Kincade Fire is now 68% contained

Firefighters battle a wind-driven fire burning structures on a farm during the Kincade fire in Windsor, California on October 27, 2019. - California's governor declared a state-wide emergency on October 27 as a huge wind-fueled blaze forced evacuations and massive power blackouts, threatening towns in the famed Sonoma wine region. (Photo by Philip Pacheco / AFP) (Photo by PHILIP PACHECO/AFP via Getty Images) less Firefighters battle a wind-driven fire burning structures on a farm during the Kincade fire in Windsor, California on October 27, 2019. - California's governor declared a state-wide emergency on October 27 as a ... more Photo: Philip Pacheco, AFP Via Getty Images Photo: Philip Pacheco, AFP Via Getty Images Image 1 of / 132 Caption Close Kincade Fire is now 68% contained 1 / 132 Back to Gallery

— 77,758 acres, 65% containment

— At least 352 structures destroyed, 55 damaged

— No reported deaths or missing persons

— 1,630 structures threatened

—4 injuries (firefighters)

The weather continues to cooperate.

Calm conditions allowed firefighters to make more progress containing the Kincade Fire overnight. Cal Fire announced at 7 a.m. Friday that the blaze is now 68% contained, and the acreage remains 77,758.

"Access to the northern part of the fire remains challenging because of steep terrain and narrow roads, but firefighters will continue to build on the headway they have been making with even more control lines being established," Cal Fire said in a statement Thursday morning.

Evacuation orders have been lifted for tens of thousands of residents in Sonoma County, including in the towns of Healdsburg and Windsor, in Geyserville south of Canyon Road and in portions of Santa Rosa, Larkfield, Rincon Valley and Fulton. Some of these locations remain under "advisory evacuation," meaning people can return home at their own risk.

"Because of the progress, repopulation planning efforts are underway," Cal Fire said.

While the majority of the 186,000 people evacuated at the fire's peak have been allowed to return home, the following zones are still under evacuation order:

—Zone 1B: West of Lake County Line, North and East of Highway 128. South of Cloverdale, East of Asti Road/Geyserville Ave at Canyon Road. Including Asti Road.

—Zone 3C: Area South of Highway 128 and the fireline, East of Windsor Town limits, North of Faught Road at Shiloh Road and the Zone 5B boundary.

—Zone 5B: Area South of Highway 128 and Yellow Jacket Ranch Road, West of Highway 128 and the Zone 6 boundary to the Zone 3C boundary, including areas accessed East of Shiloh Ridge Road at Mayacama Club Drive.

Find evacuation and repopulation information on the SoCo Emergency website.

Jeff Ohs, a Cal Fire section chief, said at the Thursday morning operations meeting that efforts were focused on the fire's eastern edge near Lake County, the Mount St Helena area and "across the bottom of the fire and up near the Highway 101 corridor."

"We have a significant number of ground troops there and their primarily mission is to go after everything they see smoking," Ohs said. "There will be smokes. You will see them the next week or so, and after that they should diminish."

The firefighting effort turned a corner on Wednesday when a wind event wasn't as severe as it could have been.

"The winds that we were talking about yesterday did not materialize to the extremes that we were fearful of, and that gave us a big opportunity to increase that containment overnight and again today," said Cal Fire Division Chief Jonathan Cox at a Wednesday night press conference.

While there's no rain in the seven-day forecast, weather conditions are expected to be generally favorable into the weekend and likely into next week.

"Mainly light winds and dry conditions are expected through at least the end of next week," said the National Weather Forecast in its Bay Area forecast.

The Kincade Fire is now the largest fire ever in Sonoma County. The blaze started Oct. 23 northeast of Geyserville at John Kincade Road and Burned Mountain Road. Cal Fire officials say they hope to have the blaze fully contained by Nov. 7.

Over the course of the fire, helicopters have dropped more than 2.1 million gallons of water and tankers have let loose over 1 million gallons of retardant.

Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her at agraff@sfgate.com.

More Kincade Fire coverage:

— Kincade Fire now at 75,415 acres with high winds coming

— Maps: Kincade Fire burning in north Sonoma County

— Road closures, evacuation shelter locations near Kincade Fire

— PG&E begins cutting power to 596,000 California customers Tuesday

— What to do to keep wildfire smoke out of your house

— Full California wildfire coverage