A LOOK AT 13 WHO LOST THEIR LIVES
The fires that ravaged the North Bay and the Wine Country took a fearful human toll. Those who died ranged in age from a 14-yearold middle school wrestler to a 100-year-old World War II Army veteran. Here are some of those who died in the fires. Charles and Sara Rippey
Charles and Sara Rippey were the first casualties to be identified. They were also the oldest — he was 100 and she was 98. They had been married for 75 years and they died together during the first night of the fires as flames engulfed their condominium at Napa’s Silverado Country Club.
They met in grade school in Wisconsin and married on March 20, 1942. They were so well known in the Napa community that the Napa County Register carried an announcement of their diamond wedding anniversary this past spring.
Charles was a captain in the U.S. Army in World War II. After the war he worked for Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. and Norris Industries in Southern California. Sara was a homemaker and played tennis and golf. The couple belonged to the Napa Valley Country Club.
Mark Rippey, one of their sons, was interviewed on KPIX television and said Charles died trying to save his wife.
“From where they found his body, he was trying to get from his room to her room,” he said. “He never made it.”
They are survived by five children, 12 grandchildren and nine greatgrandchildren.
Go to SFChronicle.com for longer versions of these stories. We will be adding to these obituaries as more victims’ names are released. If you know someone who has died in the wildfires, email us at metrodesk@ sfchronicle.com Christina Hanson
Christina Hanson had to use a wheelchair to get around due to a spinal birth defect, but that did not stop her from volunteering to help others.
“She loved helping people and loved her family,” said Jennifer Watson, her stepmother.
Ms. Hanson was 27 when she died early Monday morning outside her apartment on Wikiup Bridge Way in Santa Rosa. She apparently had tried to reach her father, Michael Hanson, who lived in a house next to his daughter’s apartment. The two were very close and he was his daughter’s caregiver. Michael Hanson was badly burned but survived.
Despite her disability, Ms. Hanson volunteered twice a week to help Alzheimer’s patients at the Primrose residential care facility in Santa Rosa. She had learned sign language when she was a girl and found it useful to communicate with hearing-impaired Sonoma County residents.
“She was a beautiful person,” her stepmother said, “and she is going to be greatly missed.” Linda Tunis
Linda Tunis was a new Californian. She had moved from West Palm Beach, Fla., in January to Journey’s End Mobile Home Park on Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa to be closer to her family and among people of her own age, 69.
Fire swept through Journey’s End in the small hours of Monday morning and destroyed the facility. Ms. Tunis died there.
Ms. Tunis had been in poor health. She had had a stroke, her memory was failing and she had lost the sight in one of her eyes. But she was fiercely independent, her daughter, Jessica Tunis, said.
As the fire consumed her home, Ms. Tunis’ last thoughts were with her family. She called her daughter on the telephone.
“I was telling her I love her when the phone went dead,” Jessica Tunis said. LeRoy and Donna Halbur
LeRoy and Donna Halbur were born four days apart in 1937. He was born Aug. 10 in Roselle, Iowa; she on Aug. 14 in Iowa City, and when they fell in love and decided to get married, they split the difference and were married on Aug. 12, 1967. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this summer.
The Halburs died early Monday, trying to escape the flames that were engulfing their house in Santa Rosa. The couple were found in the garage. They were 80 years old.
Mrs. Halbur became a Roman Catholic nun when she was a young adult, but left the convent to attend college. She had a degree in education and earned a graduate certificate as a literary specialist. She taught in elementary schools for many years before leaving to raise her two sons.
LeRoy Halbur served in the U.S. Army in Okinawa and went to college on the G.I. Bill, earning a master’s degree in accounting. For many years, he was an accountant for Codding Enterprises, a large Santa Rosa real estate and development firm.
He was also active in local charities, particularly the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a Catholic charitable organization. He helped found the local chapter of the organization, served on the Sonoma County chapter’s board of directors, and was president of the St. Vincent de Paul chapter at Resurrection Church in Santa Rosa.
“He has been involved in every aspect of our organization — who we should serve and how we should serve them,” said Jack Tibbetts, executive director of the group’s Sonoma district council.
“He was a very warm man,” Tibbetts said of LeRoy Halbur. “When he smiled, you could see the warmth very clearly. His compassion to help the poor drove him.”
More recently, he cared for his wife, who was in poor health.
“They were very devoted to one another and he had been very devoted to caring for her in recent years,” said Tim Halbur, one of their two sons. Carmen Berriz
Carmen Berriz was on vacation with her husband, Armando, and was staying in a rented house on Crystal Court, on a hill in the Fountaingrove neighborhood of Santa Rosa. They were from Apple Valley in San Bernardino County and had been enjoying the North Bay’s autumn weather. They toured wineries and lounged around the house they had rented, which had a swimming pool. It was a family event — their daughter and son-in-law came along.
“We had three of the best days ever,” said Luis Ocon, their son-in-law.
Carmen met Armando in Cuba, when they were 12 years old. They both left Cuba after Castro came to power and met again in Florida. They were married in Miami in 1962 and moved to Southern California the next day.
After 55 years of marriage, she died in his arms. Mrs. Berriz was 75.
When the fire came, the Berrizes were unable to escape, so they held hands and jumped into the swimming pool of their rented house. They hoped to outlast the fire. He held onto her, but she died. He was badly injured.
“They were inseparable,” Ocon said. “They were the type of couple that you want to emulate, that you strive to be.” Kai Shepherd
Kai Logan Shepherd was 14 years old and in the eighth grade at Eagle PeakMiddle School in Redwood Valley.
He was “the quintessential energetic, athletic, fun-loving kid and he was one of those kids who would go up to anybody and start talking to them, no matter who they were,” said Dan Stearns, the school principal.
When the fire closed in on the Shepherd family home, Kai, his father, mother and sister decided to try and get out in two of the family cars. But apparently the fire caught up with them.
It is not clear what happened next, but Kai got separated from his family and tried to get away on foot. His body was found in the driveway. The rest of the family were badly burned but survived.
“He had great energy,” Stearns said, “always had a smile on his face.”
Art and Suiko Grant met in Honolulu. He was a pilot for Pan American World Airways and she worked for a Japanese firm.
“It was a true love-atfirst-sight story,” said Trina Grant, their daughter. “He found the most beautiful girl in the world to marry.”
Arthur Grant was born on a dairy ranch in Point Arena on the Mendocino County coast, one of 13 children. He went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for a while, then joined the Navy during World War II and was trained as a fighter pilot.
The war ended before he could fly in combat, and he retired as a lieutenant. He then flew for Pam Am for 25 years.
Suiko was born in China, raised in Japan and graduated from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo.
They lived for 45 years on a hilltop on Riebli Road in Santa Rosa. They had fruit trees, a vineyard and a wine cellar. He was 95; she was 20 years younger.
When the Tubbs Fire closed in on their home, they took refuge in the wine cellar. They took their dog with them. They did not survive.
Trina Grant said she had picked a Meyer lemon from one of her parents’ trees earlier this month. She still has it.
“It is now the only remaining part of their beautiful property,” she said.
Valerie Lynn Evans’ neighbors on Coffey Lane in Santa Rosa called her “the horse lady.” She had a fierce love of animals and kept horses, goats, dogs, a mule and a steer in her place.
She lived with her husband in the house more than 25 years. Their son and daughterin-law lived on the property, which had an in-law apartment and a barn.
Brian Strethlow, who lived across the street, said Mrs. Evans, who was 75, was a flinty, independent woman. Sometimes she led a mule down the street and allowed neighbors to feed the animal.
Mrs. Evans was apparently trapped by the flames early Monday as she tried to save her dogs. Strethlow said he offered to help, but Mrs. Evans shooed him away.
“She said, ‘We got this,’ ” Strethlow remembered.
Neighbors believe her family survived, but had not been able to contact them since the fire.
The Bowmans, Roy and Irma, lived on Fisher Lake Drive in Redwood Valley. They were kind of a neighborhood legend; they’d lived there as long as anyone could remember.
They were generous people who helped others, but made no fuss about it.
“Anybody who needed a second chance, the Bowmans were their advocate,” said Felice Lechuga-Armadillo, who knew them from the Assembly of God Church in Ukiah.
“Anyone who needed help, they stepped forward, but quietly,” she said.
Mr. Bowman had served in the Navy during World War II. He had a career as a soil analyst with the federal government. His wife raised their two sons. She loved to cook and bake.
He was 87 and had a stroke earlier this year. She was 88. She told Lechuga-Armadillo’s mother, that if Roy had another stroke, she wanted to have one, too.
“She didn’t want to be on Earth without him,” Lechuga-Armadillo said.
On Monday, their bodies were found in the ruins of their house. Chronicle staff writers Erin Allday, Michael Cabanatuan, John King, Marissa Lang, Evan Sernoffsky, Rachel Swan, Kimberly Veklerov and Sam Whiting contributed to this report. Email: cnolte@ sfchronicle.com, eallday@ sfchronicle.com, mcaban atuan@sfchronicle.com, jking@sfchronicle.com, mlang@sfchronicle.com, esernoffsky@sfchron icle.com, rswan@sfchron icle.com, kveklerov @sfchronicle.com, swhiting @sfchronicle.com. Arthur and Suiko Grant Valerie Evans Roy and Irma Bowman