Supervisors Free Up $2.5 Million for Initial Kincade Expenses

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At a special emergency meeting Thursday morning, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors made a first payment on Kincade Fire expenses that are expected to grow as costs are added up.

Supervisors agreed to set aside $2.5 million dollars to cover the county’s initial response to the fire, which exploded out of the mountains above Geyserville on October 23rd, and grew to 77 thousand acres, prompting the evacuation of Windsor, Healdsburg, Geyserville, much of northern and western Santa Rosa and West County.

Set off by a windstorm the night of October 22nd, the fire raged out of control through two more major wind and Red Flag events, an extended period of dangerous wind and weather never before recorded in the North Bay.

The county currently has a $43 million dollar reserve fund, and can expect the state to reimburse 75% of wildfire and evacuation expenses due to the Governor’s declaration of a state of emergency.

Emergency and elected officials at the Thursday meeting said they believe the evacuations were the right move, and although a major inconvenience and disruption to the lives of county residents, helped to insure that no lives were lost.

Roughly 200 thousand Sonoma County residents were ordered to evacuate as the Kincade Fire moved south and west, and the county provided major funding for 20 evacuation shelters.

The supervisors also extended a countywide state of emergency ordered during the crisis, for an additional 60 days.