Fire Update

I lived in Santa Rosa, CA back around 1980, in a house surrounded by trees in a rural area, so there’s a chance it’s gone now. My friends Skoge and Grant live in Petaluma which is down the road and I reached out this morning to check on them. Here’s Skoges report from the heart of the action:

Have you seen the pictures of Santa Rosa? It's sad. So far the Santa Rosa fires were started by an exploding transformer in Mark West Springs (the Russian River/Guernville road. MWS aka Wikiup is gone. Large mansions, middle class homes, all gone. The Hilton on the hill near Wikiup burned down. That moved East and now Calistoga has been evacuated, the whole town! The fire jumped Hwy. 101 and headed towards the Russian river. It was a windy night so the embers set off clusters of total devastation along 101. Some went up the hills behind Santa Rosa and over to Silverado Road, down to Napa, as well as Sonoma. I'm on fire watch here tonight... I mean morning. The only thing between us and the Sonoma fire is Sonoma Mountain. It was windy this a.m. but it was Southeast so it went toward Napa and now the fires are coming down in 3 or 4 different directions on downtown Napa. We had a evacuation alert that anyone East of us should be prepared to get out if the wind changed and it came over the mountain. The smoke is worse than the air in Beijing, China, and the worst recorded here. I packed a few boxes of things that mean things to me, and medicines, valuables, pictures, and some clothes so I can load up the car if we are told to get out. It is in American Canyon and now Fairfield. I don't think we'll get hit today but it all depends on the wind. Otherwise, we're all fine as long as we stay indoors, with the windows shut.
Thanks for asking.
Skoge