Battle-weary California wine country is still fighting a fire

CLICK HERE if you have trouble viewing the photos on a mobile device

HEALDSBURG – When smoke billowed into the air this week and evacuation alarms began to beep on their cell phones, many Sonoma County residents thought one thing: Not again.

With the Walbridge Fire threatening Healdsburg and Guerneville over the weekend, concerns about the evacuation, what to pack and where the fire might have hit have become known. The area was suspended by the Tubbs Fire in 2017, and then again last year by Kincade. The devastation caused by these massive fires has wiped out residents, and with the California fire season just beginning, people are afraid that there could be many more frightening weeks at the end of the fall. Some say that if it were not for their career, their mortgage – or just their love for the area – they would leave.

“It’s like, ‘here we go again,’ said Sonoma County Superintendent James Gore as he stood on a mountain along Chemise Road in Healdsburg, and saw plumes of smoke billowing terribly near houses in his district below. “Everyone talking to you says, ‘here we go again,’ with tired eyes.”

But while they were not prepared for the 2017 Tubbs Fire – which killed 22 people after they crashed through Santa Rosa – they are now, he said.

Provincial officials this year, in an effort to increase fire defenses, are urging residents to do more to manage potentially flammable vegetation on their properties. The new rules forced Gore to spend thousands of dollars and a huge chunk of time clearing his property, he said – but it is necessary.

“Whether we like it or not, this is our new normal,” Gore said. “So adjust.”

Robin Froman, a 68-year-old retiree from Texas, has first seen how devastating California fires can be: Her home, on Toyon Drive in a rural, ununited area east of Healdsburg, suffered heavy damage during the Kincade Fire last fall.

‘We lost a stone terrace, a wooden deck, we lost everything in the garden. It just came to the house, ‘said Froman. The interior of the house suffered severe water and smoke damage.

On Friday, she described sitting at home, waiting and looking at another approach to fire.

It feels “not good,” she said.

Even for people who have not lost a home, most residents in this area have some sort of post-traumatic stress from suffering from fire to fire, said Alanna Wargula, a physician who lives in Santa Rosa and works in Healdsburg. Although her home was not damaged in the Tubbs FIre, her medical clinic was forced to close months after last year’s Kincade fire. Staff had to leave all medicines, bandages and other supplies that were left there because they could not guarantee that they did not have too much while the clinic was without power.

“It’s scary because you’re always wondering when your neighborhood will be next,” the 45-year-old Wargula said.

She now has a police scanner app and two fire apps on her phone, and every time there is high wind, she pays close attention. ‘You just sit on the edge of the chair until it passes,’ she said.

The fires have become so bad, she said, along with the state’s high taxes, that if it didn ‘t mean it started all over her career, Wargula would leave California.

For other residents, the Walbridge Fire was something new. Jen Higgins and Richard Butori of Lambert Bridge Winery were on Friday night on Chemise Road looking for the wine cellar’s property and trying to assess if it would make it through the night. In the distance, massive incense plants surrounded her.

They’ve seen fires before, but never so fun – never so close.

“I’m so nervous,” Butori said. ‘I’ve never been so nervous in my whole life.’

Several houses and other structures along Wallace Creek Road in Healdsburg had already burned to the ground on Friday. A small Buddha statue stood unmanned in the burnt remains of what was once the entrance to someone’s house. The black doorknob of the front door lay in a pile of rubble next to the statue. The rest of the house was destroyed. Across the street sat a resident on the railing of the bridge leading to his house – who miraculously survived the flames. At least so far.

The resident, who did not want to give his name, lives mostly in San Francisco, but had shelter in place during the pandemic during his Healdsburg weekend at home. He and his husband were evacuated Wednesday night.

When they returned Friday morning to inspect the house, they expected it to go away. It was not, but that relief is bitter.

“Honestly, I do not know if I can feel comfortable here now,” said the resident. ‘Look at my neighbors’ houses. Those are my friends. Even if our house survives, it will not be a happy place. ”

Despite that heartache – and those likely to come, as the fire season continues – he has no plans to sell the house.

“Healdsburg is the best place,” he said. “I absolutely love this city.”