Napa, Sonoma wine region on fire

Officials said wildfires have killed at least 10 people in northern California.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Fast-moving wildfires ravaged Northern California’s wine country Monday, torching properties and crops, triggering widespread evacuations and prompting California’s governor to declare a state of emergency as the state’s dreaded fire season kicked into high gear, with little relief in sight.

Officials said Monday that the fires, which started Sunday, had killed at least 10 people and destroyed at least 1,500 homes, businesses and other structures while forcing an estimated 20,000 people to evacuate from eight counties.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Battalion Chief Jonathan Cox said it is “unprecedented” for a fire to spread so rapidly.

“You’re talking 20,000 acres in essentially 12 hours, which is a phenomenal rate of growth,” he added.

Santa Rosa hospitals sent patients to other area facilities Monday, while a Cal Fire official said the California Highway Patrol was evacuating some people by helicopter in rural areas of Sonoma, Napa and Lake counties, where the six most extensive fires are burning.

The initial cause of the fires was under investigation.

Some of the worst of the wildfires have struck in the heart of wine country: At least three separate fires in Napa and Sonoma counties were burning across more than 70,000 acres as of Monday afternoon, leaving behind charred homes, vineyards and winery buildings.

Cal Fire said the Atlas Fire, south of Napa County’s Lake Berryessa, had spread across 25,000 acres. The Tubbs Fire, which began in Napa before spreading into neighboring Sonoma County, also covered 25,000 acres, the agency said. The smaller Nuns Fire, in Sonoma, was at 5,000 acres by about midday, officials said.

“It looks like a bombing run,” Joe Nielsen, the winemaker at Santa Rosa’s Donelan Family Wines, told SFGate. “Just chimneys and burnt-out cars and cooked trees.”

While the Donelan winery managed to avoid fire damage to its building, its neighbors across the street were less fortunate, Nielsen said.

PG&E said 102,000 people are without power, with the majority of those customers in Sonoma and Napa counties, said spokeswoman Andrea Menniti.

Napa and Sonoma counties form the epicenter of the U.S. wine industry.

There are more than 100,000 acres of wine grapes in the two counties, which are home to more than 650 wineries, according to the Wine Institute, which represents the industry in the state.

The two counties produce about 13 percent of all wine made in California, according to the trade association’s data; a much higher percentage of the most acclaimed and coveted U.S. wines come from Napa and Sonoma.

The sector’s economic impact on California is immense: The Wine Institute estimates that the industry generates more than $50 billion in economic activity in the state each year.

The industry also attracts millions of tourists — 23.6 million visits generating $7.2 billion in tourist expenditures in 2015 alone.

JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY A resident jumps off his roof Monday as a wildfire moves through Glen Ellen, Calif.