SYV Star Staff Report

The fires that are continuing to rage in Northern California are being documented by Santa Ynez Valley residents George Rose as he was in the region visiting before the fires broke out on Sunday, Oct. 8.

“It’s important to know, the fires in Wine Country are still burning and still not contained,” Rose commented.

Rose has been in and around the Sonoma and Napa wine country for years in the wine industry, and he moved to the valley several years ago. He just released his book documenting Sonoma County wine region “Vineyard in Sonoma County”. He has spend the last week documenting the fire destruction, especially in the hard hit neighborhood of Coffee Park in Santa Rosa. Not far from there former Santa Ynez Valley residents Phil and Marlene Demery (she was the City Manager of Solvang for several years), lost their home in Santa Rosa to the Tubbs Fire.

This is a view of the power transmission lines crossing over Highway 101 into a substation adjacent to the Vintners Inn. Photo by George Rose
Sonoma Wine Country Photo by George Rose
Coffee Park, Santa Rosa, CA Photo by George Rose
Coffee Park, Santa Rosa, CA Photo by George Rose
A wildfire, driven by 50 mph winds, acts exactly like a blast furnace. Hot enough to melt the aluminum rims off a car! Photo by George Rose
Coffee Park, Santa Rosa, CA Photo by George Rose
Estancia Apartments, Santa Rosa, CA Photo by George Rose
It appears the raging fire just north of Coffey Park near Barnes Road was stopped by a vineyard. Some of the weeds in the vineyard, and the weeds around the pond burned, but basically, the fire ran out of fuel. Photo by George Rose
While most of the media attention is focused on the destruction in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park, there are large swaths of destroyed homes in the Mark West Estates area off Old Redwood Highway and Mark West Springs Road. Photo by George Rose
A lone grape harvesting machine works through an Alexander Valley cabernet sauvignon vineyard as the aggressive Pocket Fire burns in the mountains above Geyserville. Photo by George Rose
Photo by George Rose
The ashes continue to smolder in the hard-hit Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa. Photo by George Rose

Locally in Santa Barbara County there is a Red Flag warning issued for high fire danger until Saturday, and Santa Barbara County Fire officials urge residents to sign up for their alert system at www.awareandprepare.org.

So far 33 people have been killed since the fires started and hundreds are still unaccounted for, according to local law enforcement officials.

“Some of them are merely ashes and bones,” Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano said at a Thursday news conference. “And we may never get truly confirmative identification on ashes. When you’re cremated, you can’t get an ID.”

Slow progress has been made on the big fires, however more work is ahead and the high winds and rising temperatures are back this weekend.
The Atlas fire in Napa and Solano counties was 27 percent contained Friday afternoon and burning 48,000 plus acres. The 44,000-acre Nuns fire in Sonoma County, which is actually three merged fires north and west of Glen Ellen — was 5 percent contained.
The Tubbs fire in Napa and Sonoma counties was 25 percent under control and at 34,000 acres. The Redwood and Potter fires in Mendocino County was at 10 percent contained, also at 34,000-acres.