A swarm of wildfires ripped through the North Bay on Monday, killing one resident, injuring scores of others, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses and forcing tens of thousands to flee.
The blazes turned wide swaths of the Wine Country into wastelands of twisted metal and ash as firefighters sought to contain flames super-charged by powerful winds.
California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Napa and Sonoma as well as fire-struck Yuba County, seeking to streamline aid for firefighting and recovery. He said the blazes, which blanketed much of the Bay Area in smoke, were “really serious,” but added, “We are on it.”
Chief Ken Pimlott of Cal Fire said at least 1,500 homes and commercial facilities had been destroyed in 14 fires now burning in eight counties in Northern California, including Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Yuba. He said firefighters had “limited or no containment” on the fires, and that many communities “were just overrun.”
More than 100 people were treated for injuries, including burns and smoke inhalation, at hospitals in Napa and Sonoma counties. Two patients with severe burns were in critical condition at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, officials said.
Hundreds of firefighters streamed into the region. The California Highway Patrol said it had used helicopters to rescue 42 people, who included vineyard workers and ranged in age from 5 to 91, as well as five dogs and a cat.
One of the most aggressive fires roared in the Atlas Peak area of Napa County, a famed winemaking spot northeast of the city of Napa and the Silverado Trail where at least 50 structures were leveled. Another fire burned north of Carneros, and still another near Kenwood, east of Santa Rosa in Sonoma County.
In Mendocino County, the Sheriff’s Office reported a fire-related death. Capt. Gregory Van Patten said flames surged early Monday from Potter Valley west toward Redwood Valley as wind gusts downed trees and power lines. Evacuations were ordered, but the fire burned structures, killed one person and caused numerous injuries, he said.
Perhaps the worst damage came in the jagged path of an out-of-control blaze in and around northern Santa Rosa called the Tubbs Fire, which had burned at least 35,000 acres by Monday morning, according to officials. The fire had started Sunday in Calistoga and burned west through canyons and over hills.
Scores of homes were lost in the Fountaingrove area east of Highway 101 and in other neighborhoods including the Journey’s End Mobile Home Park for seniors. The Fountaingrove Inn burned, as did the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country, a Kmart, a McDonald’s, an Arby’s and an Applebee’s. The Luther Burbank Center for the Arts was damaged.
That was just the beginning. So vast was the havoc, and so sweeping the evacuations, that Santa Rosa, a city of 175,000 people, was a virtual ghost town from side to side, with most businesses shuttered.
Residents in the hardest-hit areas described fleeing for their lives in the middle of the night from the fire, in cars or on foot, amid a disaster that stood as another stark reminder of the intense peril of wildfires in dry California.
“It’s not uncommon to have multiple fires burning,” Pimlott said, “but I can certainly tell you its becoming more of the norm now to have multiple large, damaging fires now like we’re seeing today. These are the conditions we continue to talk about that California is experiencing.”
Two hospitals in Santa Rosa, those run by Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health, were evacuated. Some of those transferred from Sutter were pregnant women in active labor.
Power outages were widespread. People flocked to gas stations in cities that were safe from the conflagrations, to fuel up and buy water and other supplies. Evacuation centers were set up, then quickly filled, forcing more to open.
In several cities, including Napa, Santa Rosa and Petaluma, public school leaders closed all schools Monday.
The series of fires began to ignite Sunday and multiplied as the night went on, hitting Napa and Sonoma the hardest but affecting at least five counties. The causes of the fires were under investigation.
In Mendocino County, authorities were battling a fatal fire near Redwood Valley that burned at least 4,500 acres of land. In Marin County, a grass fire closed part of Highway 37. In Alameda County, fire crews battled a blaze in the North Berkeley hills early Monday, later declaring it under control with no homes damaged.
All over the region, flames raced across fields and freeways and skies filled with embers and ash. The National Weather Service said the blazes were fanned by dry northeast winds that gusted up to 50 mph in the valleys and 70 mph on mountaintops. Those winds were expected to ease later in the day.
In Napa County, the Atlas Fire had burned 8,000 to 12,000 acres by Monday morning, officials said. At least a dozen homes burned on Soda Canyon Road. Dave Shew, a Cal Fire spokesman, said a number of Napa Valley wineries may have burned.
“This is an incredibly fast-moving and dynamic fire,” he said. “We had real severe winds last night when this started. So it burned very, very fast. Our No. 1 priority was life safety.”
“There are some neighborhoods that got hit pretty hard with structures lost,” Shew said. “This is an ongoing situation that is not only going to last days but weeks.”
Guests of the Silverado Resort and Spa on Atlas Peak Road said they escaped in a rush as flames approached. The resort had hosted the Safeway Open, a PGA Tour event, which ended Sunday.
“We were sleeping, but we kept smelling smoke,” said Chris Thomas, 42, of Kirkland, Wash., who arrived in the Napa Valley late Sunday with his wife, Marissa Schneider, for a wine-tasting trip. They saw a firetruck pass, then were ordered to leave by loudspeaker. The power went out.
“It was surreal,” Thomas said. “When I started loading stuff into the car it was a hell-storm of smoke and ash. There were 30 to 40 mph winds. I couldn’t even breathe, so I ran back to the unit to get Marissa. It was so smoky I went to the wrong unit. When I found her I said, ‘Forget it, let’s just go.’ It went from being an annoying evacuation to something really scary.”
They drove to downtown Napa and found a hotel room, wary of being evacuated again. The Silverado Resort and Spa somehow survived, a representative later said, and all staffers and guests got out safely.
Shew, of Cal Fire, said the Atlas Fire crossed Highway 128 and was burning east of Napa toward the south and east on Monday, headed toward Solano County.
In the Kenwood area of Sonoma County, near Highway 12 east of Santa Rosa, evacuations were ordered along Porter Creek, Petrified Forest, Franz Valley and Mountain Home Ranch roads due to the Nuns Fire.
Another blaze north of Carneros and west of Napa, called the Partrick Fire, had burned up to 2,000 acres off Partrick Road, officials said. There were mandatory evacuations, and homes were lost in that area as well.
A full accounting of the damage from the Tubbs Fire was yet to come. As it burned west from Napa County, evacuations were ordered for residents in Fountaingrove and other areas east of Highway 101. Just after 2 a.m., though, Santa Rosa police reported the fire had jumped Highway 101 and “ignited structures” west of the freeway near Hopper Avenue. Evacuations were then ordered for that area.
“This is a life-threatening event,” officials said. “Leave immediately.”
Among those who left the Hopper Avenue area were 11 members of the Flores family, who woke up and piled into two vehicles with four dogs after being jolted awake by neighbors. They said the air was thick with smoke and the wind was blowing so hard that trash bins toppled over.
“We couldn’t really see anything,” said Bradley Flores, 15. “We just got our dogs and got into the car and left. The wind was so bad our car was shaking.”
He spoke from the parking lot of a Chevron gas station in Petaluma. The lot was full of evacuees who were fueling up, buying water and talking on cell phones.
Also making it to Petaluma were Lance and Barb Cottrell, who live near Santa Rosa. At about midnight, they saw fire cresting over the ridge near their home, after a neighbor rang the doorbell. They packed suitcases, grabbed prized antiques and headed to a friend’s house to the west of Highway 101.
“Our house is probably gone,” Lance said. “We just finished it in 2014.”
Soon, though, flames raced so fast into their friend’s neighborhood that people ran for their lives. Lance jumped in his car, and Barb in hers, and they tried to drive away, but they they saw a house engulfed in front of them and had to make a U-turn. They ended up stuck in traffic before escaping down country roads west of Santa Rosa, avoiding trees that had blown down.
The scene was similar in Napa County. On Highway 121 between Sonoma and Napa, flames chewed up vegetation on both sides of the road, shooting embers as a stream of people fled the area. Some drivers pulled over to the side of the road at safe spots, looking back at the fires. Police and firefighters tried to keep people moving.
Sonoma County officials said emergency dispatchers were being “overwhelmed by 911 calls” from residents smelling smoke, adding, “Please only call 911 if you see actual unattended flames.” Authorities in Marin and San Francisco counties made the same plea.
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