USA TODAY International Edition
Crews seek traces of victims as wind-whipped blazes rage
More Santa Rosa-area residents evacuated; 6 counties named for federal disaster assistance
SANTA ROSA, CALIF. As flames leveled and charred dozens of neighborhoods in Northern California’s wine country, rescue crews sifted through the remnants of homes Saturday for victims unable to escape the deadliest and most destructive series of wildfires in the state’s history.
The death toll from the fastmoving fires that began nearly a week ago has reached 40 across Sonoma, Mendocino, Yuba and Napa counties — including 20 people killed in Sonoma County alone. In some cases, officials identified victims by searching for medical devices such as artificial knees, said Sgt. Spencer Cran of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.
Meanwhile, the fires raged on. Gusting winds overnight drove flames closer to communities and neighborhoods in eastern Santa Rosa, spurring early morning, mandatory evacuations.
Dean Vincent Bordigioni said he woke at 3 a.m. to see flames bursting on the ridge above his winery 7 miles east of Santa Rosa, the Associated Press reported. He said things “went to hell last night,” and firefighters have “got a good fight going on.”
On Saturday afternoon, Cali-
fornia Gov. Jerry Brown announced that the White House had expanded federal disaster assistance to individuals in four more counties affected by the raging fires: Butte, Mendocino, Lake and Yuba. Similar disaster aid had been announced Friday for Napa and Sonoma.
New evacuation orders were issued for parts of the Sonoma Valley and in the Alexander Valley, north of the Tubbs fire. Roughly 3,000 more residents were evacuated from Santa Rosa and 250 from the town of Sonoma, according to Cal Fire.
Evacuees and residents gathered at a Safeway grocery store in Santa Rosa being used as a transportation point to evacuation centers. They stood outside watching flames creep down hillsides towards homes and vineyards on the valley floor. Small armies of fire trucks and equipment drove past them toward the flames as a half-dozen helicopters carrying water buckets flew overhead.
Two days of calmer winds allowed firefighters to make headway on many of the Northern California fires, including the Tubbs, Nuns and Atlas fires that are threatening communities in Sonoma County. But winds kicked up Friday night and remain a concern throughout the weekend. The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for the area until Saturday evening.
The Tubbs Fire is 34% contained and has burned 35,270 acres, the Nuns Fire is 10% contained and has burned 46,104 acres, and the Atlas Fire is 45% contained and has burned 50,383 acres.
Brown and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris were expected to attend a community meeting Saturday afternoon in Santa Rosa.
Search-and-rescue efforts mostly centered on neighborhoods that were badly burned when high-speed winds pushed flames through residential and commercial areas on the north side of Santa Rosa earlier in the week. Crews were focusing Saturday on the decimated neighborhoods of Fountain Grove, Larkfield and Coffey Park.
Cran said crews were also sifting through the 235-name missing person’s list and tackling specific-target searches by visiting the homes of people reported missing. Investigators have been able to locate 1,250 people so far.
“If someone has an elderly relative that’s missing, and they have a specific address, or someone who had mobility or health issues that were unlikely to escape a fire, that’s where we’re heading to,” Cran said.