1 person dead and 1,500 structures lost in California firestorm, among worst in state’s history

One person has died and at least 1,500 homes, businesses and other structures have been destroyed as more than 14 fires ravaged eight counties throughout Northern California on Monday, authorities said.

The death was related to the Redwood Valley fire in Mendocino County, according to the Mendocino County coroner’s office.

The vast devastation over just a few hours made this firestorm one of the worst in California history, with Gov. Jerry Brown declaring a state of emergency.

There have been injuries and people are unaccounted for, said Janet Upton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. She could not estimate the number of injuries. Officials said additional fatalities were possible as search efforts continued.

One of the raging fires had Santa Rosa under siege Monday morning, with a large swath of the city north of downtown under evacuation order.

The fast-moving fire jumped the 101 Freeway, forcing hospitals to be evacuated and, witnesses said, burning homes and businesses.

The area of Fountaingrove appeared to be particularly hard hit, with photos showing numerous homes on fire. The Fountaingrove Inn and a Hilton hotel also burned. Officials said homes were also lost in the community of Kenwood and at a mobile home park off the 101 Freeway.

While many evacuation centers were set up, some were filled to capacity due to the large number of people fleeing.

The Tubbs fire near Santa Rosa has burned more than 35,000 acres as of 6:40 a.m., Napa County Supervisor Diane Dillon said during a televised press conference Monday morning. Officials said the other large fire in Napa County — Atlas Peak — has reached between 8,000 and 12,000 acres.

Schools throughout the Napa and Sonoma valleys are closed for the day, and cellphone service has been affected in Napa County, where residents and businesses are experiencing power outages and trees have been knocked down by the wind, officials said.

More than 50 structures, including homes and barns, have burned in the Atlas Peak fire alone, Napa County Fire Chief Barry Biermann said during the press conference.

Residents described running from the approaching flames early in the morning.

Late Sunday night, Ken Moholt-Siebert noticed the smell of the smoke from his Santa Rosa vineyard just off Highway 101.

It was not until midnight that he spotted the flames: a small red glow growing a couple of ridges to the east, off Fountaingrove Parkway.

He ran up the hill on his property to turn on a water pump to protect the ranch his family has been raising sheep and growing grapes on for four generations.

Before the pump could get the water fully flowing, a small ember from the Tubbs fire landed nearby. With the wind picking up, the ember sparked a spot fire about 50 feet in diameter. Then it was 100 feet in diameter.

“There was no wind, then there would be a rush of wind and it would stop. Then there would be another gust from a different direction,” Moholt-Siebert, 51, said. “The flames wrapped around us.”

He ran for cover.

“I was just being pelted with all this smoke and embers,” he said. “It was just really fast.”

Moholt-Siebert retreated through a 150-year-old redwood barn on his property -- where his son’s wedding reception had been held in June. He jumped a fence back toward his house and fell to the ground to catch gulps of less smoke-contaminated air before reaching his home.

As he fled with his wife Melissa in their Ford sedans, the flames reached their vineyard full of Pinot Noir grapes and crept toward a 200-year-old oak tree on the property -- the namesake for the family winery, Ancient Oak Cellars.

As he drove through falling embers and smoke he thought about what he left behind. The sheep on his ranch, he thought, would be safe since they were on shortly cut wet grass. He left behind family mementos and furniture from his grandparents.

The property was dotted with old valley and black oak as well as some California ash trees.

“That is probably all gone,” Moholt-Siebert said. “I have a feeling there is not going to be much left.”

Smoke from the fires drifted into the Bay Area, into San Francisco and as far south as San Jose.

“The smell of smoke is everywhere throughout the county,” Napa County spokeswoman Kristi Jourdan said.

In Santa Rosa, Kaiser Permanente Hospital and Sutter Hospital were evacuated.

“We have safely evacuated the Santa Rosa medical center due to fires burning in the area. Many patients were transported to Kaiser Permanente in San Rafael and other local hospitals,” Kaiser spokeswoman Jenny Mack said in an email. “All scheduled appointments and surgeries have been canceled for the day in Santa Rosa and the Napa medical offices.”

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An inmate firefighter monitors flames as a house burns in the Napa wine region.

  (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images)

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Flames ravage a home in the Napa wine region in California.

  (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images)

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A firefighter walks near a pool as a neighboring home burns in the Napa wine region.

  (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images)

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Firefighters douse flames as a home burns in the Napa wine region, as multiple wind-driven fires whip through the region.

  (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images)

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Louis Reavis views the burned remains of his classic Oldsmobile at his home in Napa.

  (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images)

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A tent structure built for the 2017 Safeway Open burns in Napa on Monday.

  (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images)

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The Estancia Apartment Homes on Old Redwood Hwy. were completely destroyed in Santa Rosa.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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A resident rushes to save his home as a wildfire moves through Glen Ellen, Calif. Tens of thousands of acres and dozens of homes and businesses have burned in wildfires in Napa and Sonoma counties.

  (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

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A Fountaingrove Village man surveys the rubble of his home in Santa Rosa.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Downed power poles and lines block a street in Hidden Valley.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times )

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A fcar burns in the driveway of a destroyed home in Fountaingrove Village.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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A wheelchair left abandoned at the evacuated Villa Capri assisted living facility on Fountaingrove Parkway in Santa Rosa.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times )

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A resident rushes to save his home as fire moves through the area in Glen Ellen, California.

  (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

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A San Jose firefighter keep flames down at a home in Hidden Valley.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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A Fountaingrove Village couple takes in the ruins of their home after fire ripped through the neighborhood.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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A home destroyed in the fast moving wildfire that ripped through Glen Ellen.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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A swimming pool reflects the damage caused by the wildfires that moved through neighborhoods near Glen Ellen.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Benicia Police Officer Alejandro Maravilla, left, offers resident Gwen Adkins, 84, a soda while patrolling in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Spencer Blackwell, left, and Danielle Tate find Tate’s father’s gun collection, melted and burned, inside a gun safe at her father’s home in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times )

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An American flag is draped on a burned pickup truck on Camino del Prado in the Coffey Park neighborhood in Santa Rosa.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times )

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Scorched wine barrels at the Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa after the wildfire burned through.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Fire lights up the night sky framed by a vineyard near Kenwood.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Oakland police officers knock on doors as residents of the Rancho de Calistoga mobile home park are told to evacuate in Calistoga.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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An aerial view of the Coffey Park neighborhood detroyed by wildfire in Santa Rosa.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times )

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Contra Costa paramedics help Bill Parras, 96, evacuate his home in Calistoga.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times )

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CHP officers study neighborhood maps before going door to door to tell Sonoma residents to voluntarily evacuate ahead of the wildfire.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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A home perched on top of a hill sits in the foreground of a fire moving up on Shiloh Ridge near Santa Rosa.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times )

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Scorched grapes and vines along the edge of Storybook Mountain Vineyards in Calistoga.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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John and Jan Pascoe survived the firestorm by running out of their home and into their neighbors’ swimming pool in Santa Rosa.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Hundreds of burned wine bottles at the destroyed Helena View Johnston Vineyards near Calistoga.

  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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A Contra Costa County firefighter breaks a wall with an ax as his crew battles flames inside a home along Highway 29 north of Calistoga on Oct. 12.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Atascadero Firefighters try to control flames burning inside a home along Highway 29 in Calistoga on Oct. 12.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Contra Costa firefighters work to put out flames burning inside a home along Highway 29 north of Calistoga on Oct. 12.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Search teams sift through the debris of mobile homes at the Journey’s End Mobile Home Park in Santa Rosa.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times )

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A worker pulls out a firearm from the burned wreckage as search team members look through the debris at the Journey’s End Mobile Home Park in Santa Rosa.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Search team members sift through debris at the Journey’s End Mobile Home Park in Santa Rosa.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Coursey surveys the damage to the Coffey Park neighborhood.

  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times )

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Melted metal is seen on a car in the shadow of a destroyed home in Napa.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Lola Cornish, 50, and her daughter Kat Corazza, 18, look over recovered family jewels that survived the fire at Cornish’s grandfather’s home in Napa.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Some residents were allowed to return to their properties Friday in a neighborhood in Napa that was ravaged by the Atlas fire.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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A helicopter prepares to drop water on a fire that threatens the Oakmont community along Highway 12 in Santa Rosa.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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A helicopter drops water on a fire that threatens the Ledson Winery and Historic Castle Vineyards in Kenwood on Friday.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Manuel Mendoza sorts through donated clothing at the Bridge Church in Santa Rosa on Sunday.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Jean Schettler hugs Father Moses Brown after Mass at St. Rose Church on Sunday. Schettler’s daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren, after losing their house in the fires, have moved into the Santa Rosa home of Jean and Jim Schettler.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Gianna Gathman, 18, hugs her grandfather Jim Schettler during Mass at St. Rose Church in Santa Rosa on Sunday. Gathman’s family lost their home in the Fountaingrove neighborhood to the fire. They are now living with the Schettlers.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Kimberly Flinn holds onto the only item that wasn’t lost in a fire that destroyed her home in the Mark West Springs area in Santa Rosa. Flynn recovered a ceramic white butterfly that she had made in memory of a boy she used to babysit and was killed in a hit and run accident.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Gerry Miller, 81, tells San Francisco Police Department Officer Gary Loo how grateful she is to find her home still standing. Residents were allowed to return to their homes in the Mark West Springs area in Santa Rosa Sunday night.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Denise Finitz, 61, thanks Torrance Fire Department firefighters Keith Picket, right, and Capt. Mike Salcido on Oct. 16 after they helped her find her mother’s wedding ring in the ashes of her home, destroyed by wildfires on Carriage Lane in Wikiup.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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A search and rescue crew member gives a cadaver dog some water during the hunt for a possible fire victim in the Mark West Springs area of Santa Rosa on Oct. 15.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Burned cars like this vintage Volkswagen litter the landscape in Coffey Park. The neighborhood was completely destroyed by the Tubbs fire 11 days ago, with many residents fleeing in haste as their homes were enveloped in flames.

  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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A giraffe framed in the smoke filled air at the Safari West preserve.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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A Watusi bull looks out through the haze of the recent Tubbs fire at the Safari West preserve.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Peter Lang, 77, owner of the Safari West preserve, stands between a pair of white rhinos against a backdrop of charred hillside in Santa Rosa.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Mark Sharp, a resident of Coffey Park, sifts through the remains of his charred home in search of his wife’s wedding band.

  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Flowers were left on the mailbox of Roy Howard Bowman, 87, and his wife, Irma Elsie Bowman, 88 who died at their Fisher Lake Drive home from the Redwood Valley fire.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Dee Pallesen, left, and her daughter Emily Learn console each as they look over Pallesen’s home, destroyed by the Redwood Valley fire.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Jason Miller plants an American flag on the charred remains of his house as residents of Coffey Park return home.

  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Burned vehicles litter the landscape in Coffey Park. The neighborhood was completely destroyed by the Tubbs fire 11 days ago, with many residents fleeing in haste as their homes were enveloped in flames.

  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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A pickup truck rests beside a row of charred trees in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa.

  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

The Santa Rosa fire began around 10 p.m.

The cause of the fires is still under investigation.

Upward of 300 firefighters are battling the blazes in Napa County, she said. There are three evacuation centers for Napa County residents, though one — the Crosswalk Community Church — is full, she said. The other two are the Calistoga Fairgrounds and at Napa Valley College.

“We’ve had hospitals that have required evacuation...all of those take significant amount of coordination and assets to ensure... that special needs populations and others that require special assistance are taken care of. That will remain our priority,” said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

There have been a number of injuries and “possibly some fatalities,” Ghilarducci said.

About 45,000 are without power and/or cell service in Napa and Sonoma counties, he said.

Weather conditions — strong winds and high temperatures — made conditions ripe for a major inferno.

“We also had really gusty winds and really warm temperatures,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Mehle. “This time of year it does happen quite a bit. For the San Francisco Bay Area, our summer is late September to early October; that’s when we have our warmest and driest conditions.”

The destructiveness of the fires shocked officials. The worst fire in recent California history was the Cedar blaze in San Diego County in 2003, which destroyed more than 2,800 homes. The 2007 Witch fire, also in San Diego County, destroyed more than 1,600. Both of those fires occurred in October.

“This time of year is when historically the state’s largest, most damaging and most deadly fires have occurred,” Upton said. “Critical fire conditions fanned by high wind” act as “a fuse for sparks,” she said.

A key reason why the fires burning through Napa and Sonoma counties became so devastating was that the ignitions happened at the worst possible moment: extremely dry conditions combined with so-called Diablo winds that fanned flames on the ridgetops with gusts as high as 70 mph.

It’s similar to the conditions that caused one of the most destructive fires in Northern California history, the October 1991 firestorm that struck the Oakland and Berkeley hills that killed 25 people and destroyed more than 3,300 single-family homes.

The wine country fires so far haven’t approached that level of catastrophe, with officials reporting at least 1,500 structures lost, in part because the area burned isn’t as densely populated as the area that was hit hard in 1991.

The status of Safari West, a small zoo in Santa Rosa, was unknown Monday morning. The zoo is known for its rhinos, giraffes, zebras and other animals.

Guests also can stay in tents on the 400-acre property.

Marie Martinez, conservation and outreach manager at Safari West, said that staff and guests fled the facility Sunday night. Staff were able to take some birds and a tortoise with them, she said.

Martinez said she doesn’t know if any structures burned. “We don’t know what’s happened yet,” Martinez said.

The area around the zoo is closed off because of the fire, said Erin Harrison, director of marketing and communications at Oakland Zoo.

That zoo is trying to coordinate evacuation of the animals at Safari West, but the fire is making access difficult.

“We’re trying to find out if we can get up there,” Harrison said.

Los Angeles Times staff writers Makeda Easter, Rong-Gong Lin II, Joy Resmovits amd Phil Willon contributed to this report.

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