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A4 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 10 OcTOber 2017
Explosive wildfires burn deep into California wine country

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Fires also burned in Yuba,
Associated Press Butte and Nevada coun-
SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — ties — all north of the state
More than a dozen wild- capital.
fires whipped by powerful The inferno blackened
winds swept through Cali- miles along one of the
fornia wine country Mon- main gateways into wine
day, destroying at least country, State Highway
1,500 homes and business- 12 into Sonoma County.
es and sending thousands Wooden fence posts and
fleeing as flames raged un- guard rails burned fiercely.
checked through high-end Thick smoke roiled from
resorts, grocery stores and one winery, JR Cohn.
tree-lined neighborhoods. The fires also damaged the
As he fled through the Silverado Resort in Napa
ember-stewn streets of his and a Hilton hotel in Santa
neighborhood in Santa Rosa, the largest city in the
Rosa, Jeff Okrepkie knew it fire area, with a population
was probably the last time of about 175,000.
he would see his home of Kim Hoe, a 33-year-old
the past five years stand- tech worker from Penang,
ing. Malaysia, was staying at
His worst fears were con- Burned out vehicles are parked in front of a fire-ravaged home Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, in Napa, the Hilton Sonoma Wine
firmed Monday morning, Calif. Wildfires whipped by powerful winds swept through Northern California sending residents on Country, which was gutted
when a friend sent him a a headlong flight to safety through smoke and flames as homes burned. by flames. He said the pow-
photo of what was left: a (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) er went out around 1 a.m.,
smoldering heap of burnt that those estimates were Napa, Sonoma and Yuba the fire. The fire area cov- and he and his colleagues
metal and debris. bound to climb. counties. It was unusual to ered more than 100 square started packing up when
“We live in the valley, The flames were burning have so many fires take off miles (160 square kilome- someone knocked on the
where it’s concrete and “at explosive rates” be- at the same time, fire of- ters) over eight counties. door and told them to run.
strip malls and hotels and cause of 50 mph winds, ficials said, though Octo- Some of the largest blazes “We just had to run and
supermarkets,” Okrepkie said Ken Pimlott, director of ber has generally been the were in Napa and Sonoma run. It was full of smoke. We
said. “The last thing you the California Department most destructive time of counties, home to dozens could barely breathe. It
think is a forest fire is going of Forestry and Fire Protec- year for California wildfires. of wineries that attract tour- was dangerous,” Hoe said.
to come and wipe us out.” tion.Fourteen large fires The ferocity of the flames ists from around the world. They returned in the morn-
At least one person died were burning north of San forced authorities to focus Those fires sent smoke as ing to find the hotel had
and two were seriously Francisco, prompting Gov. primarily on getting people far south as San Francisco, been destroyed along with
injured, state fire officials Jerry Brown to declare out safely, even if it meant about 60 miles (96 kilome- most of their possessions.
said, but they warned a state of emergency in abandoning structures to ters) away. Hoe was relieved he had
taken his passport and a
few essential items.
Santa Rosa lost a Kmart,
restaurants and an un-
known number of business-
es and homes. The blaze
shut down schools and
forced more than 200 pa-
tients at two city hospitals
to evacuate.
Firefighters rushed to a
state home for the severe-
ly disabled when flames
reached one side of the
center’s sprawling cam-
pus in the historic Sonoma
County town of Glen Ellen.
Emergency workers leapt
from their cars to aid in the
evacuation. Crews got the
more than 200 patients
from the threatened build-
ings, one firefighter said,
as flames closed within a
few dozen feet.Residents
throughout the area de-
scribed a headlong flight
to safety through smoke
and flames.Mike Turpen,
38, was at a bar in Glen El-
len early Monday when a
stranger wearing a smoke
mask ran in and yelled that
there was a fire. q