Out ok getting away unscathed the fire 10 tearing through this area early this morning but crews remain here on the scene tonight. They are putting out some hot spots and mopping up the area roads in this area also remaining closed police making the rounds out here hillsides surrounding these communities also have been charred throughout the day today an into that into tonight. Theres been thick smoke in the air and theres also been a lot of ash that has been falling from the sky. Other communities all along highway 12 also having to deal with the flames buildings there and property there burned and destroyed. We actually spoke with one man who says that he was lucky that he did lose his home. But unfortunately his neighbor did. We got here they were you know a lot of activity this house was you know and claims are trees are on fire. The backyard with on fire the backfield behind us. Does seem like. If properties are starting to flare up. The house to my left is completely burned down.
Destroyed or actually homes on Mountain Hawk drive thats in santa rosa kron fours dan kerman went to the sky hawk neighborhood to show us the damage. Were in the sky hawk neighborhood of santa rosa and as you can see behind me burned down homes, however this is not like 2017, yes. There are numerous homes that have burned but numerous homes are Still Standing its not like entire neighborhoods have burned down. Fire Officials Say thats because this fire is completely different than the one in 2017. This was not one solid wall of fire that moved in the city limits, its spotted in the city and sometimes some areas a mile ahead of itself. So a lot of areas with a lot of work that needs to be done. And we understand that the evacuations of affected 10s of thousands of in santa rosa as well as in Sonoma County. We definitely want to be able to get people back home but its going to potentially be several days in order to do that neighborhoods that have been evacuated include rincon valley. As
James you talked about a 1000 homes threaten about a 1001 because you can see this home right behind me were off a 29 between saint helene and calistoga and you can see the flames on the hillside and standing right in front of the flames is that how so cal fire. They have a couple of crews there trying to say that home one on top of the hill, one of the bottom of the hill. Embers are everywhere and i got to tell you boots on the ground here. It is smoky here today breathing is more difficult than it was yesterday. So it is getting a lot worse. Let me show you some video and pictures of this entire area you talked about the acreage so many homes up in flames others like you said or threaten i can tell you that at this particular time there are a lot of crews patrolling the area and they see huge flames they were pounce on it. Many structures either destroyed or damaged the flames continue to rip through this area that has seen fire for the past couple of years, how horrible the situatio
Justice, small smoldering bits, whether it is in houses or fence posts or trees, these are spot fires that do not even warned enough attention from firefighters to be here. There up in the neighborhood to making sure that some of those other smoldering spots, they are perusing to make sure that everything turns itself out because there is not particularly a firefight in this portion of Sonoma County. The vast majority of the flames are burning on the other side of the mountain in napa county but in the meantime, as a result of Evacuation Orders, there are 63,000 people or more displaced and Evacuation Centers, they have fled from the flames and as a result of that, schools are also out for these fires because even with Distance Learning, evacuating and picking up and moving out, it does not really lend itself well to learning. Here is a list of the schools that are closed, Bennett Valley union school district, Kenwood School district, no Distance Learning, Rincon Valley Union High Scho
Calistoga is very quiet right now. The entire city has been evacuated. I am at the motor lodge along lincoln avenue and behind me, we have watched glowing fires disappear, looking east near the silverado trail. Hopefully, that is some good news. We are waiting for the latest from cal fire once the sun comes up. However the weather conditions are pretty good for firefighting. It is a lot cooler compared to yesterday. Not a lot of wind to speak of but the official count is 113 structures destroyed and that number could go up as firefighters explore the areas that have already burned. By the afternoon, the entire city population of calistoga, 5300, was being evacuated. The fire had crested the hill where they are. People had to evacuate immediately. We got back to the house a couple weeks ago and we were evacuated for 17 days and there we go again. It is dad. Those evacuation orders are in effect in napa and sonoma encompassing about 70,000 people. No idea when they will be able to return