 All right good morning everybody for today Saturday October 14th we will have our press conference from state officials on the latest on the wildfire situation and with that we will open it up with California governor's office of emergency services assistant director Dan Bout for the latest. Good morning my name is Dan Bout I'm the assistant director for response here at Cal OES. We'll provide a briefing on the latest briefing on the massive efforts occurring right now across the state and nation to assist those in the front lines and those impacted by the major wildfires burning across california right now. We're here today at the state operation center the nerve center for the state's overall response to these wildfires and today's another very busy day here at the state operation center. Winds have again proven to be a major element in these fires and new evacuations have been issued in Sonoma county and other areas. To everyone being impacted by these fires all of us here at the state operation center and on the front lines are thinking about you and your families. We understand many people's lives are being irreparably changed by these disasters and we're dedicated to using every available resource to get you through your time of need. We'll get through this but we must understand that this emergency is not over we're nearly a week into these fires and we continue to give a hundred percent to get ahead of the flames and prevent more loss of property and life. Our priorities today are fighting fires and saving lives. Our second priority is taking care of those in our shelters and those who are struggling and our third priority is working behind the scenes for the long-term recovery. Again to those in fact impacted we know you're hurting and we know this is difficult but we're not out of this firefight. This is a 24-7 operation here at the state operation center and across the state to get resources to the impacted counties and the local authorities. As you know we've received resources and personnel from our local fire departments across California and from outside the state. Nearly 400 law enforcement officers and more than 10,000 firefighters to include 880 fire engines from across California are taking part as well as more than 200 engines from supporting states across the western United States. In our shelters last night we had a little over 3,600 people and there are 39 shelters active statewide in support of these incidents. Although we're not out of the woods there is hopeful news about containment and additional assistance continues to grow. Our local assistance centers are opening across the state to do face-to-face interactions with victims of the fires and those services will vary by locations so check ahead in areas for what's available. FEMA has announced additional help to individuals and their families and FEMA will speak shortly about what that means and again we're appreciative of all the federal help so far and we know we will need more. Again we're not out of this emergency we're continuing to address current and future needs for those of you near and around the fires please listen to your local authorities on evacuations shelter updates and road closures and if you're not in those areas driving around California today you'll see our fire trucks and emergency response vehicles moving along the freeways. Please make way for them to get through and with that I know you want to further update on the fires and so I'll turn you over to Deputy Director of Cal Fire Dave Teeter. Thank you Dan again Dave Teeter Deputy Director Chief of Fire Protection for Cal Fire. As it has been stated by Dan 880 fire engines 134 bulldozers 224 hand crews and 138 water tenders is just a portion of what makes up over the 10,000 firefighters that are literally and I'll steal a quote from a local media reporter an army on the fire line in the midst of this devastating natural disaster. As not unanticipated the winds aloft did surface at about 2 30 this morning in the central Napa Valley area that did cause an increased fire activity and spread on a number of the fires that also triggered additional evacuations but again it was not unanticipated that the Cal Fire Incident Management Team Incident Commanders had a very significant and diligent plan in place for this and that plan was activated as conditions presented themselves. I can say because of that plan being in place and because of the timely activation of the additional mandatory evacuation orders it provided ample time for citizens to make a timely calm and collective evacuation. Red flag warnings however do persist throughout the rest of the day and our diligence must remain top priority. The winds will continue in red flag conditions throughout the balance of today in northern California and will continue throughout tomorrow in southern California. Even once the winds deteriorate or go away we will be left for a number of days with a significant dry air mass over most of the state of California so we urge all of you to be diligent and your outdoor activities to reduce any further chance of ignition of wildland fires that includes using gasoline powered equipment such as lawnmowers and weed eaters and chainsaws making sure that you maintain control of campfires and barbecues etc. Diligence is utmost important so that the firefighters on the ground and engaged in the current incidents can continue to do their job notwithstanding the conditions that are being experienced in both northern california and increasing threat of wildland fire activity in southern california the state in cooperation with its local federal national guard and department of defense assets are bolstering our presence throughout southern california in anticipation of new incidents. A brief overview of the significant incidents that we are dealing with in northern california the tubs fire burning in Sonoma and Napa counties affecting the communities of calistoga and santa rosa are currently 30 is currently 35,270 acres but 44 contained. The pocket fire that's impacting the community of geyserville is currently 10,996 acres but is 5% contained. The nuns fire west of napa is currently 46,104 acres and 10% contained. The atlas fire that is burning in napa and solano counties that is in the area south of lake beriesa and northeast of napa is currently 50,383 acres but is 48% contained. Up in the mendicino area the mendicino lake complex is comprised of the redwood and sulfur fires. The redwood fire is impacting the areas north of highway 20 in potter and redwood valley currently at 34,000 acres but 20 contained. The sulfur fire in clear lake oaks is 2,500 acres and 60 contained. Moving east across the sacramental valley the cascade fire that impacted yuba county in the area of loma rica is currently 9,961 acres and 81 contained. The lobo fire in the rough and ready area is 821 acres and 93 contained. The mccourtney fire in nevada county impacting the community southwest of grass valley is 76 acres and i'm happy to report this morning is 100 contained. The leport fire in butte county impacting the community of banger is 6,144 acres and is 77 contained. Associated with those major fires the count stands at 5,700 damage and destroyed structures and tragically the loss of currently 35 civilian lives. The sheriffs and local officials continue the task of searching for those that are still reported to be missing and we anticipate the numbers of potentially both damage and destroyed structures as well as lives lost to potentially increase as the days pass. So with that I will turn that now over to assistant commissioner scott sillsby of the california highway patrol morning well the chp is saddened to be a part of this but honored to be working with the team of folks behind me including the folks that are out there serving as we speak. So resources for the highway patrol currently we have about 196 officers deployed specifically to the fire in addition to the additional chp officers that are already out there including our assets. I can tell you that they are doing primarily traffic control search and rescue general law enforcement and providing safety and security at the assistance centers. One way the public can help is as Mr. ballot mentioned a moment ago is to if you don't have a critical need to be in the area please stay out of the area. That influx of people who don't belong severely hurts the assistance we can provide and frankly hurts first responders getting in there to that can potentially save lives but it also impacts the public utilities company. It slows down the response to get all the power back on that is so so needed. As far as public support we have a lot of folks first responders out there that have been working multiple shifts they're getting sleep where they can we try to pull them out and frankly they don't want to come out they just want to serve they want to stay there and help but I can tell you the fuel that drives them is a public support. There are so many stories of the public coming to us and providing assistance and seeing what we need it really really drives what our folks are doing out there so big thanks to the public support. As far as traffic control goes it's a fluid event so you can imagine that the closures are changing rapidly the best resource to find out what road closures are open and not is to go to the chp website at chp.ca.gov that's all I have with that I will turn it over to fire and aviation director of the U.S. Forest Service Bob Baird. Hi good morning my name is Robert Baird I'm the director of fire and aviation for the United States Forest Service in the Pacific Southwest region which is California and the Pacific Islands. We're in seamless teamwork here with the state as far as the federal resources that we brought on to deal with these demanding wildfires we've have over 4,000 wildland firefighters and other resources that are supporting the complexes that we have in northern California including over 115 crews that's 12 hot-shot crews and additional firefighting crews we also to make sure that we have our firefighters continue on the line of extended our seasonal firefighters normally the season would be tapering off at this point and we've taken the measure to upstaff and increase the amount of time that we have those firefighters on to ensure that there's a federal state team here that we can continue to support. Additionally we've extended our large air tankers through the season as we get into the later part of the season with this extreme event we've extended five large air tankers throughout the state and 11 firefighting helicopters so those will continue to be part of our overall wildland fire aviation support system we have in addition to the Cal Fire State resources we have 15 federal large air tankers as well as two DC-10 very large air tankers to support the ongoing fire operations three scoopers is a cl-415 aircraft that can pick up and drop as well as 34 federal firefighting helicopters across the state also as chief teeter had mentioned there is a concern about the southern california wind events we've upstaffed across several of the national forests down there to make sure that we have either 24-hour staffing or continued readiness and assurance to make sure that we're leaning forward to not have the potential there so we've upstaffed we brought in additional resources from out of the region and we've even taken the step to activate a type one incident management team as a preventive measure having them down in southern california stage in the event of southern california fires to ensure that we continue to support northern california as well and continue to help with the state we continue to serve the public here and we're tied in with our state partners across the board uh but with that i'll be followed by uh colonel robert spanow of the california national guard thank you well good morning everyone first i'd just like to say uh that our thoughts and prayers continue to be with those who have experienced loss during this fire emergency the california national guard continues to be well postured to support the interagency partners standing behind us with a robust array of capabilities as i stand here today we have 2100 service members deployed across the five counties we continue to provide aerial fire mapping capability to cal fire and aerial damage assessments to fema our fixed and rotary wing aircraft continue to support cal fire with two modular airborne firefighting equipped c 130's eight type one helicopters flying on fires in the northern california fire complexes and we are also well postured in southern california with five additional type one helicopters been a lot of talk of southern california with the wind events down there in the california military department is postured for that as well we continue to provide support to shelters and evacuation centers across the fire affected areas as well as well as providing support to law enforcement including traffic control points in napa solano and mendicino counties and with that i will be followed by by david passy from fema thank you hi i'm david passy the fema regional director of external affairs and i we are very grateful to be among this team of teams supporting the firefighting operations shelter and evacuation operations emergency services and now the individual assistance effort to counties where additional federal programs have been turned on we are pleased that we can now receive registration from residents of sonoma and napa counties as we have the last day or two and i'm pleased to announce today that residents homeowners renters and businesses in butte lake mendicino and yuba counties who have sustained damage to their primary homes vehicles personal property and businesses can apply for federal disaster assistance we encourage individuals who have access to the internet to apply online by going to disaster assistance dot gov we also have call centers operating from seven in the morning until 10 p.m seven days a week and these operators can receive calls in english and spanish and by video relay service for individuals using tty devices they can call 800 6 to excuse me 800 462 7585 disaster assistance includes grants or loans to help pay for temporary housing to include rental and lodging expenses emergency home repairs uninsured and underinsured personal property losses and medical dental and funeral expenses caused by the disaster along with other serious disaster related expenses disaster assistance grants are not taxable income and will not affect eligibility for social security medicaid or other government programs low interest disaster loans from the us small business administration or sba may be available for businesses of all sizes including landlords private nonprofit organizations homeowners and renters low interest disaster loans help fund repairs or rebuilding efforts and cover the cost of replacing lost or damaged real estate and personal property economic injury disaster loans are available to businesses and private nonprofits to assist with working capital needs as a direct result of the disaster lastly we would encourage those affected by the disaster to continue to heed local emergency warnings to not return earlier than is safe and for those affected who have losses in the counties that i mentioned to apply online at disaster assistance dot gov or 1 800 621 3362 starting on thursday we also have agents in the field disaster survivor assistance individuals who can help at shelters and other locations for individuals who would prefer to not register online or by telephone thank you so with that we'll open it to any questions from the reporters here in the room if there are any at this particular point in time no there are no anticipated evacuation either mandatory or advisory however as i stated earlier it's a very dynamic situation as we continue throughout numerous geographic areas in northern california operating under red threat red flag conditions that we asked all the public to be diligent to be prepared and to be ready to evacuate should those additional orders come later in the day the aviation assets are fully deployed and engaged on all the incidents including our cooperator the current county fire department this morning when activity increased the we're able to provide a helicopter with night flying capability and started initiating water drops to protect homes and at first light we had 14 helicopters ready to go in the air performing water drops in and around priority targets to protect structures as well as we speak now we have a multitude of both rotary wing and fixed wing assets that are actively engaged in all of the incidents hopefully no the sudden increase activity while planned for and and additional resources were in place for did make a strong run into the city of sonoma and unfortunately there were additional structures damaged or destroyed albeit minimal but at this point that forward progress has been stopped and we are not anticipating any additional loss of structures at this point there are a number of repopulation plans that are in place and we're awaiting a word back from our incident commanders as to when those will be allowed all right thank you very much this concludes today's press conference