My wife had to evacuate from her family home where she was doing some cleanup work. Fires have destroyed many homes in the city of Santa Rosa. Started in Calistoga, Napa County, but high winds took fire to north edge of Santa Rosa.
Wife is fine, now at my sister's place.
Hundreds of homes destroyed.
Compared with 20-30 years ago there are now many more people, more expensive houses.
But this is not a typical fire in the hills, this hit directly in the city.
Kaiser and Sutter hospitals had to be evacuated. Local arts center burned down along with the communities around it--where we had dinner a few nights ago.

Wow. Wishing the best for all under the circumstances.

Wow would not wish that on anyone. Many years ago had a Aunt and Uncle that lived in Santa Rosa. Lots of people and homes around even back than.

My aunt and her boyfriend just evacuated from Santa Rosa. Sucks, nice old orchards on their property

Last really big fire in the Calistoga area was early 60s - burned my grandparent's land, but not the house (they were out in Franz Valley area)

Sorry to hear of the fires. Hope they get them controlled soonest!

Visited Luther Burbank's house there a while back. Santa Rosa was lovely.

I'm keeping track of this, I have some family members who have parents in Sonoma and Santa Rosa.
Napa is on fire too.
I'm hearing that the fires are basically 0% contained, firefighters are just trying to get folks the hell out. Winds are not helping, same with pumps shutting down, etc. 1500 homes lost so far.
And it is not over.

quote:

Last really big fire in the Calistoga area was early 60s - burned my grandparent's land, but not the house (they were out in Franz Valley area)

I remember that one well--friend and I went from Sonoma State to help fight fire, spent much of the night out in Franz Valley area.

Evacuating patients from Kaiser hospital in Santa Rosa:



Thoughts and prayers for the people caught up in this.

I spent many weekends and holidays in that hospital, and my Mom finally died there in 2008. So yeah, this area is very close to my heart. Both my wife and I grew up near Santa Rosa.

I'm in Napa it's been a crazy the last 12-hours. Winds picked up around 19-2000; I went to bed a bit later, woke up to the smell of campfire, went to close windows. Pulled up the blinds and low and behold the whole Western Ridge line was glowing orange with a ribbon of flames at the bottom. Power went out around 3am, cell service disappeared around 0600

Initial reports was focused on the Atlas Peak fire on the Eastern edge of Napa Valley and Lake Berryessa...I heard Silverado CC no longer exits. There was supposed to be a PGA event this weekend...guess not now.

The fire up in Calistoga, went westward and got into Santa Rosa, I also understand the Fountain Grove neighborhood (upper middle-class development) was wiped out. Walmart, Trader Joe, Home Depot... either gone or, burnt badly. Two hospitals evacuated. The fire jumped Hwy-101

My porch faces westward and this fire was burning Eastward towards the town of Napa and Westward towards the town of Sonoma. Watched a massive home up on a ridge go up in flames...it was like a lighthouse, burning for about 5-hours. Carneros and all the wineries along Hwy-12 are threatened if not gone.

Another fire is burning north of Sonoma, it's threatening if not already destroyed the towns of Glen Ellen and Kenwood area. Heard there was a herculean effort by all emergency personnel in moving the high number of senior retirees that live there, out of the area.

Also heard areas around Healdsburg and Alexander Valley are dealing with fires that could easily wipe-out homes/business.

Hope power is back on, otherwise, time to breakout the camp stove.

A bad deal. Prayers for those affected.

This really sucks, I have several good friends in Napa who are affected by this, I used to live at Elm St. and Roosevelt, very close to the hills on the west side of Napa. One good friend lives off West Pueblo and Oakwood ct. She is very worried that she may lose her home. Her husband passed away earlier this year and I don't know if she will be able to get thru this.

My mother lives about a mile from where the fire attacked the northern part of Santa Rosa. Some friends are at her house because the fire threatened their own home--and it's probably lost at this point. I've been choking on smoke all day and I'm 11 miles west of where all this is happening.

When I first heard it was a wildfire, I assumed it would be up in the hills or closer to the Calistoga area but it's actually within the city of Santa Rosa, itself. In fact, it jumped Hwy 101 to burn down part of a shopping center on the west side of the highway.

Are the fires part of the natural cycle of the forest, or something else?

Regardless, prayers for everyone to be safe. The fire crews do an amazing job.

There's a lot of dry brush to burn, but I don't know if it's arson. There haven't been any thunderstorms that I know of that might have touched off fires by lightning.

I ask because eventually, dry, dead brush has to burn. It seems inevitable. I was thinking once it does, you're in good shape for few years.

Just heard my friend's parents just evacuated their Santa Rosa home.

Orguss, I'm sorry to hear about your Mom's house. And Corsair--hope everything is OK for you.

We don't know at this point if the fire got my wife's family home or not; that area was "impacted" is all I can find on the news.

We'll find out in a day or so, as long as it doesn't get worse again.

Update 5:00 pm PDT: 9 deaths reported, 50,000 acres burned.

Damn! Prayers to all those impacted.

Used to live in Vacaville and before that near Novato while working at Vallejo's Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Had many friends and coworkers in the areas burning now. Very sad.

We have friends in the area, the wife called them, doing OK for now, some have had to evacuate.

I remember the Oakland Hills fire of some years ago, hope we don't see that again.

Seems like a lot of urban / suburban areas affected? What's fueling the fire? Houses and buildings?

Large impact to people in very short amount of time. Must be scary, especially to the people in hospital beds.

https://google.org/crisismap/u...35992%2C-122.8608768