‘It’s all gone’: Advancing flames swallow helpless communities
Shelters take in thousands driven from their homes
A cluster of devastating wildfires that killed at least 15 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes, businesses and other buildings raged virtually unchecked across the state’s treasured wine country for a third day Tuesday.
Tens of thousands of Californians fled homes, many holing up in shelters that could be operating for several days. Power outages and cellphone disruptions added to the chaos amid the fastspreading blazes, prompting hundreds of missing persons reports.
The fires, fueled by dry grasses and brush, heat and low humidity, were fanned by wind gusts reaching almost 80 mph. Conditions improved somewhat Tuesday, and the National Weather Service ended its “red flag ” fire warning in some areas.
Communities remain threatened, and many people are dealing with catastrophe. Jack O’Callaghan, 66, was among those who lost his home on Highway 12 near the town of Glen Ellen.
“We left at 2:15 in the middle of the night on Monday. I sent my wife and family earlier. I stayed pretty close to the end. But then we left. Now I come back to this. It’s all gone,” O’Callaghan said, standing in the rubble of what was his house. “I did manage to find my safe; the coins in it were all kind of melted. I found the two guns I had in my nightstand. My .45 Colt, it’s destroyed. And my beautifully restored 1959 Ford truck. I guess I should be grateful. I almost ordered a new radiator for it last week, but then I didn’t.”
Makeshift shelters were set up
“When people don’t see smoke, they want to go back in. But the fires are still out there.” Barry Biermann, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
to provide lifesaving sanctuary for displaced residents. At the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds, sisters Jamuna and Yamuna Maharjan were among 300 evacuees who sought shelter. The sisters said they were relieved to have a place to go.
“There are a lot of people going through more difficult situations,” Yamuna, 28, said. The Maharjans live in an apartment complex near a Hilton hotel that burned down.
Homes continued to burn late Tuesday in some neighborhoods, and most areas remained unsafe for residents to return, said Barry Biermann, deputy incident commander for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “It’s understandable that when people don’t see smoke, they want to go back in,” he said. “But the fires are still out there.”
In the town of Oakmont, a fire crested a hill and worked its way down toward a retirement living community of several dozen homes.
Firefighters and emergency services personnel went house to house, trying to convince those who refused to evacuate that the time had come.
More than 100 people have been injured in the blazes, and authorities expected the death, injury and damage tolls to rise.