Fires in Napa and Sonoma California

AxelAnnie

Like a small boat on the ocean...
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Fires
Woke up this morning to almost total darkness and air you cannot breathe.
Schools in Napa are closed. One hospital has been evacuated. There evacuations all over the two counties. Gas stations have lines out into the street. The community center near me is an evacuation center, with cars everywhere.
Phones and electric out in various places. I don't know about the vines, but if the fires swoop in, it won't be good. Structures have burned.

There is only one freeway out of here on the Sonoma side, and it is bumper to bumper. My little physical therapy place is closed because of the air quality.

My horses are safe....thank goodness. One fire is near my brother, but they are ok. Things are so very dry, and the winds are not helping.

Send a prayer out this way.


 

Catherine M

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I just read an online article about people making a mad dash in the middle of the night to save themselves. Scary stuff.

Sending prayers that the winds die down soon. And please keep us posted how you are doing.
 

AxelAnnie

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My friend's house just burned down. They are saying hundreds of homes have been burned. This fire is traveling all over, and is going to be very difficult to contain.
 

bardtoob

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Been worried for friends and former co-workers in the area since just before 2am. I could smell the smoke from the Fremont Area, which is about an hour away without traffic.

Apparently, in Santa Rosa the situation got so bad that at Kaiser Santa Rosa Hospital 100 patients were evacuated, the worst patients in ambulances, but some patients were actually driven to other hospitals in the private cars of the hospital staff, which is really unusual.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/20...-frantic-evacuations-at-santa-rosa-hospitals/
 
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AxelAnnie

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Over 1500 homes and businesses burned to the ground. One fatality so far. Entire neighborhoods decimated. They were finally able to get planes in the air. CalFire has to prioritize what they are working on. The wind has been wicked. The satellite picture of the area of the smoke covered land is simply unbelievable.

Gas stations are running out of gas as people evacuate. And then there are the stupid people who drive over to fire areas to take a look. What are they thinking.
 

UMBS Go Blue

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Folks all over the Bay Area woke up this morning to smoke and ash coming from sudden, huge wildfires in Napa and Sonoma counties 50 miles to the north of Oakland and San Francisco. Hope all our FSUers up there are safe.

It's not just romantic wine country as most people know it, as you have gorgeous swaths of pristine vineyards and mountains intermingling with heavily populated areas like Napa (pop. 80,000) and Santa Rosa (pop. 175,000). A bunch of links:

KTVU live coverage
http://www.ktvu.com/live

SFGate / other news links
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/2-big-wildfires-prompt-evacuations-in-Napa-County-12262945.php
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Latest-on-North-Bay-fires-A-really-rough-12263721.php
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Thousands-evacuated-as-flames-bore-down-on-their-12263421.php
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/North-Bay-fires-List-evacuations-12263283.php
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-napa-fires-20171009-story.html

Close your windows and turn on your interior ventilation if you have a self-contained system
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/smoke-children-kids-health-air-quality-tips-12263921.php

How to help
http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/how-to-help-north-bay-fires-napa-santa-rosa-12264095.php

Power outages, gas cuts, cell phone outages everywhere
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Blackouts-throughout-wine-country-as-fires-spread-12264049.php

Animal rescues
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Napa-Animal-Shelter-tubbs-fire-where-rescue-12264247.php

Social media images from throughout the area
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/San-Francisco-smoke-wildfires-Sonoma-Mendocino-12263601.php
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Ash-Bay-Area-wildfires-raining-sky-Sonoma-12263856.php

I did a staycation at the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country in Santa Rosa recently, and it burned down, along with huge subdivisions all around it
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/vi...ton-hotel-engulfed-in-flames-from-tubbs-fire/

Premium wineries along the Silverado Trail and in Carneros and Kenwood have burned
http://www.sfgate.com/restaurants/article/Wineries-reel-in-the-wake-of-North-Bay-fires-12263825.php
 

icie

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I'm watching the Weather Channel & it looks horrible. My thoughts & prayers are with those in harm's way. It's a rainy day where I live. I wish I could send it your way.
 
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Tinami Amori

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The smell of smoke was travelling from Napa all the way down to Dublin, Walnut Creek area at late as 2 am.. we had phone calls from a couple of elderly relatives few times last night, they thought it's someone's house or fireplace on fire and did not know if they should call the police.

People can escape, it's pretty much recreation or working area. But animals....:wuzrobbed
 

AxelAnnie

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The barn where I ride has taken in over 50 horses.

It sounds horrible because it is horrible.

We have a lot of fires here in California. The worst are generally in October. I do not remember ever having this many structures destroyed.
 
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Vagabond

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HeatherC

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Please stay safe out there and keep us posted on how you're doing with things. I have some friends who aren't that close to the fires but have smelled smoke and seen it in the air by them. Scary stuff. :eek: :yikes:
 

BittyBug

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This situation is truly horrifying. And it's just one of the terrible wildfires that have happened this year (L.A., Portugal). May life that has been extinguished go quickly with minimal suffering.
 

Japanfan

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Horrible, scary and tragic!

I love the Napa Valley and have been looking forward to visiting again in a year or two - especially to riding the wine train. :(

We've had terrible wildfires in BC this summer as well, some which resulted in evacuations. But nothing on this scale.

Hoping that all who lost their homes had fire insurance - quite likely, given that its a fairly affluent area, at least SFAIK.
 

misskarne

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Have a grab bag ready to go. If the wind turns you won't have any time to think twice.

The famous racing circuit at Sonoma is also burning.

May the rain come soon and swiftly and the wind die away, that the brave folks fighting these fires have the chance to get on top of it.

(People who drive closer to the fires to get a closer look should get a closer look, all right. Make them fight it. I bet it won't seem so "cool" after that.)
 

AxelAnnie

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None of the fires are contained. 100,000 with no electricity.
Roads are still closed, and the shelters are full. Evidently people had only minutes to evacuate in one area of Santa Rosa.

The schools in Napa and Sonoma are all closed. The air quality is so horrible. The winds have died down, and that is a double edged sword. The fires are not spreading so wildly, but the smoke is not dissipating.

Lots of businesses are closed in Petaluma (which is just south of Santa Rosa, and West of Napa) because staff can't get here.

Right now, they are still areas the authorities cannot get into. Certainly the homeowners can't get back in. There are still gas fires burning, and embers flying, and structures are unstable.

Looting is worry. Evidently people go in looking for things that did not burn.....jewelry, coins, etc., so a curfew has been imposed.

There was one guy on the news who was driving around looking for lost pets he could help. He stopped at a house, got out a garden hose, and kept the house that had been evacuated from burning to the ground!
 

BittyBug

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The scale of this disaster is astonishing, made all the more horrific by the lack of notice to try to evacuate. I hope they can get it under control.
 

Lanie

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Take care of yourself, Annie.

I was almost going to go up there this past weekend. Planned on staying at that Hilton in Santa Rosa that burned down (my mom lives up north but not in SR, she'd come hang out with me). I'm glad I didn't go. :/ There is a fire near her right now too, in Clearlake.

It's so awful. Fire season is devastating. It has been very hot and very windy down here in SoCal so it's made me nervous.
 

AxelAnnie

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Yes it has been awful. Glad you are ok where you are. OUCH! Re the Hilton. Looking at it is simply amazing and horrifying. An entire hotel just gone.
My co-workers mother is working working at a local High School (Casa Grande). They opened yesterday as a shelter. She says it is so horrible, and so sad. People have lost everything. And many of the elderly are just wondering....they don't really know what is going on.
 

MacMadame

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This is the worst I've seen since moving up here in 94. A lot of my friends were planning to or did spend the weekend in the Napa/Santa Rosa area and are all somewhat freaked out about it.
 

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