Hwy. 12: Fire lines drawn along the Valley of the Moon
SONOMA COUNTY >> The twolane byway connecting historic Sonoma with Santa Rosa is known locally as the Valley of the Moon Scenic Route.
This vineyard-lined stretch of State Route 12 named for author Jack London’s novel, “Valley of the Moon,” usually attracts wine enthusiasts on autumn Sundays when the grape leaves turn golden and the surrounding hillsides shine in an amber glow.
But a week after the beginning of hell, this 25-mile span was paved with sorrow from the point where the fires started in Santa Rosa to where battalions of firefighters held it from crushing downtown Sonoma this
weekend.
“When I went to bed last night I could see the stars,” said Gary Edwards, Sonoma’s mayor pro tem, on Sunday. “When I woke up early this morning you could feel the spirit of the community.”
Around the historic plaza in the town of Sonoma, where many of the businesses were shuttered without power, residents felt a sense of relief because they were saved from the worst after winds Saturday morning pushed the flames too close for comfort.
But farther along the scenic route, most felt anxious while plumes of blackened smoke seemed to puff out of nearby Sugarloaf Peak like an exploding volcano.
Debbi and John Cooper looked exhausted as they cleared brush near their home along Adobe Canyon Road in Kenwood. Above them in the canyon, flames charred the ridges inside Sugarloaf Ridge State Park.
Authorities stationed crews in the canyon ready to act if the flames threatened any more of the homes built along Sonoma Creek.
The Coopers had stayed in the valley to protect their residence after the fires erupted in Wine Country a week ago. They would extinguish the blaze when it raced toward their home by using five-gallon water buckets.
“We’ve been living in hell for six days,” said Debbi, whose husband is director of the Kenwood Fire Protection District.
The Coopers have been awakened every night with bullhorns and knocks on the door asking them to leave.
But they won’t go after moving into their place a month ago.
“It took two years to build this house,” said Debbi, whose old Kenwood neighborhood was destroyed this week. “I’m not losing it.”
They made only the merest concession to the possibility of flight, sleeping in their car Saturday night so they could move quickly if the worst happened.
The capricious nature of the wildfires becomes clear in the physical landscape along Highway 12. A moonscape of ashen earth and singed structures greeted those driving past just south of Kenwood, where the vast vineyards spread deep into the hillside. All was spared on the east side of the road. Everything to the west was reduced to cinders.
While folks in Sonoma enjoyed a respite Sunday from fiery fear, they also understand the nightmare isn’t over.
But they persevere. Sunny Bajwa, owner of Basque Boulangerie Cafe, continued making bread across from the Sonoma Plaza even after losing power. On Sunday morning he and his crew were cleaning the cafe with the help of a generator powering portable lighting.
“It’s a bit like a roller coaster,” said Bajwa, describing his range of emotions over the past seven days.
The baker has been donating truckloads of bread to help feed those who have been displaced. He filled three cardboard boxes with loaves of bread in front of the cafe for anyone who wanted them.
Bajwa kept the cafe open as much as possible to bring a bit of normalcy to stressed locals.
Murphy’s Irish Pub next door on Place des Pyrenees alleyway did the same.
“Bread is comfort food,” Bajwa said. “It was bread and booze.”
Jay Nepal found comfort Sunday in a neighborhood Peet’s cafe in Santa Rosa. He and his partner were evacuated early Monday morning from a home located a half-mile from the burned-down Fountaingrove neighborhood.
When escaping his home in the morning darkness Nepal, 38, noticed the galeforce winds.
“I’ve seen winds like that hiking on Everest,” the Nepali mountaineer said.
Like many who have survived the worst of it, Nepal felt incredibly grateful for what has been saved. But he has not unpacked his car in case the evacuation orders come again.
After the weeklong ordeal, who knows if these Diablo winds will kick up another round of fires.