STRIKING LOOK AT BLAZE’S RUIN
Looking down from 7,000 feet, the patchwork of land looked almost like blackened crop fields.
But this was Santa Rosa, a city of 175,000 people. These dry and lifeless lots used to be a vibrant, sprawling neighborhood called Coffey Park, full of colorful single-family homes.
From inside an Air National Guard HH-60 Pave Hawk, its doors pulled open, Capt. Will Martin surveyed the damage below, following the streets spotted with driveways that led to nothing but heaps of charred land and cooked cars. The occasional glimmers from the ground came from shards of glass and melted metal.
“I’ve seen a lot of wildfires,” Martin said. “I’ve been with the National Guard for a long time now, but to see entire neighborhoods burnt to ashes is shocking . ... The devastation is striking.”
The aerial view of the devastation provides a clear picture of the wrecking path the Tubbs Fire took from Calistoga, over Highway 101 and into Santa Rosa. From the panoramic view high above, the ruins seem as if they’ve spilled from one lot into another.
At lower elevations, the losses come into focus.
In the middle of the charred community at Coffey Park, a neighborhood park appeared untouched, its green grass bright against a palette of gray rubble around it. Welcoming park benches and a bright blue and white play structure could be seen. A red car rolled down the lonely road between the park and a row of blackened trees and charred homes.
The path of the Tubbs Fire stretches for dizzying miles in fits and starts. Cal Fire said Wednesday that the fire burned more than 27,000 acres. It’s just one of 22 large fires torching the state, particularly Northern California. The magnitude of the damage was jarring from the sweeping sky view.
The Tubbs Fire, the worst of the fires ravaging Northern California, is already the sixth deadliest in California history, with 13 people confirmed dead in Sonoma County, Cal Fire said. Hundreds of people have been reported missing in Sonoma County, with downed cell phone towers keeping many from checking in with family and friends.
The smell of smoke filled the air from take off at the former Mather Air Base in Rancho Cordova, just outside Sacramento. There, a crew from the California National Guard picked up reporters and photographers and took them on a ride to survey the damage in Santa Rosa and neighboring areas. The helicopter, like others at the base, was painted with florescence pink stripes and numbers to help others in the air see it in haze.
The California National Guard steps in to help state agencies in major disasters, including the near catastrophic Oroville spillway failure earlier this year, by supplying additional resources or military equipment the state may not have. More than 250 service members of the National Guard have been deployed to help in the Northern California fires, some bringing with them helicopters to drop water on the fires.
The California National Guard is also helping with medical evacuations and providing military police for security.
On Wednesday, the guard’s helicopter first flew by Sacramento, where the smoke hovered in the air from fires to the city’s east, west and north. The smoke and visibility slowly worsened on the ride the further the helicopter pushed west.
The mountains south of Lake Berryessa, the largest lake in Napa County, were clouded in gray smoke from the Atlas Fire. The lake’s typically shimmering surface dully reflected the afternoon sun. The Atlas Fire had burned more than 40,000 acres in Napa and Solano counties by Wednesday. The flames were not visible from the helicopter, too shielded by the smoke, in the hillside above the water.
From above, the path of the Atlas and Tubbs fires showed the erratic nature of the burn. Dozens of homes in several neighborhoods were leveled, but a colorful few would appear to be untouched.