by Contributor
Four Counties in Northern California are all adjacent to each other. They are Napa County, Sonoma County – directly west of Napa County, Mendocino County, directly North of Sonoma County and Lake County, directly east of Mendocino County and directly North of Napa County.
These counties are the backbone of Wine Country, California. They make some of the finest wines in the world. And this past weekend, they all caught fire and burned.
Napa County – The Atlas Fire started on 10/8/2017, 9:20 pm. This fire is located east of the City of Napa, and the fire is between the city and Lake Berryessa. This area is a mix of wildland, forest, and vineyards. Lake Berryessa has many second homes and some primary dwellers living in subdivisions in different areas surrounding the lake. There are a lot of small country folks on 5 and 10-acre parcels in that area, some 5-acre farmers. Lots of horses, chickens, cows, goats, sheep, and of course the indomitable marijuana growers that are willing to shoot a fireman and stand his ground as his house, barn and fences flare up around him. Truly among the stupidest people on earth.
At first, this fire acted like many, burning at a moderate rate and while there wasn’t a plethora of fire personnel available and being this late in the fire season in California, they were taking reasonable precautions to keep the areas around it safe and secure. Then the wind came up abruptly. It went from a breezy fall day to a 70-80 mile an hour dry wind coming out of the east and pushing the fire hard towards Napa and a lot of high dollar real estate with wineries. It was out of control, it was night time. Air support doesn’t fly at night and suppression was impossible. Getting out in front of the fire to warn and evacuate people became the only possible thing to do. It moved so fast, most residents fled with less than 15 minutes warning. It is presently on this Wednesday morning at over 48,000 acres burned and has changed direction multiple times, necessitating evacuations all around its perimeter in its unpredictability. It is 3% contained. Of note, this is the fire that took on the venerable Silverado Country Club, which sits at the northeastern edge of Napa, amidst high dollar homes, many cul de sacs and limited exit roads. They have found two bodies in one of those homes already.
I have family in Napa, a son in law who is a fireman. My daughter found her way to a church in the middle of the night to help set up cots and the kitchen for incoming evacuees.
Napa County & Sonoma County. The Tubbs Fire started at 10/08/2017 9:45 pm just out the outskirts of the City of Napa, burning north and west, pushed by the same winds coming out of the east. It burned north towards the town of Calistoga. Then abruptly pushed westward over a mountain range. Threatening and burning densely populated areas, missing a wild animal park before burning all the way into North Santa Rosa in Sonoma County. Once there, it went through office complexes; industrial areas, 10 million dollar homes, wineries, restaurants, stores, hotels and caused the evacuation of two hospitals all before daybreak on 10/09/2017. The distance between where the fire started and where it ended up is approximately 40 or so miles! Burning at a speed of over 70 mph. It moved so fast that fire personnel, even knowing it was coming were unable to mobilize in the numbers necessary to slow it and so they too, were about the business of streaming every available law enforcement vehicle, everything with a siren into the teeth of that wild thing to warn people to get out. Again, people left with the clothes on their back, not even time to grab a go bag. Some didn’t make it. The body count hasn’t even begun yet. Personnel from the hospitals loaded patients into their own cars so that the more serious ones could be doubled up in the available ambulances and tour buses brought in to move them out.
The fire was so hot and so fast that it jumped Hwy 101, a major north-south arterial 6 lane freeway, on its path west, pushed by that huge overnight wind. It burned hotels, restaurants, gas stations and finally, it moved into the subdivisions, taking out homes like dominos. Homes with people peacefully asleep in the wee hours of the morning. In subdivisions with multiple cul de sacs, with limited ingress and egress to a few through streets, people fled as they could, on foot, in cars, and on bicycles. Folks in this area would never have imagined a fire like this in this community. Far from a true wildland source, it was not the top of their list for emergency situations. Earthquakes are, not a fire. And candidly, a wall of flames moving at 70 mph is not something anyone can prepare for, you must move out. Today, this fire has consumed 28,000+ acres and is zero contained. And the subdivision of Coffey Park, which is no more, has found its first dead body.
A friend of my son in law, a deputy sheriff lost his house early that morning.
North of Sonoma County in Mendocino County…The Redwood/Potter Fires, which merged from two individual fires, one in Redwood Valley, one in Potter Valley, is up to 29,500 acres and is 5% contained.
A friend of mine, a battalion chief for the local volunteer fire department in Ukiah, California, had gone to bed Saturday evening after a nice fall day that was a little breezy. He was awakened to his phone blowing up with incoming calls & the radio system he keeps in his home toning out all available units. His mystification continued as he jumped in his truck listening to the radio as there, on the valley floor in Ukiah, California, it was still, while just minutes north, the wind was whipping at 50-60 miles an hour, power lines and phone lines were falling like dominoes, sparking fires at an alarming rate.
These two fires had started at 10:36 pm October 8, 2017, merging within the first 12 hours or so and then continuing to burn north-west, through populated areas, all in heavy grass, vineyards, forests and marijuana gardens.
My friend was assigned to a specific area of Potter Valley with the primary responsibility to evacuate people. In his own truck, he moved through the area, with fire on both sides of the road, embers raining down and trees and branches bouncing off his truck, swerving around falling trees. His crew worked diligently to use all available means to get people moving, but it was not a situation that could be done on foot, or door to door as there is much space between houses. It is ag country.
He also managed to save an old trailer park by throwing a perimeter of his team around it, as no one in there could get out.
In those valleys, many homes went up, including the homes of friends of mine. One friend, for all unknown reasons, had his house spared although it burned to within 10 feet of the back door before the wind picked the fire up and delivered it across the street to a big field of grass.
In this fire, one family lost their young son right in their own driveway trying to escape as their car caught fire. He died in the car, the rest were laying around the car with burns over 60% of their bodies. Don’t judge about why did they wait so late. This fire started late, picked up an impossible speed, they woke up, got out of their beds and fled!
In this fire, one 85-year-old lady is missing, presumably somewhere in the ashes of her home, along with her burned-out car in the driveway. They are posting Facebook pictures of her hoping someone stopped by on their way out to pick her up. It is doubtful.
People with animals had NO time to load their stock and hook up a trailer. They threw open the gates and the barn doors as they left. So for those that wonder why animals get left behind, there is no time to catch them, halter them, load them when you are running for your lives, so for those that ponder on Facebook on why people are “so cruel” as to leave animals behind, you have no idea and you need to get real and leave your criticism on your keyboard.
This fire is presently burning north. The same arterial freeway, the 101 running through Santa Rosa is also blocked off as they fight this fire on its north-west march. And they are still evacuating people ahead of it. One of the evacuations is of the White Deer Ranch area, home of Sea Biscuit.
Of note in this fire, emergency radio towers burned, 85 cell towers burned, the telephone trunk line from Ukiah to all points north for the state, burned as did the powerlines. As a result communications to fire groups was problematical. But innovative methods found for getting dispatches through were invented on the fly. You might not be able to get a dispatcher, but if you had a walky-talky in your truck with a bit of range, you could radio a friend, who could radio another friend with a ham set that could get the word out. And so it went for the early hours of this fire. But it wasn’t’ enough. When the dispatcher can’t dispatch, nor receive calls…………you are in a shit storm!
Meanwhile in Lake County, California. At one minute before midnight, The Sulpher Fire took off from a ranch due to arcing lines pushed by 50-60mph winds. It burned out of control all night long, moving Southwest over a ridge and down to the lake (Clearlake), then east nearly into the City of Clearlake. Fire folks in that area picked and chose which properties could be saved by the rate of the wind, how involved a property already was while still in the business of evacuating. Some were rescued by boat as there is limited exits out of the area and the fire burned right into the water and out to the ends of people’s piers.
Lake County folks are all familiar with disastrous fires, this is the county of the 2015 fires, culminating in the biggest and most dangerous fire, the Valley Fire in 2015. Followed by the Lower Lake fire that burned the town down in 2016. They are used to disasters, they know to get out, know to run if they can’t drive and the local Walmart, Moose Lodge, Churches all have the policies in place for setting up and accepting refugees.
It stayed smaller, not because of having more personal and there was a lack of air support after daybreak. It was locals, who have weary experience in disasters who made the difference.
So far one life lost, 2500 acres lost and 40% contained as I write this. But the wind is up again today and they are worried, they have every right to be. So far, they are reporting 150 homes lost in this fire.
Back to the Tubbs fire, it has now taken an evil twist to burn north, out of Napa County and back up over the top of the mountain into Lake County to the south side of the area where the Valley Fire was most destructive. The folks in Middletown and Hidden Valley, in its path, have been run out of their homes at least 4 times in the past three years. They have PTSD. Nobody slept in those communities as that fire moved their way last night, nobody. They are packed and ready to move when they are told to move. It won’t be as dramatic an exit as their cars are always gassed, loaded and ready and many have taken no chances and sent their children off to family elsewhere and some have already just left. Many of those folks are just now getting their homes rebuilt from the Valley Fire.
If the winds lay down, this fire might get to see a lot of the DC9’s and the 747’s that are going to be doing air acrobatics to put the suppression where it is needed today. It is mountainous with dangerous downdrafts, dry and beetle ridden timber, rocky cliffs with hard to access areas, where even hikers don’t go.
(Since I wrote this article this morning, this fire has turned on its heels and has is now burning back to Napa County and they are, right at this moment, evacuating the town of Calistoga…completely. There are two main roads running by Calistoga, Hwy 29 and the Silverado Trail. Everyone from that community, approx 15,000 or more, will shortly be on those two roads until they terminate on Trancas in Napa. It isn’t going to go well. Those are two-lane country roads.)
What can you do to make things better when it is your turn?
- Don’t let grass grow up around your houses.
- Keep your rain gutters clean. Embers love gutters full of leaves and debris.
- Keep dry leaves and twigs out from under your deck or around the edge of your house. Embers nestle down and get right warm. And remember an ember from a wildland fire may be a chunk of a tree limb, 2” in diameter and 6” long.
- Keep a perimeter around your home, if you are on acreage, push that perimeter out 500 feet of more. If you give yourself room around your house, a water tender can be moved in to fight the fire without endangering themselves.
- Don’t allow trees to grow over the roof of your house, in fact, keep all trees away and make sure there is no fire fodder in the form of tall or dry grass under them.
- Do your summer go bag at the beginning of fire season, don’t put it by the door, put it in your vehicle.
- Never let your vehicle have less than a half tank of gas.
- Make sure you keep at least two weeks of prescription drugs ahead of yourself at all times.
- Make up a tote box of snacks and a couple of cases of water to keep by the door nearest your car, grab that on the way out if you can, but don’t tarry over it if you can’t.
- Keep your keys in the same spot. They will you do you no good at all if you have no idea where you last threw them down. Be organized or maybe die.
- If you must leave, leave your door unlocked and your gates open; keep your fence gates and barn doors for animals open; let your animals go free. Emergency personnel of all types will be by. They will be turning off your electricity as it is likely you forgot. They will be moving your firewood pile away from your house because you probably have it piled right up against the side of it. They will be going in your house to see if there is anybody in it. They will call animal control to come get your pets if at all possible. Pets have a way of living through these fires, burned but alive, they pick their way out and sometimes run their way out of danger. They will be checking your propane tank and shutting off the valve because you won’t have had time. It is really difficult for fire personnel to be in a firefight somewhere and listen to propane tanks bursting……..
- Understand please that your particular house will be judged by a fire crew as savable or not savable depending on a plethora of bullet points. Is it safe to get to, is it already burning, is there the risk of things falling on them. They are not interested in your grousing on your return about wet boots on your hardwood floors or that the tree house in the backyard is gone along with the tree it was in. People have impossible expectations of good men, doing their best, under stressful and terrible circumstances. If you ever listen to a scanner, the fact that they remain calm and focused is heroism in and of itself. Many times they do this work for free if they are volunteers.
- Thank your local firemen. Drop by the station with a case of water and some fruit and donuts. But stay out of the way. Don’t expect personal updates or take up their time with idle conversation, they are busy listening to the radio in the background and while they want to be polite? They are busy!
- Donate to your community food banks and local area evacuation groups. Don’t give it to big charities that may not even show up. The local groups are going to do the heavy lifting. They are usually on point and at work as dispatch starts toning out units.
- And when told to get out, get out. Don’t argue, question, whine or otherwise impede whoever is telling to run in any way. That person would like to make it home at the end of his shift to his family and his loved ones, he doesn’t need your crap. If it wasn’t an emergency, he would not be there, just GO!
There are other fires in the region, 5,000 – 15,000 acres in size. Some of which they are going to determine had nothing to do with high winds, embers, and arcing power lines. This kind of a disaster brings out the weirdoos who want to find some twisted glory in making the situation worse. Evacuations are going on as we speak somewhere. But mutual aid from all over California is moving in now, the National Guard is going to work, we will overcome. Today’s announcement is that there are 21 confirmed dead, 670 missing, 25 – 30,000 evacuated. The body count just went up from my last sentence as the edit is being updated to include a family of 6 just found and one woman in a wheelchair that didn’t get out.
Assigned to these 4 county fires:
So far 8,000 fire personnel.
73 helicopters
13 Additional National Guard helicopters
Additional firefighting capable aircraft from US Navy and US Marine Corp
30 Tankers (Air)
And an additional 300 Fire Engines have been requested from all across the United States. Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas are already here, rolling in or being dispatched.
I pray that the winds back off so that the airplanes can get to work. I am blessed, I am safe! My family is safe! My pets, on this day, at this time are safe! And now I will go find somewhere in one of these counties to be helpful. I was in Lake County Monday, Mendocino County yesterday, thinking today it will be Santa Rosa, Sonoma County.
Point of this article, be prepared to move. Understand that all your prepping items in your house are going to burn in these situations. Don’t overestimate your talents in being superhumans that can stay put with your water hose and put out 70 foot high walls of flames. At some point late in the decision tree, the reality of that is going to kill you.
