Victims’ stories: The Shepherd family, left, loses 14-year-old son while fleeing fire in Mendocino County.
Here are some of the stories of the victims of the historic Northern California fires:
KAI SHEPHERD
Kai Shepherd, 14, loved the San Francisco Giants and wrestling, and is being remembered by family as a sweet, brave, compassionate boy. “He could just see into people’s hearts, you know?” said his aunt Mindi Ramos. Kai died trying to escape the Redwood Valley fire that swept through Mendocino County on Monday and left his family badly burned. It’s unclear exactly what happened, but the family—including Kai’s father, Jon, hismother, Sara, and his sister, Kressa, 17— fled their house in two cars before both caught fire. They tried to run, but “the fire storm washed over them as they were trying to escape,” Ramos said. The house was destroyed. Jon was taken to a burn center in San Francisco. Sara and Kressa were taken to adjoining hospitals in Sacramento. All are surrounded by family. “We have a huge community of people stepping up to support them,” Ramos said. “It’s really amazing, if there’s one thing to be grateful for.” On Thursday, Kressa’s legs were amputated below the knee. Her parents have had surgeries to treat their burns. It is unclear what they remember from their harrowing escape or whether they know Kai has perished. Jon and Kressa remain sedated, and Sara isn’t able to speak yet, either.
LEROY AND DONNA HALBUR
LeRoy and Donna Halbur died around 2a.m. Monday morning as fire swept through their home on Angela Drive in Santa Rosa, near Cardinal Newman High School, their son, Tim, 48, said. The pair had just celebrated their 80th birthdays and 50th wedding anniversaries with their families in August, he said. LeRoy, who worked as an accountant for decades, met Donna, who had been a nun earlier in life, after he returned home to Des Moines, Iowa, from serving in the Army in Okinawa, Japan. “My dad was definitely a pillar of the community,” their son said. LeRoy, he said, had served as president of the Sonoma branch of St. Vincent De Paul. His mother was “very creative, loved little kids,” he said. Donna, the youngest of 14children, had worked as a reading specialist. “She was a great mom,” he said.
KAREN AYCOCK
Early Thursday afternoon, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department pulled what they believe to be Karen Aycock’s body out of the debris of the house she lives in on Dogwood Drive, near the Coffey Lane area in Santa Rosa, one of the hardest-hit in the fires. “That is why we could not find her — she was gone,’’ said a tearful Jeannette Scroggins, one of Aycock’s nieces. “She was in the backside of the house, and there is no way out on the backside.’’ The 56-year-old Aycock lived alone with at least seven cats. What made it especially hard for her relatives is that for decades, she had suffered from mania and schizophrenia. Aycok’s relatives had filed a missing persons report, called the sheriff’s department, the fire department, area hospitals, the Red Cross and evacuation centers. There were no answers until Thursday, though Scroggins said she had an intuitive sense that her aunt had died.