Fear, Frustration for Those Near California Fire Evacuation Zone
The sun rises over an abandoned vineyard in Sonoma County, California, Oct. 12, 2017, as wildfires continue to spread throughout the region.
SONOMA, CALIFORNIA —
As the sun rose on another day of battling wildfires in Northern California, smoke and haze filled the skies.
People are on the move in cars stuffed with belongings. They are either fleeing from a newly announced evacuation zone or returning to a neighborhood that may have been spared, trying to get back to their homes.
But they are also at the mercy of the wind.
As wildfires continue to spread in Sonoma County, California, Oct. 12, 2017, people are either fleeing or returning to neighborhoods that may have been spared.
Waiting and hoping
For four days, Daniel Montez, a resident of Sonoma, California, has waited at a roadblock hoping to be allowed to go to the property where he works and where his two cows, three calves, 25 goats, a horse and pony, and two llamas live.
“I just worry about the animals being safe,” said Montez, who has evacuated from his own home in Sonoma.
Throughout the Sonoma countryside, small fires are ever-present and, in many areas, continue to grow, threatening new areas, homes, buildings and lives.
On Thursday, authorities reported that the death toll from the massive Northern California fire continued to rise.
WATCH: Fear, Frustration for Those Living Near California Fire Evacuation Zone
People in Sonoma have learned the difference between an advisory to evacuate and a mandatory evacuation. After first rushing out of her home, Kristi Zurauskas returned and chose to stay.
After seeing other disasters around the country, such as the hurricanes in Texas and Florida, Zurauskas had told herself, “I would leave. I would leave in a second.”
Now? “There’s something different when it’s your home,” she said.
A firefighter puts out a hot spot from a wildfire, Oct. 12, 2017, near Calistoga, California. Officials say progress is being made in some of the largest wildfires burning in Northern California but that the death toll is almost sure to surge.
A thank you
Dressed in a white bathrobe, Jesa Crawford was heading out of Sonoma for the fourth time, her car packed with her belongings.
At each police check, she was trying to hand out bottles of wine to firefighters and police to thank them for their hard work.
“If they don’t want to drink it here, if they want to bring it home to their families, it’s a huge, huge thank you for coming to save us,” she said. “If it wasn’t for them, everything would be gone.”
Northern California Wildfires
1/13Fires continued to burn Oct. 11, 2017 in Sonoma County, Calif. The fires destroyed hundreds of buildings across several counties, and authorities evacuated more people.
2/13Vicki Nightingale sprays water on her home in Glen Ellen, California, Oct. 11, 2017.
3/13Burned out homes are seen in the Coffey Park area, Oct. 11, 2017, in Santa Rosa, California.
4/13Members of the media touch a moving model of a Tyrannosaurus, during a media preview of the Dinoa Live Exhibition / Amazing Dinosaur Art Exhibition in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo.
5/13Tammy Christiansen searches the remains of her Coffey Park neighborhood home, Oct. 11, 2017, in Santa Rosa, California. During her search she found her wedding ring and her son's wrestling trophy.
6/13This aerial image shows a neighborhood that was destroyed by a wildfire in Santa Rosa, Calif., Oct. 10, 2017. Newly homeless residents of California wine country took stock of their shattered lives Tuesday.
7/13A firefighter monitors a house burning in Santa Rosa, Calif., Oct. 9, 2017.
8/13Angela Pardo works at the main entrance gate to the Gundlach Bundschu winery, Oct. 10, 2017, in Sonoma, California.
9/13The remains of the Signorello Estate winery continue to smolder, Oct. 10, 2017, in Napa, California.
10/13The remains of burned bottles of wine are seen at the Signorello Estate winery, Oct. 10, 2017, in Napa, California.
11/13The remains of a burned bottle of wine are seen at the Signorello Estate winery, Oct. 10, 2017, in Napa, California.
12/13A tree catches fire near houses in the Oakmont area of Santa Rosa, California, Oct. 10, 2017.
13/13Fires continued to burn, Oct. 11, 2017, in Sonoma County, Calif., as authorities evacuated more people.
