Wildfires Rage Across Napa, Sonoma, and Solano Counties
40 dead and 7000 buildings burned to ashes making this the worst “firestorm” in California ever. Starting last Sunday in Napa Valley, the fire helped by warm winds and dry landscape ferociously sped through Napa with its embers helped by wind lands in Sonoma county causing a new fire. One fire turns into 16 forces and in their wake neighborhoods of Santa Rosa are completely destroyed. Residents of those neighborhoods could only react by leaving with what they could grab and in some cases, that meant their life. Police and emergency personnel were doing all they could to save a life by forcing people to evacuate. Some decided to stay and not all remained alive.
In the path of the fire. were the towns of Sonoma, Calistoga, Oakmont to name a few. By Tuesday, officials were starting to get control of the logistics but the two words that were repeated by all of them when describing the fire was ” out of control.”
The counties of Solano, Sonoma, and Napa were placed in a state of emergency allowing for all the states resources to be applied. By Friday the 13th, 10,000 fireman and hundreds of prison inmates, were on the front lines of the fire in all three counties attempting to hold the fire back. Lower winds and cooler weather helped and by Sunday all was under control. Estimated costs are expected to be above 1 billion.
An underlying issue that has sparked a debate is the continued building of homes outside the urban areas and in the ” forest’ of trees. This issue is important because with the resultant destruction of homes raises the need to discuss this issue even more.
