FIREFIGHTERS SAY CONTAINMENT IN SIGHT
With many evacuation orders canceled and rain in forecast, active blazes could be controlled by Friday
Halfway: Most dire blaze, Tubbs, is 60 % contained
A week into battling raging wildfires that killed at least 40 people and scarred 200,000 acres, firefighters on Sunday made significant strides in controlling the ferocious flames and, for the first time, the end of the deadliest cluster of fires in the state’s history was in sight.
The blue skies of Sunday offered hope, as evacuations were lifted in parts of Sonoma and Solano counties and even Mother Nature offered help: a rainstorm drifting south from the Gulf of Alaska could reach the region by Friday.
“When you see blue sky, there is a change. We’ve seen nothing but smoke, smoke smoke,” Glen Ellen resident Bruce Wegleitner said from a Sonoma strip mall along Highway 12.
Cal Fire announced the most destructive blaze, the Tubbs fire between Santa Rosa and Calistoga that burned 35,470 acres, was 60 percent contained. They expected to have all active blazes under control by Friday.
As the fire showed signs of weakening, authorities released the names of four victims, leaving the death toll at 40 as crews continued to search through the vast rubble.
Sheriff Rob Giordano said of the more than 1,000 missing person reports received, about 170 people remained unaccounted for. A total of 102,000 people in Sonoma County, roughly one-fifth of the county’s population, had been evacuated from their homes since the start of the fires.
Orders lifted
Evacuation orders in Napa, Solano County and Calistoga were lifted, but white ash continued to swirl around towns Sunday, with people still wearing breathing masks.
A full week after the fires raced down the hills on the eastern flank of Santa Rosa, thousands of locals are still upended. Evacuation centers are still housing hundreds of people overnight, and donations continue to pour in.
At St. Rose Catholic Church on Sunday, Father Moses Brown delivered a message to the beleaguered congregation: “We can see the light when it’s dark.” A number of parishioners have either lost their homes in the Coffey Park and Fountaingrove neighborhoods or their classrooms at Cardinal Newman High.
Some 20 percent of the families with students at the high school lost their homes, Brown estimated.
In Coffey Park, neighbors are already talking about plans to rebuild. Maria Vella, 59, said she gathered the other night with four other neighbors who also lost their homes.
“Our neighbors are all so close,” she said. “We are all going to rebuild and have the same neighbors.”
Her husband, Stephen Vella, says he is already starting to see signs of resilience. One of his neighbors has suggested making T-shirts for the neighborhood that say, “We like our Coffey strong.”
Sunday morning, the three main fires that have raged over the past week through Napa and Sonoma counties — the Atlas, Tubbs and Nuns fires — had burned 133,633 acres.
But officials from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Services announced that they have gained more than 50 percent containment on two of the three fires that began their paths of destruction around 9:52 p.m. on Oct. 8. Besides the Tubbs fire, the Atlas fire — which destroyed homes and wineries and burned 51,057 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties — was 56 percent contained.
The Nuns fire, which destroyed homes early Saturday and forced widespread evacuations near Santa Rosa and the town of Sonoma, has burned 47,106 acres and was up to 25 percent containment on Sunday, from 10 percent a day earlier. With significant progress on the Tubbs and Atlas fires, officials were planning to transfer firefighting resources Sunday to battling the Nuns and concern shifted to the Oakmount fire burning in Sonoma County.
On Saturday, windwhipped flames again threatened the cities of Sonoma and Santa Rosa, but winds calmed Sunday, with occasional 10 to 20 mph gusts in the morning, meteorologist Suzanne Sims of the National Weather Service said. But winds continued to blow off shore, helping clear the smoky skies from regions of the Bay Area not close to the fires.
Sonoma’s residents proclaimed their resolve, such as the sign in Adastra, a wine tasting and art shop on the town square. It read: “The love in the air is thicker than the smoke.”
Adolfo and Antonia Hernandez stood in front of their candle-lit shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe in front of their Sonoma home along Highway 12.
“Some people have come for prayer” because of the fires, daughter Jennifer Hernandez said. The family plans to hold their traditional celebration Dec. 12 for the Day of Virgin Guadalupe. They’re expecting to draw a bigger crowd this year as part of the healing from the wildfires.
Gary Edwards, Sonoma’s mayor pro tem, spent the week distributing food to fire victims. Even with power out Sunday morning Edwards roamed the town square helping ease constituents. He had driven 717 miles since the fires began without leaving the 2.2-square-mile enclave.
“We need to have the lights on to feel some sense of normalcy,” he said. “It’s not about staying open; it’s about taking care of people.”
He also urged visitors to return to Wine Country.
“Sonoma is here for you,” Edwards said. “We need you.”
A Spare the Air Alert and smoke advisory remained in effect throughout the Bay Area for Sunday and Monday, but hourly air readings by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District indicated the skies in Marin County and in areas of Napa County were not as smoky. The air remained hazardous through much of Napa, according to the district. Air quality conditions have improved significantly in inland East Bay areas over the weekend.
Relief coming
More relief is expected later this week when the season’s first storm may drop in on Northern California from the Gulf of Alaska. Sims said the National Weather Service expects that the storm could be “significant” and drop at least a quarter- to half-inch of rain on some areas.
“It will be significant,” Sims said. “It might not be the most powerful storm you’ve ever seen, but it won’t be drizzle.”
At an afternoon news conference, the Sonoma Sheriff’s Office released the names of four fire victims: Sharon Rae Robinson, 79, of Santa Rosa; Daniel Martin Southard, 71, of Santa Rosa; Lee Chadwick Roger, 72, of Glen Ellen; and Carmen Colleen McReynolds, 82, of Santa Rosa. The Sheriff’s Office has now identified 14 of 22 people killed within Sonoma County.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Napa County fire Chief Barry Biermann said, “but we’re making tremendous progress out there.”
“It will be significant. It might not be the most powerful storm you’ve ever seen, but it won’t be drizzle.” — Suzanne Sims, National Weather Service, on storm expected this week