The car that crashed right through Baci, our local Italian place

Scenes from FFA and this year’s first “Tuesday in the Plaza”

All the commotion and cops at Badger Park lately

And at Rec Park, a heroic perp chase by elderly ball players

A slew of new flights coming to the Sonoma County Airport

The various culprits behind recent power outages

And plenty more inside info to squirrel away and serve back up at local tea parties, sleepovers, water cooler huddles, etc. 🐿️

Today 🌦️ Mostly sunny. Slight chance of more rain overnight. High 74° Low 49°

Tomorrow ⛅️ Partly sunny. High 75° Low 50°

Saturday 🌤️ Fog then sun. Heating up! High 82° Low 51°

Sunday ☀️ Sunny and warm. High 88° Low 56°

Monday ☀️ Still sunny and warm. High 87° Low 56°

Tuesday 🌤️ Mostly sunny. High 86° Low 56°

Wednesday ☀️ Full sun. High 89° Low 56°

While we haven’t had any major wildfires in the North Bay yet this year, firefighters from around here have been down fighting some serious SoCal fires this month, according to Cal Fire.

Meanwhile, fire crews in our area are gearing up for a potentially intense season this year. As KRCB news radio reported earlier this month: “Even under an overcast sky at the Sonoma Air Attack Base in Santa Rosa, CAL FIRE Director Joe Tyler said wildfires are already burning throughout Northern California. Tyler said that this year alone, more than 1,000 fires have already burned nearly 15,000 acres. He said the state continues to see extreme weather — and that summer conditions make it especially dangerous. ‘We’ll see the temperatures rise,’ said Tyler. ‘We will see an exponential increase in wildfire activity due to hot and dry conditions, windy weather, lightning that surely will come across California at some point, making the landscape prone to fire.’”

That said, we’re also more prepared than ever. Healdsburg fire celebrity Marshall Turbeville, chief of the Northern Sonoma County Fire District that protects our rural parts, sat down with Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore for a recent video chat to discuss how far we’ve come. As the supervisor later wrote in his newsletter, Chief Turbeville talked about “lessons learned from the 2017, Kincade, Walbridge, and Glass fires, along with the major changes made to evacuation planning, emergency coordination, and fire response systems over the past decade” — along with “the growing role of vegetation management and prescribed fire in reducing fuel loads and creating healthier, more resilient landscapes.”

Indeed, lots of pre-summer vegetation management work — aka, grass and brush cutting/clearing — has been going on around here, especially in local wildlands like the Healdsburg Ridge Open Space Preserve. “Visitors should be aware that crews will be clearing brush and conducting chipping operations throughout the area,” the Healdsburg Fire Department wrote on Facebook a couple weeks back, about ongoing work they’re doing at the park with Cal Fire. And Healdsburg resident Bill Nichols gave these same crews a shoutout this week for “the incredible fire mitigation work they are doing on Healdsburg Ridge.” He added: “This very hard work they are performing is greatly appreciated by all of us that hike and live in the area.”

There are still some local prescribed burns happening, too, in this last idyllic stretch of cool spring weather. In fact, Cal Fire officials say they’re staging a 22-acre burn near Lake Sonoma today, as we speak. “This vegetation management project is looking to treat Douglas fir and hardwood understory on the north aspect of a ridgetop along Stewarts Point Skaggs Springs Road,” they say. And I know of at least one large private burn planned for my neighbor’s property on Monday, in the hills just west of Healdsburg; I’m gonna stop by to scope it out, and will share some pics if I get any good ones!

Healdsburg fire crews have also been doing the weed abatement inspection rounds at homes around town this month, to make sure everyone’s personal space is nice and defensible. “Keep grasses cut down, remove dead brush and leaves, limb trees up at least six feet from the ground, and clear ladder fuels — the lower vegetation that can carry flames into tree canopies,” local officials say. “Properties flagged during the initial inspection will receive a follow-up letter with a checklist and timeline.”

And you may have seen the men and women of the Healdsburg Fire Department out tabling about wildfire safety in front of the Black Oak coffee shop on Center Street, week before last. Fire cuties pictured below!

If you’re still unsure how to do your part to prep for fire season, Cal Fire has a whole online checklist you can run through, and the Sonoma County government has a bunch more local resources collected here. BTW, one of the coolest county resources — for those of us who live on the unincorporated outskirts of town — is a free visit from a county chipper crew, to help do away with any brush you’ve cleared. Learn more and sign up here!

Lastly — did you hear that Cal Fire investigators and Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputies caught a 29-year-old transient guy named Luke Deramo allegedly starting fires up in the Cloverdale area last week, near the Mendocino County line? He’s now facing “multiple felony arson-related charges,” according to the sheriff, and his bail was bumped up to more than $1 million, because local law enforcement doesn’t mess around with this type of thing.