Wildfires bring death and destruction to California’s wine country
This fire season is the deadliest in a decade, forcing 20,000 people to flee, and could spell economic doom for the world-famous region’s winemakers
Santa Rosa — Wildfires fanned by strong winds swept through northern California’s wine country on Monday, killing at least 10 people, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses, and forcing about 20,000 people to flee. The deaths brought the official wildfire-related toll in California this year to 13, the greatest loss of civilian life from a single cluster of blazes in the state in a decade, state fire officials said. Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Napa, Sonoma and Yuba counties, encompassing some of the state’s prime winemaking areas, as the blazes raged unchecked and engulfed the region in thick, billowing smoke that drifted south into the San Francisco Bay area. Brown later extended the declaration to include four more northern California counties and Orange County in Southern California, and requested a US presidential disaster declaration to support state and local firefighting resources. Sonoma County bore the brunt of the fatalities, with seven fire...
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