SONOMA,
Calif. — Wine country was shrouded in a thick layer of smoky haze here
on Tuesday as firefighters continued to battle wildfires that have left
at least 15 people dead and have damaged or destroyed about 2,000
structures, including wineries, homes and resorts.
State
fire officials estimated that 17 separate fires, the first group of
which began Sunday night, had burned about 115,000 acres over eight
counties. More than 100 people had been taken to hospitals by Tuesday
morning, and officials said that the tallies of the dead and injured
were likely to rise as many people were still missing or unaccounted
for.
About 20,000 people were forced to evacuate, some of them fleeing on foot and by car as the fires quickly overtook their towns, the authorities said. Dozens of shelters opened across Northern California.
Vice
President Mike Pence on Tuesday visited California’s office of
emergency services to announce that President Trump had approved Gov.
Jerry Brown’s request for a major disaster declaration and ordered
federal aid to help the state in recovery efforts.
“The
Federal Emergency Management Agency has responded promptly to assist
California in fighting these terrible fires,” Mr. Brown said in a
statement. “I appreciate the fast response from the president.”
The
governor was monitoring the situation but was not planning to visit the
area on Tuesday, a spokesman said, explaining that Mr. Brown did not
want to interrupt firefighting efforts.
The
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said early
Tuesday that firefighters were expected to make some progress. Officials
were encouraged by improved weather conditions. The winds, which had
pushed the flames rapidly and in an unpredictable manner, had died down
significantly, said Daniel Berlant, an assistant deputy director with
the department.
But
all 17 fires remained active, and several of the largest had not been
contained on Tuesday morning. Ken Pimlott, the director of the
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said at a news conference
that there were still several days of battling the fires to come,
cautioning, “We are far from out of the woods.”
Mr.
Berlant said that large fires that had not been contained included the
Tubbs fire in Sonoma and Napa counties, which had burned at least 27,000
acres; the Atlas Peak fire, which had burned 25,000 acres; and the
Redwood Complex fire in Mendocino county, which had burned 19,000 acres.
Before and After: Fires Tear Through California’s Wine Country
Images, including before and after views, reveal the scale of the devastation.
The
fires raged through the hills that are home to some of the country’s
most prized vineyards, and fire officials said that multiple wineries
had been affected.
Mr.
Pimlott said that the cause of the fires was still unclear and would be
investigated. He pointed out that 95 percent of fires in the state were
caused by humans in some manner and said that even a small spark, in
windy, dry weather conditions like those on Sunday, could grow quickly
into a large fire.
“These
fires came down into neighborhoods before people realized they were
occurring in many cases,” Mr. Pimlott said. “Some of these folks were
literally just sleeping at home in bed and had no idea.”
Cell
service throughout the region was spotty, and down altogether in some
places. Mark Ghilarducci, the director of the Governor’s Office of
Emergency Services, said that about 77 cellphone sites were damaged or
destroyed.
Meanwhile,
in Southern California, a fire in the Anaheim Hills that broke out
Monday morning burned through thousands of acres, sending smoke pouring
into Orange County and turning the sky a smoky shade of orange.
Hundreds
of firefighters rushed to the area, as a freeway was closed and several
neighborhoods were forced to evacuate. Crews had begun to contain that
fire, which destroyed about a dozen homes in East Anaheim, by Tuesday.
In
Northern California on Tuesday, firefighters planned to continue
containment strategies, using bulldozers to cut down trees, brush and
other flammable materials in front of fires. Crews used shovels and
chain saws to create clear lines, starving the fire of material to feed
on and holding it back. Fighters working on the ground were assisted by
air support; on Monday, Mr. Berlant said, dozens of helicopters flew
until sundown, pouring water on hot spots.
The
worst fires in Northern California tend to hit in October, when dry
conditions prime them to spread fast and far as heavy winds, known as
north winds or diablo winds, buffet the region.
Residents
of the American West are already experiencing a particularly brutal
wildfire season, one that has caused thousands to flee their homes,
turned buildings to charred skeletons and spread a thick smoke across
hundreds of miles — just as people in coastal areas of the country have
battled the floods and winds of hurricanes.
As of Oct. 6, wildfires had raced through 8.5 million acres, well above the last decade’s average of 6 million per year.
While
burned acres have not surpassed a 2015 record, experts say this year is
concerning because so many of the fires have raged close to population
centers, rather than in remote wild lands. Response crews have sometimes
had to focus on saving homes over fighting fires, said Jessica
Gardetto, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Land Management,
stretching emergency efforts thin.
She
attributed this to a growing number of people living at the edge of
nature, an area known to forest fire experts as the urban-wildland
interface.
In
recent decades, fire seasons have grown longer and more destructive,
something scientists attribute in part to increased dryness caused by
climate change. (Scientists from the University of Idaho and Columbia
University wrote in one study published last year that climate change had caused more than half of the dryness of Western forests since 1979.)
The
confluence of expanding development and warming temperatures has
intensified a discussion among policy makers about how the nation will
protect people from fires going forward — and how it will find the money
to do so. Already, 2017 has been the most expensive fire season on
record for the U.S. Forest Service, with fire-suppression costs exceeding $2 billion.
Mr.
Trump has proposed a 21 percent cut to the budget of the Department of
Agriculture, which includes the forest service, and a 12 percent cut to
the Department of the Interior, which runs some firefighting services.
The
first two confirmed victims of the fire in Napa County were Charles
Rippey, 100 and his wife, Sara, 98, officials said Tuesday. The police
found their remains on Monday at their home in a residential
neighborhood near the Silverado Country Club.
“Their residence was engulfed,” said John Robertson, the Napa County sheriff.
Officials
said Tuesday that 27,000 people are without power in Napa. The sheriff
said breakdowns in the cellphone network have made it difficult to
coordinate the search for more victims.
“My suspicion is that we’re going to find other people, he said. “This is the largest fire we’ve ever had.”
Barry Biermann, the Napa County fire chief, said four fires in the county were “still actively growing.”
“With
so many fires in the area, we are having to share resources,” he said.
There were not enough fire personnel to protect all dwellings or
businesses in the county, which was continuing to see structures lost to
the fire, he said.
Chief
Biermann said it was “unusual” for so many fires to start at once. The
origins of the fires continued to elude firefighters, who are focused on
putting them out.
The
Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, Calif., one of the
area’s major cultural institutions, announced that it had suffered heavy
damage and would be canceling all performances through Sunday. The
center said on Twitter that the main building did not appear to have been seriously damaged, but that its classrooms were destroyed.
Megan
Condron, 37, is a resident of Fountaingrove in northeast Santa Rosa,
which she described in an interview Tuesday as “a beautifully amazing
place to live, which is now completely gone.”
Ms.
Condron, who has worked in the wine industry for the past 15 years,
lived with her husband and two children on a hill near the top of the
neighborhood. They first spotted the glow of the fire from a bedroom
window on Sunday, close to midnight.
After
losing power twice and texting with a group of friends, they packed,
feeling “100 percent confident that we were going to return,” Ms.
Condron said. They left their house at 2:30 a.m.
“It
was still very windy and very warm, and there was already ash in the
air. It just felt surreal,” Ms. Condron said. Halloween decorations had
blown from the trees and mingled with dead leaves on the grass.
Hours later, Ms. Condron said, they learned their house had “burned to the ground.”
The
Condrons were able to save their wedding album, the children’s baby
books, some clothes and a case of their best wine. But they and many of
their neighbors lost invaluable belongings.
As
the Condrons were leaving, they received a call from a friend who lived
in their neighborhood and had traveled to Texas. His wife had died of
cancer earlier in 2017 and had written letters to their sons, who are 8
and 10, to open on each birthday for years to come. He asked the
Condrons to grab them.
They
turned around to drive back up the hill, but a police officer blocking
traffic refused to let them through. They were unable to get the letters.Many ESC fans from all over the world are so very sad because we lost Joy Fleming - one of the best singers ever.
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