New evacuations ordered as two wildfires erupt in wine country in Northern California; at least 3 people dead
A wildfire burns on Monday in Santa Rosa, Calif.
LOS ANGELES
California’s famed wine country, already suffering an economic blow brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and covered in smoke for weeks, is on fire again.
With two new wildfires burning out of control, the losses were mounting Monday. The famous Chateau Boswell winery was gone, a community of tiny homes for formerly homeless people burned, and an untold number of houses were feared lost.
For residents, still haunted by fires that tore through the area three years ago, destroying thousands of homes and killing dozens of people, the wildfires that exploded Sunday were as familiar as they were terrifying.
“We’ve evacuated and we are watching the news and watching my district burn again,” Susan Gorin, a Sonoma County supervisor, said Monday morning from a hotel in Novato where she had evacuated to. “I fear that it’s heading into those areas that lost homes and were rebuilt, and I fear they will burn again.”
The two fast-moving blazes, the Zogg fire in Shasta County and the Glass fire in Napa and Sonoma counties, have already burned more than 26,000 acres, prompting new evacuation orders for thousands of people as the year’s grueling wildfire season wore on.
At least three people have been killed in the Zogg fire west of Redding, authorities said.
Shasta County SheriffCoroner Eric Magrini announced the deaths at an afternoon news conference.
“It’s with a sad heart that I come before you today to say we’ve had three deaths as a result of this fire thus far,” he said. “Our coroner’s office is working diligently to identify the decedents and notify next of kin.”
Magrini did not provide any other information, including where the bodies were found.
The new burst of fires comes as the West Coast struggles to recover from one of the worst seasons on record, even with months to go until the rainy season. Wildfires this year in the West have left more than 25 people dead, destroyed more than
7,000 structures, and scorched more than 5 million acres in California, Oregon and Washington. Experts have linked the devastating fire season to climate change, saying it is part of a long-term trend of more frequent and disastrous blazes in the West.
In a news conference Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said a “substantial” number of structures, including wineries, had been damaged. Speaking of the history of fires in the area, he said there was “a lot of consternation in and around that region that has been hit over and over and over again.”
In wine country, residents spoke of terrifying, nighttime evacuations Sunday as the flames bore down.