Sep 30, 2020 02:47 AM
https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-san...3d929efd06
EXCERPTS: Will Abrams and his family packed their pickup truck [...] and quickly left their rental home in California’s wine country after seeing flames on a hill about a quarter-mile away Monday morning. It was their third hurried fire evacuation in as many years. In 2017, Abrams woke up to find their Santa Rosa home on fire ... last year, the family evacuated as another wildfire bore down on Sonoma County. ... “It was just obviously traumatic on a personal level, but also just that so little has changed since the fires of 2017 in terms of preparedness and prevention.”
They have been told this home is still standing. But with the Glass Fire still completely uncontained, the family is staying in Berkeley until they are allowed to return. “I’m trying to prepare my kids and let them know that climate change is part of life and they’re going to have to deal with it as they get older and also trying to provide them a sense of safety and security. It’s not easy. But we should not accept this is the way is going to be,” he said.
The Abrams family is among thousands of weary wine country residents confronting another devastating wildfire. The Glass Fire, which started Sunday, has scorched more than 66 square miles (170 square kilometers) and destroyed about 95 structures. [...] It’s the fourth major fire there in three years and comes ahead of the third anniversary of a 2017 wildfire that killed 22.
[...] Scientists say climate change has made California much drier, meaning trees and other plants are more flammable. The Glass Fire spread rapidly and is now burning through land that was saved from the other recent wine country fires, some of which had not burned for a century, Cal Fire Assistant Chief Billy See said. Crews are now using old containment lines to fight the current fire, relieved slightly by easing winds. It’s one of nearly 30 wildfires burning around California.
Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick acknowledged “some significant fire fatigue” in the community during a news conference Tuesday. “Many people are feeling the effects, many people are evacuating, and evacuated multiple times, and I just want everyone to know that we continue to support you,” Essick said... (MORE - details)
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California wine country faces long battle as fire explodes: ... Celebrated Napa wineries such as Chateau Boswell and part of Castello di Amorosa have been lost to the flames, which reached the fringes of Santa Rosa—the largest town in neighboring Sonoma County.
Tens of thousands of residents have been evacuated from towns including the entirety of wine tourism destination Calistoga. "It looks like a bomb went off," 61-year-old resident Joe Ortega told the San Francisco Chronicle. "The trees go up like matches."
Cal Fire official Jonathan Cox said 80 houses have been destroyed between the two counties. Santa Rosa fire chief Tony Gossner said it would take weeks to bring the flames under control, warning "it's going to be kind of long, and it's going to be painful."
The region is still reeling from devastating wildfires in 2017 when 44 people died and thousands of buildings were razed. Further north the deadly Zogg Fire that killed at least three people has now ripped through 40,000 acres, again without containment... (MORE)
EXCERPTS: Will Abrams and his family packed their pickup truck [...] and quickly left their rental home in California’s wine country after seeing flames on a hill about a quarter-mile away Monday morning. It was their third hurried fire evacuation in as many years. In 2017, Abrams woke up to find their Santa Rosa home on fire ... last year, the family evacuated as another wildfire bore down on Sonoma County. ... “It was just obviously traumatic on a personal level, but also just that so little has changed since the fires of 2017 in terms of preparedness and prevention.”
They have been told this home is still standing. But with the Glass Fire still completely uncontained, the family is staying in Berkeley until they are allowed to return. “I’m trying to prepare my kids and let them know that climate change is part of life and they’re going to have to deal with it as they get older and also trying to provide them a sense of safety and security. It’s not easy. But we should not accept this is the way is going to be,” he said.
The Abrams family is among thousands of weary wine country residents confronting another devastating wildfire. The Glass Fire, which started Sunday, has scorched more than 66 square miles (170 square kilometers) and destroyed about 95 structures. [...] It’s the fourth major fire there in three years and comes ahead of the third anniversary of a 2017 wildfire that killed 22.
[...] Scientists say climate change has made California much drier, meaning trees and other plants are more flammable. The Glass Fire spread rapidly and is now burning through land that was saved from the other recent wine country fires, some of which had not burned for a century, Cal Fire Assistant Chief Billy See said. Crews are now using old containment lines to fight the current fire, relieved slightly by easing winds. It’s one of nearly 30 wildfires burning around California.
Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick acknowledged “some significant fire fatigue” in the community during a news conference Tuesday. “Many people are feeling the effects, many people are evacuating, and evacuated multiple times, and I just want everyone to know that we continue to support you,” Essick said... (MORE - details)
- - -
California wine country faces long battle as fire explodes: ... Celebrated Napa wineries such as Chateau Boswell and part of Castello di Amorosa have been lost to the flames, which reached the fringes of Santa Rosa—the largest town in neighboring Sonoma County.
Tens of thousands of residents have been evacuated from towns including the entirety of wine tourism destination Calistoga. "It looks like a bomb went off," 61-year-old resident Joe Ortega told the San Francisco Chronicle. "The trees go up like matches."
Cal Fire official Jonathan Cox said 80 houses have been destroyed between the two counties. Santa Rosa fire chief Tony Gossner said it would take weeks to bring the flames under control, warning "it's going to be kind of long, and it's going to be painful."
The region is still reeling from devastating wildfires in 2017 when 44 people died and thousands of buildings were razed. Further north the deadly Zogg Fire that killed at least three people has now ripped through 40,000 acres, again without containment... (MORE)