Images of San Francisco’s homelessness crisis often show its unsheltered residents living in tents crowding sidewalks or RVs lining residential streets, with national critics pointing to the city as the epitome of the crisis. But the city of Sacramento actually has more unsheltered homeless people – and a higher share of them compared to its population – than San Francisco, according to just-released data.

Within the city limits of Sacramento, just over 5,000 unsheltered people — those living in vehicles and tents — were counted in a new homelessness report, compared to about 4,400 people in San Francisco. But with Sacramento’s population of 525,000 versus San Francisco’s 874,000, that works out to a rate of 952 per 100,000 in Sacramento versus 503 per 100,000 for San Francisco. The total homeless count in the city of Sacramento was not available.

San Francisco is unique in the Bay Area because it’s both a city and a county, which makes it difficult to compare to other cities and counties.

But comparing San Francisco to Sacramento County — which includes the city of Sacramento and adjacent suburbs — also highlights just how much the inland area is struggling with its homeless crisis.

In Sacramento County, overall homelessness, including people who are sheltered and unsheltered, increased 67% since 2019 to about 9,278 individuals in 2022. In San Francisco, those numbers dropped 3.5%, to 7,754. Sacramento County’s population – 1.6 million – is larger than San Francisco’s.

Sacramento County isn’t the only Northern California county that leapfrogged past San Francisco in terms of its homeless population. Alameda County, which saw a 22% jump in its homeless population to 9,747 out of 1.7 million people, was also ahead of San Francisco. But Sacramento was long seen as a more affordable place than the Bay Area and without the same acute level of homelessness.

Sacramento County officials have tried to meet the need by increasing shelter capacity, placing more people in permanent supportive housing and setting aside more money to tackle homelessness, but efforts haven’t been able to keep up with the pace of people becoming homeless.

The recently released numbers from the Point in Time count, a federally mandated tally on two nights in February, show the reach of an affordable housing crisis that has extended beyond California’s most expensive cities. Experts and the head of Sacramento’s homeless coordinating agency attributed the increase to a rise in rents that stretched an already short affordable housing supply. By comparison, officials said San Francisco, grappling with the issue for longer, was successful in bringing down its numbers in part because it has unique dedicated local funding to get new shelter and housing.

“Sacramento is experiencing this crazy influx of housing costs going up and of very limited supply of deeply affordable housing,” said Tomiquia Moss, CEO of regional homelessness nonprofit All Home. “Poverty has been moving east…Residents of Sacramento, the city and the county, have found it harder and harder to stay housed in those communities.”

Most people surveyed in Sacramento County’s count, first reported by the Sacramento Bee, said they became homeless prior to the pandemic.

Experts say housing costs are the major driver of homelessness. In Sacramento County, median rent for a one-bedroom rose 30% – from $1,005 in January 2019 to $1,302 in January 2022 – according to real estate listings website Apartment List.

The opposite occurred in San Francisco, where median one-bedroom rents dropped from 16%, from $2,642 to $2,225, during the same time period.

Lisa Bates, CEO of Sacramento Steps Forward, the lead organization coordinating homeless services between nonprofits, the city and county of Sacramento, said the more affordable area appealed to remote workers from the Bay Area during the pandemic, which increased housing costs and crunched an already short affordable housing supply. Sacramento County needs 78,000 more affordable units to meet the needs of low-income households, the report said.

In Sacramento County, the number of individuals reporting a disability and/or being chronically homeless more than doubled since 2019. The rates of families and veterans who are homeless dropped.

The crisis has worsened for many despite investments to tackle it. Over the past three years, Sacramento County helped more than 9,000 people get into permanent housing and increased shelter capacity by 57%, Bates’ group reported. That kept the percentage of people living unsheltered, in tents or cars, around 70% of the homeless population, even though overall numbers grew.

San Francisco made more progress. Though more than half of all homeless people in the city were unsheltered, that number was about 15% lower than in 2019.

City officials attributed the drop to a “significant increase in housing and shelter resources,” including a 24% rise in available shelter beds. During the pandemic, San Francisco quickly stood up outdoor shelters for tents and vehicles and moved about 3,800 people into shelter-in-place hotel rooms.

Moss said one reason for San Francisco’s success is a steady stream of homelessness funding from voter-approved tax measure prop. C. The Chronicle recently found the city had doled out about $155 million of the funds. Most counties don’t have that dedicated local funding, and it put the city “ahead in terms of putting resources to the solutions that we know work,” she said.

Prop. C and federal relief funding helped beef up the homelessness department’s budget to $1.1 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30. San Francisco already used some Prop. C money to contribute to a 1,000-bed shelter expansion and buy two hotels for permanent supportive housing.

Moss also said San Francisco’s law that provides tenants facing eviction with a right to counsel helped prevent people from becoming homeless. She cited a report from the Eviction Defense Collaborative that found 59% of people represented were able to stay in their homes last year.

Sacramento County has used some of the same interventions, but with fewer resources. The county’s budget for homelessness was $181 million this past fiscal year, which included a $50 million influx from federal relief funds. The city spends around $33 million a year on the issue, Bates said.

Bates and Moss said multiple solutions are needed to address Sacramento’s crisis – emergency rental assistance to prevent people from becoming homeless, shelters to get them off the streets and permanent housing to end homelessness.

Like San Francisco, Sacramento has used state and federal programs to buy hotels for permanent supportive housing, with more in the works, and shelter more than 2,000 people in hotel rooms. Sacramento took note of San Francisco’s swift work to set up alternate outdoor shelters, Bates said, but is further behind in the process. The city of Sacramento worked for six months on a comprehensive plan about where to put shelter or housing sites and is starting this week to open some, and the county is doing the same.

The county recently passed a local homeless action plan and stepped up outreach to landlords to encourage them to rent to people with housing vouchers. The homeless coordinating agency is investing more than $12 million into creating a better system to connect people to services.

“We need more resources coming,” Bates said, “but we need to be sure we’re organizing and deploying them in the most effective manner.”

Mallory Moench (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench

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Neptune Plumbing in Bedford Heights announced April 11 that Northern Ohio Plumbing in Eastlake will be joining their team, effective immediately.

Northern Ohio Plumbing has served the Northeast Ohio region for over 50 years. With the new arrangement, Neptune Plumbing will be able to further extend its delivery of quality, cutting-edge services to customers throughout Northeast Ohio, according to a news release.

The addition of the Northern Ohio Plumbing staff strengthens our presence in Northeast Ohio and gives us a timely addition to our quality team who share common goals, experiences, talents and reputations,” Adam Wallenstein, co-president of Neptune Plumbing, said in the release. “For 65 years, the leadership of Neptune Plumbing has been dedicated to building a customer-centric company that offers efficient, high-quality plumbing services. Those are traditions we highly value, and which we will continue to exhibit. We’re thrilled to welcome Northern Ohio Plumbing’s talented workforce into the Neptune family to better serve the region.”

The announcement comes during an increasingly tight labor market when it’s difficult to find skilled workers and a critical need for strong talent exists, and the collaboration will take Neptune to more than 100 employees, the release stated.

Named a top workplace by The Plain Dealer for the past three years and a recent recipient of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year East Central Award, the collaboration provides tremendous momentum for Neptune’s next phase of growth, according to the release.

“This is a time when pooling resources is critical, and we couldn’t think of another company that complements the work we’re already doing like Neptune Plumbing does,” Mark Wilson, vice president of Northern Ohio Plumbing, said in the release. “I’m thrilled that we’re going to be providing the community with more access, more resources and more knowledge to deliver plumbing needs.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN/CBS SF) — More than 8,000 nurses and health care workers are striking today outside 18 Sutter Health facilities across Northern California, including a dozen in the Bay Area.

Union representatives say Sutter Health has refused to address concerns about safe staffing and health and safety protections.
The one-day strike was authorized by a nearly unanimous vote in March and advance notice was given to Sutter Health for the strike, according to the California Nurses Association and the Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union.

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The nurses and health care workers have been in negotiations since June 2021 for a new contract, with little to no movement on key issues, according to a statement from the union.

The nurses are calling on management to invest in nursing staff and agree to a contract that provides safe staffing that allows nurses to provide safe and therapeutic care. The nurses and health care workers also want the hospitals to invest in personal protective equipment stockpiles and comply with California’s PPE stockpile law.

“We are striking because Sutter is not transparent about the stockpile of PPE supplies and contact tracing,” said Renee Waters, an intensive care RN with 26 years of experience. “They resist having nurses directly involved in planning and implementation of policies that affect all of us during a pandemic.”

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The nurses were scheduled to picket from 7 to 11 am and 2 to 6 pm on Monday at Sutter Health facilities in cities that include Berkeley, Oakland, Vallejo, Santa Rosa, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Castro Valley, Antioch, Burlingame and Novato.

Sutter officials said contracted replacement workers would staff the facilities during the strike.

In an email to KPIX 5 a Sutter Health spokesperson said, “By moving forward with today’s costly and disruptive strike, union leadership has made it clear they are willing to put politics above patients and the nurses they represent – ​​despite the intervention of federal mediators and our willingness to bargain in good faith while under threat of a strike. Our attention is on providing safe, high-quality care to the patients and communities we’re honored to serve. We are confident in our ability to manage this disruption. We are hopeful CNA shares our desire to reach an agreement and enable our nurses to turn their focus back to the patients the union has asked them to walk away from.”

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© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bay City News Service contributed to this report.

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Billed as one of the largest cultural gatherings of its kind on the West Coast, the 55th annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival celebrates San Francisco’s Japanese food, music and rich history over two weekends, starting Saturday, April 9 and continuing through April 17.

Each year, tens of thousands of attendees indulge in some of the tastiest street food bites on offer at over a dozen vendor booths, run by various nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area that provide support to Asian communities. (In addition to food booths, many of Japantown’s favorite restaurants will stay open during the festivities.)

One of those booths is Kimochi, Inc., a senior service agency that has operated in Japantown since July 1971. In addition to caring for elders in the community through nutrition, recreation and transportation services, Kimochi is back this year, nourishing festival-goers with its highly sought-after Teri Burger for $8.

Kimochi executive director Steve Ishii, who has worked for the nonprofit for 45 years, told SFGATE that the Teri Burger was created because they wanted to offer something tasty for younger festival attendees, alongside the more traditional foods — such as tamasen and bowls of piping hot udon — sold at other vendor tents.

With the help of a trained chef from Japan who worked for the nonprofit’s nutrition program, Ishii says they developed a homemade teriyaki sauce that many have tried — but failed — to replicate through the years.

“For the two weekends, we generally anticipate around 6,000 burgers for all four days,” Ishii said. “It’s a whole production, but not only for ourselves, but for all of the nonprofits in the community in general. Participating in Cherry Blossom is sometimes our only way of fundraising.”

Kimochi volunteers will grill about 6,000 signature Teri Burgers during this year’s Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival.

Couresty of Kimochi, Inc.

The festival is one of the biggest opportunities for many participating nonprofits to raise money toward its annual funds, and that’s why attendees will not see any commercial businesses selling food or other items within the festival proper during the celebration.

“I’m not sure of any other festivals that happen in the city where the food vendors are 100% nonprofit groups,” said Bradley Menda, the food bazaar committee co-chair for the Cherry Blossom Festival. “These are all community organizations making or serving specialty items that they’ve been doing for many, many years.”

As one of the busiest food tents each year, Ishii estimates that in one day, he has about 30 to 40 volunteers help at the Kimochi booth, located on Webster and Post streets. Besides the smoky aromas of barbecue patties billowing from Kimochi’s tent, there’s a rotating array of grillmasters flipping burgers and toasting buns. Others form an assembly line to top the sizzling patties with freshly chopped lettuce, tomato, onion and, of course, the secret teriyaki sauce.

“The secret sauce is doused over the meat. Our Teri Burgers are, we call it a sloppy burger, because there’s a lot of the teriyaki sauce that we put on there. That’s historically what everyone has craved,” Ishii said. “We’ve had some people come from Vallejo and just wait for us to start up. They’ll order like 10 to 20 burgers so that they can just take it home and have it amongst the family. So that’s nice, there’s a following for these burgers.”

Takoyaki, deep-fried rounds stuffed with savory octopus meat, are one street food item offered during the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival.

Courtesy of David Adams

Besides the Teri Burger, festival attendees can expect a variety of sweet and savory eats such as Spam musubi from the Boy Scouts Pack and Troop 58, deep-fried gyoza and Oreos from the Japanese Community Youth Council, shaved ice and fried mochi from Kagami Kai , takoyaki from Soto Mission (Sokoji) and much more, so save room.

“The food, to me, it’s instrumental. The fact that people could either walk around and enjoy the festivities, the arts and crafts, the foods, the stage — it just gives them nourishment to see all of the festival,” Ishii said. “Every festival should have a food area. It’s a nice day and I think a lot of people want to stay and enjoy everything the Cherry Blossom festival brings.”

The 55th annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival takes place over two weekends, starting on Saturday, April 9, through April 17 in San Francisco’s Japantown.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – A large decaying cyclone off the west coast caused showers in the San Francisco Bay Area and snowstorms in the Sierra early Wednesday.

The National Weather Service said Northern California is in the midst of an active weather pattern, welcome relief to a region that has suffered severe drought conditions for much of the year.

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“The western US is entering a period of increasingly volatile weather as moisture is predicted to invade land from a large decaying cyclone off the west coast,” the NWS said in its National Outlook. “The rainfall currently moving in Northern California is only a preview of what is to come as another low pressure system near the west coast of Canada is slated to run towards the Pacific Northwest in the next few days.”

The storm door definitely opened during the year.

“A low-pressure conveyor belt is moving into the area – this would mean a pretty wet end for 2021, but it’s a little too far away to care too much,” weather forecasters said. “That’ll be something to check in later this week.”

Forecasters predicted 2.3 inches of rain in San Francisco by December 25.

“If this is confirmed, SF will be back at the top of the 10 wettest water years to date by the end of the week,” they said.

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The coastal mountains in North Bay could see 3-5 inches with up to 6 inches of rain over the higher peaks. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, areas that were already saturated with rain last week could fall another 3-6 inches.

“The good news is that the rain sums are spread over many days, which should mitigate the major effects,” tweeted the weather service. “But be prepared for minor floods, slippery roads and potential debris flows / mudslides.”

In the Sierra, a winter weather warning came into effect on Tuesday at 7 p.m., and it changes to a winter storm warning from Thursday morning to Sunday.

“Heavy snow expected (from Thursday),” warned the weather service in Reno. “Total snow accumulations from 2 to 4 feet up to 4 to 8 feet over 7,000 feet. Wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour, with the ridge gusts likely being over 100 miles per hour. “

For the thousands traveling from the Bay Area to Tahoe over the holiday weekend, it means it will be a slow journey.

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“As soon as the snow starts (Tuesday) evening, traveling through the Sierra up to this weekend will sometimes become more and more difficult or almost impossible,” warned the NWS Reno forecasters. “Be prepared for long delays and rapidly changing territory pass conditions.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The first in a predicted series of storms invades California, bringing the likelihood of a rainy and snowy Christmas, forecasters said.

A storm hit northern California and could bring up to an inch of rain on Wednesday, but it was slow moving and shouldn’t reach the south until Thursday, forecasters said.

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The San Francisco Bay Area Weather Bureau called it “the long-awaited but slowly arriving Pacific cold front,” and estimated it could bring a few inches of rain to the north by Saturday.

The south could see up to 3 inches of rain in coastal areas and valleys and up to 5 inches in the mountains, forecasters said.

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Heavy snowfall was expected in the Sierra Nevada, with accumulations of 6 feet to 8 feet, with localized amounts of up to 3 feet, the Sacramento Weather Bureau said.

Mountain travel could be “very difficult if not impossible,” and people were urged to avoid it from mid-week through the weekend, the office said.

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© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – A cyclone off the northwest coast targeted a strong atmospheric river in northern California on Sunday and dropped a staggering amount of rain in parts of the Bay Area over a 24-hour period, weather officials said.

The National Weather Service determined that the storm system should make October 23rd the ninth day of the heaviest rainfall in downtown San Francisco since rainfall records began in 1849.

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With persistent rain, the total rainfall on Sunday for San Francisco could rise to the seventh largest rainfall of all time.

Over all months / days for a period of 24 hours, this day will already occupy the 9th of all time. There is definitely a chance of getting to 7th place. Harder to get beyond and number 1 seems very unlikely. pic.twitter.com/A4soFMW3Ba

– NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) October 25, 2021

As the storm’s strongest concentration of precipitation gradually shifted south, parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains began to see significant increases in rainfall, ranging from three to ten centimeters to over eight centimeters in the past 24 hours.

The wettest place in the Bay Area was Marin County in Kentfield, where nearly 12 inches of rain had fallen by 7 p.m.

24-hour rain sums and the radar almost 7 p.m.: Heavy rain continues to fall on already saturated ground. San Francisco has gained 3.28 “since midnight, making this the 13th rainiest day on record since 1850, and we’re breaking the October record every hour. @KPIXtv #CAwx pic.twitter.com/48TK05ZS72

– Paul Heggen (@PaulKPIX) October 25, 2021

Heavy rains at 12:30 p.m. triggered a flood warning for the Hennessey portion of the LNU Lightning Complex burn area in Napa and Sonoma counties

KPIX 5 weather center: Current conditions, maps, forecasts for your region

“Doppler radar and automatic rain gauges indicated that heavy rainfall was falling over the Hennessey portion of the LNU Lightning Complex Burn Area,” the weather service said. “The expected rate of precipitation is 0.75 to 1 inch in 1 hour. Additional rainfall of up to 1 inch is possible in the warned area. Flash floods are underway or are expected to begin shortly. “

The National Weather Service later extended flood warnings for areas in the Napa, Sonoma, and Marin counties to 9:00 p.m.

Flood warning extended to 9:00 p.m. for parts of Counties Napa, Sonoma and Marin. #cawx pic.twitter.com/EzWQNhURjT

– NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) October 25, 2021

While most flood warnings in the Bay Area were allowed to expire at 11:00 p.m., the National Weather Service extended a flood warning for the Santa Cruz district to 3:00 a.m.

Due to heavy rainfall, a flood warning was issued for the Santa Cruz district until 3 a.m. #Cawx pic.twitter.com/RCIWrNjcpy

– NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) October 25, 2021

In addition to the floods in Santa Rosa, which resulted in some evacuations and extensive road flooding in San Rafael, the National Weather Service has also issued an Urban and Small Stream Flood Advisory for much of the East Bay covering Contra Costa and Alameda counties includes departure at 7:15 p.m.

The San Francisco National Weather Service has issued a flood guide to cities and small rivers. https://t.co/jR9Pc3J1po #CAwx pic.twitter.com/9TighR6JUa

– NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) October 24, 2021

Winds above 50 mph were also a problem as they howled across the Bay Area, toppling dozens of drought-weakened trees, crashing them onto cars and power lines, and forcing residents of San Francisco’s Forest Hill neighborhood out of their homes.

The National Weather Service issued a wind warning for much of the area by 8:00 p.m. when a strong atmospheric river roared into the Bay Area, grabbing nearby gale force winds and driving rain showers.

“Peak gusts were around 70 mph on higher peaks, with gusts of 40 to 80 mph filtered into lower areas,” the weather service said. “Expect the winds to linger within the main rainband, but reduce them before the rain subsides.”

From Santa Rosa to San Francisco, work teams were dispatched to the neighborhoods to clean up the fallen trees and large branches.

In San Rafael crashed on Las Pavadas Ave. a large tree on top of a car while the lower Great Highway in San Francisco between Moraga and Lawton was temporarily closed in both directions by another tree that was knocked down in the wind.

In San Francisco’s Forest Hill neighborhood, fire officers issued a mandatory evacuation warrant for houses along one block of 9th Avenue. A 30 meter high tree tilted dangerously and threatened at least three buildings.

The National Weather Service said the storm’s arrival in San Francisco was slightly ahead of schedule on Saturday night with steady rains.

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“If anything, the precipitation is above average with values ​​around 1.25 for downtown San Francisco,” said weather forecasters in the update at 3:45 am. “In the last hour alone, Mount Tamalpais reported 0.79 inches with 6-hour values ​​of 3.34 inches overnight. This is of course one of the wettest spots. “

Atmospheric flux has been raised to Category 5, the highest accolade on the Extreme Weather Laboratory scale of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and has sparked a litany of severe weather warnings and guards for the Bay Area.

Authorities have issued an evacuation order for hundreds of homes in and around the burn scar zone of the CZU Lightning Complex in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The order goes into effect on Sunday at 8 a.m. in parts of San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.

“In the Santa Cruz Mountains it will go downhill quickly in the afternoon hours,” warned the weather service.

But many Boulder Creek residents told KPIX 5 they would ignore the order and try to weather the storm, which could dump up to six inches of rain on slopes that have just started from massive flames that burned 86,500 acres again too overgrown.

“Yeah, we’re sticking to it,” said Steven Coleman, a resident of Boulder Creek. “Where else should we go?”

Those who stayed said they had experience dealing with large storms, evacuation fatigue, and fear of looting.

“We’ll stay until it gets unsafe,” said Coleman.

“We decided to stay,” said another resident of Gloria Sitz.

Most people like Sitz either stayed with family and friends or paid for hotel rooms for more than a month during last year’s CZU fire evacuation. They said they don’t want to deal with it anymore.

“At my location we have a generator, we have chainsaws, we know how to use them and we are prepared,” said Sitz.

The weather service also warned of flooding in the north bay, particularly around the Russian River. A rockslide fell on Mark West Springs Rd overnight. near Fox Lane.

There has already been flooding at Colgan Creek near Sebastopol, where the water level had risen to 76.5 feet on Sunday morning.

“If the atmospheric flow comes to a standstill over the Russian River Basin for even a few hours, we need to watch the trends closely,” said the weather service. “More worrisome are some of the more noticeable streams from the Russian Basin such as Mark West and those near the base of Mount Tamalpais such as San Anselmo and Corte Madera.”

The main impulse of the strong subtropical moisture cloud was still aimed at North Bay on Sunday morning but would be on the move.

“The main atmospheric river will fall around the Golden Gate around 2:00 pm this afternoon,” said the weather service. “In this timeframe, expect several hours of very heavy rain to hit the urban corridors, including 101/280 in the Peninsula and 880/680 in East Bay.”

The threat of heavy rains has also already forced the Alameda County Fair, Danville Fallfest and Oakland Zoo to close on Sunday.

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Meanwhile, the turf at Levi’s Stadium will weather its toughest weather challenge ever when the San Francisco 49ers v Indianapolis Colts kicks off at around 5:30 am

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People who live in the scenic woodlands of Northern California faced a weekend of fear as forest fires threatened to devastate thousands of homes.

The Dixie Fire, which burned much of the gold rush town of Greenville, threatened more than 10,000 buildings in the northern Sierra Nevada. It had engulfed an area larger than the size of New York City.

It was the largest current wildland fire in the country and the third largest in recorded California history, according to the State Department of Fire and Forestry Protection.

Wind-blown flames destroyed dozens of homes and most of downtown Greenville on Wednesday and Thursday, and also badly damaged Canyondam, a hamlet of about three dozen residents. The fire reached Chester, but crews managed to protect homes and businesses there, officials said.

Charlene Mays kept her Chester gas station open as long as possible and urged tired firefighters not to apologize for the ash trail their boots had left on the ground. But when the small town on the northwest shore of Lake Almanor lost power, Mays decided it was time for them to leave.

She ran home to get a box of valuables, including her husband’s class ring and some jewelry. The smoke was so thick it was hard to breathe. Lumps of ash broke when they hit the floor, making a sound like broken glass.

That was two days ago. Since then, Mays has lived in the car park at Lassen College in Susanville. Her husband stayed behind to service some of the water tanks that the firefighters were using. It’s just her, a Miniature Pinscher Chihuahua named Jedidiah and a Pit Bull named Bear.

Her house was still standing on Friday, but her fate was tied to the direction of the wind. She wasn’t alone.

“I have probably 30 of my regular customers here,” she said.

The Dixie Fire, named for the street it began on, now covers an area of ​​1,760 square kilometers and was only 21% contained. No injuries or deaths were reported.

The weather at the fireplace on Saturday was expected to have higher humidity and calmer winds with temperatures in excess of 32 degrees Celsius instead of the 40 miles per hour (64 km / h) gusts recorded at the beginning of the week and three-digit highs.

Still, the fire and its neighboring fires, which were only a few hundred miles apart, posed an ongoing threat.

Heat waves and historic droughts related to climate change have made fighting forest fires in the American West difficult. Scientists say climate change has made the region much warmer and drier over the past 30 years, and the weather will continue to be more extreme and forest fires more frequent and more destructive.

Near the Klamath National Forest, firefighters kept an eye out for small communities evacuated on the trail of the antelope fire, which had previously ignited 30-meter-high flames as it blackened bone-dry grass, scrub and wood. It was only included 20%.

Farther northwest, around 500 homes scattered in and around Shasta-Trinity National Forest remained threatened by the Monument Fire and others by the McFarland Fire, both of which were triggered by thunderstorms last week, firefighters said.

About a two-hour drive south of the Dixie Fire, crews had encircled about a third of the River Fire that broke out near the city of Colfax on Wednesday and destroyed nearly 90 homes and other buildings. Evacuations for thousands of people in the Nevada and Placer counties were lifted Friday. Authorities said three people, including a firefighter, were injured.

Dale Huber went to the fire zone on Friday to check on his brother’s house, which was in ruins.

“It used to be a bunch of cool things, and now it’s just rubbish,” said Huber. “You can’t fix it. We can rip it out and start over or run away. I think he decided to rebuild here. “

Smoke from the fires covered central California and western Nevada, causing air quality to deteriorate to very unhealthy levels. Air quality warnings stretched across the San Joaquin Valley and into the San Francisco Bay Area, where residents were told to keep their windows and doors closed.

California is well on its way to surpassing the last year that had the worst fire season in recent recorded state history. Since the beginning of the year, more than 6,000 fires have destroyed more than 3,260 square kilometers of land – more than three times the losses for the same period in 2020, according to state fire numbers.

California’s raging forest fires were among more than 100 large, active fires that burned in 14 states, mostly in the west, where historic drought conditions have left the land ripe and ripe for ignition.

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Fierce Diablo winds are expected to hit Northern California this week, creating an increased risk of fire in the burn-torn region and prompting Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to prepare for potential blackouts in parts of 43 counties, warned utilities.

In part of the Sierra Nevada, which extends to the south of the Santa Cruz Mountains, power outages could occur from Wednesday, according to PG&E.

Two dangerous wind events are expected this week – the first one begins on Wednesday afternoon or evening and extends through Thursday morning and the second develops on Thursday evening and runs through Friday morning, forecasters said.

On Monday morning, the National Weather Service released a fire weather watch for late Tuesday through Friday morning, predicting that the strongest gusts of the first wind event would occur overnight from Wednesday through Thursday. The greatest threat is in the mountains of northeastern counties Napa and Sonoma, where the destructive glass fire is still raging, according to the weather service.

“Any fires that start are likely to spread quickly due to a combination of dry fuel, windy northerly winds, and low humidity,” the forecasters said.

In anticipation of the winds, PG&E announced that the power supply could be cut from Wednesday to Friday for parts of the following counties: Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Humboldt, Lassen, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity, Alpine, Amador, Calaveras El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sierra, and Yuba.

Parts of 24 other counties – Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Trinity, Yolo, Fresno, Inyo , Kern, Madera, Mariposa, Tulare and Tuolumne – could experience shutdowns for a shorter period of time, utility officials said.

The shutdowns are unlikely to affect entire counties, PG&E said, noting widespread outages in the Bay Area are unlikely.

The agency says the areas most likely to shutdown are the foothills of the northern sierra; the middle and higher peaks of the Sierra, generally north of Yosemite; the northern Bay Area Mountains near Mt. St. Helena; small bags in the East Bay Area near Mt. Diablo; the Oakland Hills east of Piedmont; the elevated terrain east of Milpitas around the Calaveras Reservoir; and parts of the Santa Cruz and Big Sur mountains.

The utility has agreed to pay $ 25.5 billion to settle claims for damages in a previous series of fatal fires stemming from its equipment and for the involuntary manslaughter in Northern California in 2018, the deadliest corporate crime in US history, known to be guilty of 84 involuntary manslaughter.

The company has vowed to revamp its operations and focus more on security to avoid starting another catastrophic fire. But it is now being examined for its possible involvement in the deadly Zogg Fire. California investigators consider the company’s equipment to be a possible cause of the fire that killed four people and burned more than 56,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection included some of the utility’s equipment in its investigation, PG&E said in a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The utility filed a preliminary report of the incident with state regulators, stating in a statement that it was working with investigators. Cal Fire has not yet determined the cause of the fire.

Temperatures across the state are expected to rise throughout the week, with parts of the Central Valley nearing record highs, according to the National Weather Service. Dry winds are expected to sweep the Sacramento Valley at speeds of up to 30 mph as of Monday.

“A warming and drying trend will happen this week as high pressure builds up across the state,” PG&E officials said in a statement in which gusts in the mountains of the North Bay Area and Northern Sierra are at or over 50 miles / h were estimated.

Northern California was burned by historic forest fires that year, with 4 million acres burned. The August Complex, the largest fire in the state’s history, is still burning in the Mendocino National Forest on Monday morning, according to Cal Fire.

Parts of the region are already exposed to an increased fire risk with above-average temperatures and windy conditions. Air quality warnings remain in effect throughout the San Joaquin Valley and central California due to forest fires, according to the National Weather Service Forecasting Center in Hanford.

National Weather Service meteorologist David King said the winds built up in the northeast and blew offshore, leaving warm temperatures and dried fuel. The winds are expected to be strongest at high elevations in the North Bay Mountains, East Bay Hills, and Santa Cruz Mountains, King said.

“We’ll still see winds making it into the valleys, but it won’t be very strong or excessive,” he said. “If you have strong winds, you are very concerned about the tall fire. That will really stay in the higher elevations now. “

Temperatures in the Los Angeles area are expected to hit sultry highs again this week, with areas in the San Fernando Valley approaching 100 degrees. The beaches will float in the 80s, said weather service meteorologist Mike Wofford. A heat warning for a large part of the region is expected to come into force on Tuesday at 11 a.m. and, according to the weather service, will continue until Friday 5 p.m.

“It’ll just be hot and dry, not our usual morning low clouds and fog,” said Wofford.

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PACE Supply goes beyond supplying plumbing companies with the acquisition of three Northern California companies.

The Rohnert Park-based company, which until then had 25 locations in California and Hawaii, acquired JW Wood Co. Inc., Northern Industrial Sales and All Air Supply effective January 1. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in the announcement Tuesday.

“Part of PACE Supply’s strategy is to expand our capabilities and expand our geographic presence,” said President Keith Hubbard in the press release. “JW Wood is a testament to their passionate people and has built a reputation for excellent customer service. It fits in perfectly with our organization. We are honored to have their family members in our family and we look forward to serving our customers. “

The deal includes four locations in California: Redding, Chico, Susanville and Yuba City. The first two have sanitary showrooms.

JW Wood, a family business founded in 1954, provides plumbing, HVAC, irrigation, and industrial services in northern California and southern Oregon.

“My brother Kellie and I were fortunate enough to learn the wholesale plumbing business from one of the best, our father Wes Wood, the founder of JW Wood,” said former President John Wood. “We worked for JW Wood when we were young. When it came time to retire, our focus was on finding a buyer who would be a good fit with our family, employees, customers, and the communities we have served for the past 67 years. PACE Supply is that company. “

Brad Williams of Beringer Group represented JW Wood on the transaction.

Pace Supply was founded in 1994 and is employee owned. Prior to this deal, it had 20 wholesale locations and four Premier Bath & Kitchen showrooms.

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