowly rotating in midair. Later, two officers stepped into the crumbling remains of a garage, where the burned-out shell of a car was barely visible from a distance. One officer knelt next to the vehicle, and began delicately handing fragments from the scene to his partner. Officials with the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office later confirmed that one of two additional deaths reported Saturday had been found in Fountaingrove, but did not say where.
Twenty-two people have died in the Tubbs fire in Sonoma County, eight in Mendocino County, four in Yuba County and six in Napa County.
Of 224 people initially unaccounted for in Napa County, 146 have been found safe, four have been identified as dead and 74 remain missing, Napa County spokeswoman Molly Rattigan said.
More than 10,000 firefighters from California and other states are fighting the fires in Northern California, said Dave Teter of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and officials were readying more crews in Southern California, where red flag warnings were in place through Sunday.
Firefighting efforts include 880 fire engines, 134 bulldozers, 224 hand crews and 138 water tenders, Teter said. At first light Saturday, 14 helicopters were conducting water drops.
