Fast-moving fires spread by shifting winds in California Saturday as the death toll rose to 38 – the deadliest in state history, with hundreds of people still missing.
Thousands more Californians were forced to evacuate their homes on Saturday, as officials said of the 38 confirmed fatalities 20 of those dead are in Sonoma County.
Some 100,000 people have been forced from their homes, including 3,000 evacuated on Saturday from the city of Santa Rosa, about 50 miles north of San Francisco, and another 250 from nearby Sonoma city.
An aerial view shows the devastation of the Coffey Park neighborhood after a wildfire swept through Saturday in Santa Rosa, Ca. Most of the homes in the shot are completely gone
Another aerial view shows the devastation of the Coffey Park neighborhood. Homes have been reduced to ashes, while all that remains are the remnants of cars
An exposed gas line shoots out flames on a wildfire-ravaged property Saturday in Sonoma
About 10,000 firefighters supported by air tankers and helicopters overhead were battling 16 major wildfires, some encompassing several smaller merged blazes, in areas north of San Francisco that have consumed nearly 214,000 acres over seven- an area larger than New York City.
‘This is truly one of the greatest tragedies that California has ever faced. The devastation is just unbelievable. It is a horror that no one could have imagined,’ California Governor Jerry Brown told a news conference in Santa Rosa.
The fires have damaged or destroyed about 5,700 structures, reducing homes and businesses to ash. The fires’ death toll surpassed the 29 deaths from the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile a man walking to escape the fires stopped in his tracks when he saw a tree burning from the inside out.
‘I’ve definitely not seen anything like this before,’ Matthew McDermott, who’s lived in Sonoma for 10 years, told CNN. ‘We wanted to know the escape routes in case we needed them. The route to Poloma was open. I just stopped on the side of the road and the whole ridge is on fire.’
Matthew McDermott was escaping the wildfires but was stopped in his tracks at the sight of a tree on fire from the inside out
McDermott saw this burning tree scene while escaping the fires, pictured with his face covered so as not to inhale smoke (right)
A home burns after being destroyed by a wildfire in Sonoma, California on Saturday
A large commercial building ravaged by a wildfire is seen along highway 101 Saturday in Santa Rosa
Firefighters walk along a containment line as a wildfire burns Saturday in Sonoma
Homes gone as far as the eye can see in this aerial view of the Coffey Park neighborhood after a wildfire swept through
‘It’s an unwieldy beast right now,’ fire information officer Dennis Rein said at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, the main staging area for the so-called Nuns Fire in Sonoma County, a world-renowned wine-producing region.
At least a dozen Napa Valley and Sonoma County wineries were damaged or destroyed, throwing the state’s wine industry and related tourism into disarray.
For the picturesque Napa Valley town of Calistoga, the winds were a double-edged sword. The town was spared by hazardous winds when they shifted, Mayor Chris Canning said, though he warned a resurgence could pose a new threat.
The town of roughly 5,000 people had been evacuated, he said.
A helicopter drops water over a wildfire burning behind a winery Saturday in Santa Rosa
Firefighters work to defend homes from an approaching wildfire in Sonoma Saturday
Firefighters work to defend homes from an approaching wildfire in Sonoma on Saturday
Firefighters from states including Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada have joined crews from California to battle the blazes.
From the air, some 70 helicopters and large aircraft including a 747, two DC-10s and about a dozen air tankers doused flames across the sprawling affected area with fire retardant, officials said.
On the ground, prison inmates were helping firefighters – sometimes digging lines to help contain fires, other times preparing meals at command centers, always watched over by guard.
In an area largely dependent on immigrant farm labor, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they would temporarily suspend routine operations during the emergency, ‘except in the event of a serious criminal presenting a public safety threat,’ spokesman James Schwab said in a statement.
Ground crews gained on the wildfires on Friday, but drier weather and fast-shifting winds complicated efforts on Saturday, sparking a large new wildfire in Lake County, officials said.
The Nuns Fire, which had killed at least one person, was only 10 percent contained with winds threatening more residential areas, Cal Fire spokesman Antonio Negrete said.
But the more deadly Tubbs Fire, which killed at least 17 people in Sonoma County, was 44 percent contained, which officials considered a victory.
‘It’s cautious optimism, but it’s optimism,’ Negrete said of the Tubbs Fire.
With wildfires still raging across Northern California’s famed wine regions the impact of which is still unmeasured, local people give their views on the ongoing disaster.Pictured: Ray Signorello, vineyard owner
With wildfires still raging across Northern California’s famed wine regions the impact of which is still unmeasured, local people give their views on the ongoing disaster
With wildfires still raging across Northern California’s famed wine regions the impact of which is still unmeasured, local people give their views on the ongoing disaster
With wildfires still raging across Northern California’s famed wine regions the impact of which is still unmeasured, local people give their views on the ongoing disaster.Pictured: Pierre Birebent, winemaker
With wildfires still raging across Northern California’s famed wine regions the impact of which is still unmeasured, local people give their views on the ongoing disaster.Pictured: is some of the damage in just a small area around the prime grape growing area of Napa Valley with many vineyards experiencing close calls
Cal Fire had estimated the fires would be contained by Oct. 20, but Rein said they may need to revise that date because of the winds that kicked up.
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, at the news conference with the governor in Santa Rosa pledged more federal aid to the region to help it through the devastation.
Whole neighborhoods of Santa Rosa have been reduced to landscapes of ash, smoldering debris and burned-out vehicles.
Some victims were asleep when flames engulfed their homes, and many survivors had only minutes to flee.
As parts of Santa Rosa were devastated, Calistoga, about 12 miles (20 km) to the northeast, faced hazardous winds that were forecast to push the Tubbs Fire toward town.
Mayor Canning said the shifting winds kept the flames at least two miles (3.2 km) from the city limit.
‘If the winds shift and come back again, that’s a big concern,’ he said in a telephone interview.
All but 12 of the city’s 5,200 people heeded evacuation orders and left, Canning said.
‘Nobody was confrontational,’ Canning said. ‘When the police or firefighters knocked on doors, most people were already ready to go with their bags packed.’
With 235 people still missing on Saturday in Sonoma County alone, and rubble from thousands of incinerated dwellings yet to be searched, authorities have said the number of fatalities from the North Bay fires would likely climb.
The year’s wildfire season is one of the worst in history in the United States, with nearly 8.6 million acres burned, just behind 2012, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.