Flames’ ferocious pace forces close calls, some too late
Residents describe escaping deadly outbreak of Northern California fire with seconds to spare
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Blaring car horns warned of the rushing wildfires in Northern California last week. So did exploding propane tanks and police megaphones. The smell of smoke was a sign of what loomed on the horizon. Frantic banging on the door by neighbors was an indication that the fire was dangerously close.
Some of those who survived what is considered the deadliest outbreak of fire that the state has ever seen fled the flames with just seconds to spare. Behind them, in rearview mirrors or over shoulders, they saw their homes, possessions, entire neighborhoods consumed by the inferno.
They are left now with memories, intense ones, unforgettable ones, of relaxing quietly on a Sunday night one moment and running for their lives the next. What they cannot forget is the fire, its quickness and heat, its smell and destructive nature. These are some of the stories of those who saw the fire and tried to outrace it:
Flames were on both sides of the road
“I was watching a movie with my 19-year-old granddaughter and I smelled smoke, and I looked out the window to see flames approaching,” recalled Maureen Grinnell, 77, who lives in the hills north of Napa with her husband, Sheldon, 89. “I went outside to try to wet things down with the hose, but it was clear it was futile, and we just had to get out of there.”
At that point, she said, it was a rush for safety. “From when I first realized what was happening until we left, it was no more than seven to 10 minutes,” Maureen Grinnell said, “but by the time I started to back the car out of the garage, the house was already on fire. We always thought the alert system would give us time, but there was no notice, no warning.”
“We took almost nothing with us. It was me, my husband, who uses a walker, our granddaughter, and her poodle.”
“We started going down the hill, but it looked like we couldn’t go through, so we turned around and went the other way. But we didn’t go far before the road was blocked, and firefighters told us we had to turn back the first way we went, so we did. I wasn’t sure we could get through. I drove down the road through smoke with flames on both sides.”
‘Evacuate now! Evacuate now!’
Brad Weinper, 64, a resident of a Santa Rosa subdivision where hundreds of houses burned, said neighbors were wakened by neighbors, barking dogs, police officers and exploding propane tanks.
“We heard constant explosions. The winds were so strong. Trash cans were blowing over,” he said. “The police came by with a megaphone. They said, ‘Evacuate now! Evacuate now!’ ”
‘We could see it coming over the hill’
A car horn woke up Tom
Caserta of Santa Rosa.
“It was a neighbor across the way. I think his daughter showed up and was blasting the horn saying, ‘Hurry up, Dad, hurry up!’ ” Caserta said. “Then a deputy came down and started yelling, ‘leave, leave!’ So we got maybe 10 minutes. We could see it coming over the hill.”
The fire overtook the family as it fled
Sara and Jon Shepherd fled their home in Redwood Valley, Calif., early Monday, piling some possessions into two cars, along with their two children and two dogs.
They lived in a remote house in a wooded area. But the flames closed in so quickly that they could not make it down their mile-long driveway. They abandoned the cars and fled on foot, scattershot, unsure where to go.
Mindi Ramos, Sara Shepherd’s sister, said a neighbor, Paul Hanssen, found Shepherd hours later in the driveway.
Shepherd, 40, was badly burned, but lucid enough to ask for water. Her daughter Kressa, 17, who Hanssen found nearby, was also severely injured. Her son, Kai, a shy 14-year-old who was just beginning to open up and liked baseball, wrestling and playing the saxophone, was dead.
Hanssen found some water for the women and called 911.
“Paul said it appeared they had just dropped where the fire washed over them,” Ramos said.
Jon Shepherd, 44, was separated from his wife and children, but family members found him at a hospital with severe burns.
On Friday, all three were still hospitalized and unable to speak, Ramos said. It was unclear whether they knew Kai was gone.