Twenty victims of deadly California wildfires are named

Twenty of the 36 victims of the deadly California wildfires have been identified as hundreds of firefighters struggle to maintain the blaze.

Among them are a couple who recently celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary, a 14-year-old boy who was trying to outrun the fire, and a woman who died in a pool in her husband’s arms.

Santa Rosa has been hit the hardest with 19 dead in total and a total of 256 reported missing.

Almost 200.000 acres have been destroyed and 3,500 structures have been damaged, forcing as many as 25,000 people to flee their homes.

More than 8,000 firefighters were battling the blazes, and more manpower and equipment was pouring in from around the country and from as far away as Australia, officials said. 

Carmen and Armando Berriz took refuge in a swimming pool after a wildfire suddenly engulfed their hilltop rental house. 

The longtime married couple were there for hours overnight as they breathed in the smoky air.

Armando was able to climb out of the pool after the fires past but Carmen, 75, did not make it and died in her husband’s arms in the swimming pool.

The Berrizes, their daughter Monica Ocon, and Ocon’s husband Luis were vacationng in Santa Rosa to celebrate the Berrizes’ birthdays.

Luis told CNN that an ember hit a patch of grass in the front yards and the flames engulfed the house in less than a minute.

The four fled in separate cars but Carmen and Armando became trapped by a fallen tree on the drive down and made their way back up towards the house

Eventually the heat and smoke became too much for Carmen and she died around 7am, with Armando holding her for several hours until the fires died down.

Armando was released from the hospital and is recovering at his home in Salinas, California. But ‘he hasn’t begun the emotional recovery,’ Monica said. 

She added: ‘Everything they did was as a team. They had this bond and this strength that literally lasted a lifetime.’ 

At 14, Kai Logan Shepherd (far left) was among the youngest victims of the wildfires. Officials said he died trying to escape the fire 

At 14, Kai Logan Shepherd was among the youngest victims of the wildfires.

After flames swept over a mountain, the Shepherds had tried to drive down to escape. Their neighbor Paul Hanssen found their two charred vehicles blocking the road, doors still ajar from when they had apparently abandoned them and fled on foot.

Hanssen found the mother, Sara Shepherd, and her 17-year-old daughter, Kressa, lying on the ground, more than half their bodies burned. Kai was further down the mountain and did not survive.

First responders found Kai’s father, Jon Shepherd, separately, on the mountain. He was also badly burned but alive. Kai Shepherd’s parents and sister are being treated at burn centers.

His sister, Kressa, a Ukiah High School junior, had to have both legs amputated beneath her knees.

Family friend Irma Muniz remembers Kai was timid and giggly after she met him last year while shooting a Christmas card photo of the family posing in the woods of Redwood Valley, a community of about 1,800 roughly.

Navy war veteran Arthur Tasman Grant, 95 (left), and his wife Suiko Grant, 75 (right, far left), died on Monday when the Tubbs Fire tore through Santa Rosa

Navy war veteran Arthur Tasman Grant, 95, and his wife Suiko Grant, 75, died on Monday when the Tubbs Fire tore through Santa Rosa. 

Their daughter Trina Grant posted on Facebook that they had been unable to escape the fire in the Mark West Springs Road area. [rewrite]

Trina said her father had served as a lieutenant in the Navy and trained as a fighter pilot both Hellcats and Corsairs in World War II, but the war ended before he saw combat. He met his future wife in Honolulu. 

‘It was a true-love-at-first-sight story,’ she said.

Arthur finished his career with Pan Am as a captain and retired after 25 years of service.

Veronica McCombs

Veronica McCombs and her husband Don were preparing to celebrate their wedding anniversary when the Santa Rosa fire killed Veronica.

Too emotional to speak about the loss of his wife, Don could only say that Veronica was ‘a great mother’ to their two kids.

The family says its planning to issue a statement about Veronica early next week.

Charles (left) and Sara (right) Rippey died when the Tubbs fire swept through their home.. Charles, 100, and Sara, 98, had just celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary 

Charles Rippey, 100, and his wife, Sara, 98, are the oldest victims of the wine country wildfires identified so far.

Their bodies were found by one of their sons who had made his way past security and found the home in Napa where they had lived for 35 years completely gone. Only two blackened metal chairs, a porcelain tea set of white and soft washes of blue and other small remnants remained to testify to the couple’s long life together.

Charles Rippey – who was known by his nickname ‘Peach’ since he was a toddler – appeared to be heading to the room of his wife, who had had a stroke in recent years.

Mike Rippey said his father would have never left his mother. The couple met in grade school and recently celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary with their five children.

‘Those of us in the family always would, you know, wonder what would happen if one of them died and the other one was still left because we knew that, you know, there’s no way they would ever be happy whoever was the last one and so they went together,’ Rippey, 71, said as he stood among the charred ruins of their home.

The couple attended the University of Wisconsin and married in 1942 before Charles Rippey served as a U.S. Army engineer in World War II. He then became an executive with the Firestone tire company.

LeRoy (right) and Donna (left) Halbur were married more than 50 years when they died in their Santa Rosa home

LeRoy and Donna Halbur were married more than 50 years when they died in their Santa Rosa home. They were both 80.

Fox 40 anchor Paul Robins posted on his Facebook page that he spoke to LeRoy Halbur hours before the fire swept the neighborhood.

‘He had stopped by the house as our family was gathered celebrating my mom’s birthday, bringing some of the last tomatoes from his garden,’ he wrote in his post.

Robins said LeRoy was an adventurous traveler who had recently given up globe-trotting to look after his ailing wife.

Halbur helped found the Sonoma County branch of the Catholic charity St Vincent de Paul and was a member of its board.

Jack Tibbetts, executive director of St Vincent de Paul district council of Sonoma County, told the San Francisco Chronicle Halbur had a great sense of humor and a smile that reflected his compassion.

Linda Tunis moved from Florida to the Journey’s End Mobile Home Park in Santa Rosa to be closer to her family. She ended up being trapped by the fires

Linda Tunis moved from Florida to the Journey’s End Mobile Home Park in Santa Rosa to be closer to her family. When the northern California wildfires quickly overtook the park, the 69-year-old woman phoned her daughter.

She was trapped, she told her daughter, Jessica Tunis. She was surrounded by fire, and going to die.

Jessica screamed at her mom to run to safety, to flee the burning home.

‘I was telling her I love her when the phone died,’ Jessica told the San Francisco Chronicle.

After three days of hope and dread, Jessica’s brother, Robert Tunis, found his mother’s remains in the debris where her house once stood.

Linda was spunky and sweet, Jessica said Wednesday. She was also fiercely independent, an attitude that wasn’t dampened by her health problems. She had failing memory because of a stroke, and had lost the sight in one of her eyes because of high blood pressure.

She loved bingo and the beach, choosing to move California mostly because it brought her nearer to her close-knit family, Jessica said.

‘My mother’s remains have been found at her home at Journey’s End. May she rest in peace, my sweet Momma,’ Jessica posted on Facebook earlier this week.

Christina Hanson, 27, used a wheelchair and spent her life dedicated to helping others despite her own hardships, her family said. She died 

Christina Hanson, 27, used a wheelchair and spent her life dedicated to helping others despite her own hardships, her family said.

Kelsi Mannhalter had posted on social media asking people to search for her cousin after the fire Monday ravaged Santa Rosa where Hanson lived.

Mannhalter later confirmed on Facebook that Hanson did not survive when the flames consumed her home.

‘Just surreal,’ Manhalter posted. ‘I love you so much and am going to miss you sweet cousin. I can’t say it enough.’

Her father was found collapsed on the street in front of his home with third-degree burns and was taken to a hospital in San Francisco. Hanson had tried unsuccessfully to reach him as flames surrounded her apartment around 1.30am on Monday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Hanson was born with a spinal defect and lost her mother at age nine to lupus.

Still, her focus was always on others, her stepmother, Jennifer Watson, told the newspaper, describing her as ‘a very happy, social and positive person’.

Hanson volunteered two days a week at an Alzheimer’s residential care facility in Santa Rosa, where she would entertain residents.

She also taught herself sign language and interpreted for the hearing impaired.

‘She loved helping people and loved her family,’ said Watson, who was with her stepdaughter the day before she died.

Her family wrote in an online obituary that Hanson ‘was granted her angel wings.’ 

Lynne Powell died as she escaped the fires with her border collie, Jemma, and her car went into a ravine 

George Powell woke to a wall of fire already bearing down on his Santa Rosa home and immediately yelled to his 72-year-old wife, Lynne Anderson Powell: ‘Get out!’

Lynne grabbed her border collie, Jemma, which always slept next to her, a laptop and asked for the best way to get off their mountain before jumping in her car.

George left 15 minutes later after fetching his three dogs. He now realizes when he raced down the mountain he drove past his wife’s car that had gone off the road and into a ravine in the heavy smoke.

After searching for her all night and the next day, a detective called to tell him a body burned beyond recognition was found steps from her car. Inside was a dog also burned to death.

‘If I had known, I would have gone down there with her, even if it meant I would have died with her,’ George, 74, said. ‘I don’t know how I’m going to cope. She was my life.’

The couple had been married for 33 years. He was a photojournalist and she was a professional flutist, spending much of her career playing for the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, which operated until 2011.

The two met while she was on vacation in Los Angeles, where George freelanced for newspapers. He said it was ‘love at first sight’ and he moved to New Mexico to be with her. After they retired, they settled in northern California so his wife could take care of her aging parents.

The two shared a love of border collies and entered in agility runs with their dogs. She was an avid quilter. The fire took everything, including her quilts and his life’s photo archive.

Lynne did not want a memorial service or obituary. But George says he may hold a special lunch with friends to celebrate her life.

‘I don’t think I ever felt unloved or uncared for any second of my life with her,’ he said.

Carol Collins-Swasey (right) died on Sunday at her home in Santa Rosa. She loved to travel, her home was filled with Native American artifacts and four cats

Carol Collins-Swasey loved to travel and had recently taken a trip to Costa Rica, a close friend told The Mercury News.

‘She’s been to Peru, she’s been to China. She’s practically been all over the world,’ said Staci Reupke.

The two friends met at a Santa Rosa thrift store where Collins-Swasey volunteered on Sundays and Reupke would come in to browse.

‘I would see her every Sunday,’ Reupke said. ‘I didn’t get to see her last Sunday, and I thought I’d just see her next Sunday. But there’s not going to be any more Sundays.’

Collins-Swasey’s home was filled with Native American artifacts and cats.

‘She had four feral cats,’ Reupke said. ‘Those were her fur-babies.’ 

Reupke says she plans to frame the photo she had taken recently of the two friends at the thrift shop, and bring it to the shop so it can be displayed.

‘She was taken from us far too soon,’ Reupke said. ‘I’m going to miss her so much.’

Valerie Evans

Valerie Lynn Evans was known for her deep love of animals. She has dogs, horses, goats, a mule and a steer at her Santa Rosa home. 

‘We knew her as the horse lady,’ said Tracy Long, a neighbor of 25 years, told SF Gate. She added that Evans was often seen leading her mule down the street.

Evans died on Sunday night or early Monday morning at her home while trying to save her dogs from the approaching Tubbs Fire.

She lived with her husband, son, and daughter-in-law in a house with a barn and an in-law unit. Neighbors believed the other three family members escaped, but had not been able to reach them since the fire hit.

Roy Howard Bowman, 87 (right), and Irma Elsie Bowman, 88 (left), were found in the remains of their home in Redwood family. Friends described them as 

Married couple Roy Howard Bowman, 87, and Irma Elsie Bowman, 88, were found in the remains of their home in Redwood Valley in the 4000 block of Fisher Lake Drive.

Officials said the residence was completely destroyed by the fire.

‘Anybody who needed a second chance, the Bowmans were their advocate,’ Felice Lechuga-Armadillo, told SF Gate.

She first met the couple when she was a child at the Assembly of God church in Ukiah. ‘Anyone who needed help, they stepped forward – but quietly.’ 

Roy served in the US Navy and was a soil analyst for the federal government before retiring. Irma Bowman loved to bake and took an interest in everyone around her. 

Michael Dornbach 

Michael Dornbach, 57, who lives in Southern California, was vsiting relatives and friends in Napa Valley when the fired began.

‘He was saying how beautiful it was and how he wanted to move here,’ his sister, Laura Dornbach, told The New York Times.

When the fire came Sunday night, ‘he didn’t want to leave without his brand-new pickup truck, and he couldn’t find the keys,’ Laura said.

‘They were searching frantically, and everyone was begging him to get out. My son said: ‘Uncle Michael, this is serious, we have got to get out, please!’ But my brother was a stubborn man. I’m just so confused that he wouldn’t leave. And I don’t understand why everyone else didn’t just drag him out.’

The others drove away, but minutes later, she said, her son, Robert Lee, 18, ‘drove up the mountain again to get him, but he got stopped by authorities.’ The family learned about Michael’s death the next day. 

Karen Aycock, 56, died at her home in Santa Rosa. She was described as ‘ a homebody who loved her cats’

Karen Aycock lived in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighborhood, which was devastated by the Tubbs Fire. 

Her home was destroyed and her niece Jeanette Scroggins joined police in searching the debris for any sign of her aunt.Her charred car was still in the driveway.

The 56-year-old lived alone with at least seven cats, Scorggins told The Mercury News. What made it especially hard for her relatives is that for decades, she had suffered from mania and schizophrenia. As a result, Scroggins said, Aycock ‘kept the family at bay.’

Her aunt, she said, ‘was a homebody who loved her cats. She would get pretty freaked out about leaving the house, so she stayed inside.’ 

On Thursday another niece – Victoria Rilling – posted on Facebook that searchers had located her aunt’s remains within the burned out home.

‘It’s with a heavy heart that I say this, the sheriffs department called me to inform me that Karen was found in her home,’ she wrote. ‘We thank you for all your support in locating her.’

Sharon Robinson, 79, lived alone in Santa Rosa, in an area decimated by fire

Sharon Robinson, 79, lived alone in Santa Rosa, in an area decimated by fire. 

Her daughter, Cathie Merkel, said she last saw her mother on Sunday when she and her own daughter, who suffers from terminal brain cancer, went over for a visit. 

‘It was a very happy visit, very friendly,’ she told The Mercury News.

In a moment that Merkel says now seems ironic, the pair talked about life and age and mortality, and Robinson showed her where her will and other important papers were stored. 

‘It just seemed kind of odd,’ Merkel said.

In a Facebook post Thursday afternoon, she wrote: ”To my dear friends, thank you all for your efforts in trying to find my mom. We received the news today that she did not make it out of her home the night of the fire…We know she found peace in her passing.’

Rachael Ingram said the last time she heard from her friend Mike Grabow was late Sunday night. He told her the air was smoky as he drove to his Santa Rosa home.

‘He knew it was bad,’ the 28-year-old Ingram told CNN. 

Ingram, also a Santa Rosa resident, said she reported Grabow missing right away. She said she checked hospitals and shelters. 

‘We have a pretty solid core group of friends that have been looking for him,’ she said. ‘If he didn’t show up at any of our houses,that’s an immediate red flag for us. I called his brother first and alerted him and asked him to help,’ she said.

The brother went to Grabow’s home on Monday and discovered the blaze had destroyed the home. The fire had melted the glass on Grabow’s truck, Ingram said.

‘He has tons of family in Idaho that are really worried about him, as well as family in Washington They’re absolutely terrified and we’re trying to help them,’ Ingram said.