SANTA ROSA, CA — Fierce winds drove across Sonoma County early Sunday morning, pushing the massive Kincade Fire further south into wine region as authorities ordered thousands of more residents to evacuate and get out of the path of the rapidly-moving wildfire.
By around 6 a.m., gusts of up to 93 miles per hour were recorded in the Healdsburg Hills — the area near where the fire was pushing towards the towns of Healdsberg and Windsor — and igniting several spot fires as embers blew ahead of the primary blaze.
Flames sprang up on the west side of Highway 128 in the Alexander Valley, tearing through several storied wineries as violent winds whipped grapevines, signposts, and trees, filling the roadway with debris.
The tasting room and main building of the Soda Rock Winery caught fire around 3 a.m., and was fully engulfed by flames within an hour, filling the air with percussive booms as the fire ripped through the structure and blew out its windows.
“The wind has pushed the fire through the building,” said Rhett Pratt, a CalFire firefighter and spokesperson for the Kincade Fire. “Like any fire does when you blow on it, it increases in speed and intensity.”
Cox added that fire lines have been dug as part of an “aggressive assault on the ground to build containment line for the anticipated wind event.”
Cal Fire division chief Jonathan Cox emphasized, as others have, that those who do not heed evacuation calls are endangering themselves and the first-responders who will be dispatched to rescue them. He noted that even the more than 2,800 well-equipped firefighters will be significantly hampered by a blaze that may be whipped around by wind gusts of up to 80 mph.
“The fire intensity has the potential to overwhelm even the professionals,” Cox said.
In issuing evacuation warnings for Santa Rosa and other areas hard hit by the Tubbs Fire, Essick referred to what happened two years ago as reason to take the warnings seriously:
“In October 2017, we lost 24 lives in Sonoma County because we didn’t have a warning. We now have a warning … You cannot fight this. Please evacuate. If you are under an evacuation order, you must leave.”
County supervisor David Rabbitt joined in the chorus.
“This event, unlike in 2017, we have had, and continue to have time,” he said. “Evacuations are not suggestions. If you are in the evacuation zone, you are in the path of danger.”
Officials at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital heeded that call, and were clearing out the facility Saturday night after the latest orders placed them at the edge of a mandatory evacuation zone. The hospital was forced to do the same two years ago with the Tubbs Fire bearing down.
Hospital spokesperson Shaun Ralston said 97 patients were being evacuated, including eight babies being treated in the neonatal intensive care unit.
“They’re all relatively healthy,” Ralston said of the infants.
In a darkened cul-de-sac within line of sight of the hospital, 64-year-old Gary White was the last resident remaining at Mark West Village, a subdivision built a year ago in the wake of the Tubbs Fire. White considers himself the “unofficial” mayor of the development, and said he wanted to ensure his neighbors were evacuated safely before he headed out.
By 10 p.m. Saturday, that time had come, just as deputies were driving through, horns blaring, to get people to leave the area.
“It’s a pretty weird night,” White said. “I lived through the Tubbs Fire and I wanted to protect my neighbors.”
Not far from there, the Sheriff’s Office had been transporting inmates at its secondary jail, the North County Detention Facility south of Windsor, 90 miles south to Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
Essick said everyone in Healdsburg and 95 percent in Windsor received evacuation notifications. All who could be seen in Healdsburg were local police patrolling the streets, buoyed by patrol units sent up from agencies including San Francisco and San Bruno.
The searing memory of the 2017 Wine Country Fires are interwoven with the efforts to move people out of the fire’s way.
“We are taking extreme precautions and making aggressive evacuation decisions based on the forecast. We are providing defense for communities that may be impacted,” Cox said. “It’s only successful if the public who are asked to evacuate leave the area.”
Pat Sherman, 68, and her husband Craig Allison, 67, who’ve lived in Windsor together for 20 years, arrived in the parking lot of the Petaluma Memorial Veterans Hall shelter Saturday afternoon, where they planned to stay during the evacuation.
The couple has three large dogs — Keith, Ronnie, and Cookie — and said they might sleep in the car tonight as the space for pets in the hall seemed limited. They tried unsuccessfully to rent a room at a motel in Santa Rosa, as a manager told them there was a two-dog limit. The couple evacuated as a precaution during the Tubbs Fire.
“Hoping it remains,” Allison said of his home. “I like to pre-visualize about pulling back into the driveway.”
“I could put on a happy face, it’s very easy,” Sherman said. “But when it comes down to it, I could lose my home, my memories of my parents, everybody. And you can’t bring that back.”
Staff writer Nico Savidge contributed to this report.
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