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Seeing the World One Step at a Time. Guides are updated on an ongoing basis.


Santa Rosa, CA – Tubbs Fire October 2017

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A sculpture honoring a single firefighter – but in reality paying tribute to all those who were integral in helping fight the fires and providing huge amounts of ongoing support to all who were affected by this terrible natural disaster.

This page covers first-hand some of the worst hit areas in Santa Rosa – during and after the fires of October 2017.



TUBBS FIRE OCTOBER 2017, SANTA ROSA
In the evening of October 8th a fire that started north of Calistoga (near Bennett Lane) came all the way into the Santa Rosa city limits within a few hours (normally a 30 minute drive) including into residential and industrial parts of the city. In terms of total destruction, this was the worst natural disaster Sonoma County has ever experienced with approximately 6,800 structures destroyed in Sonoma County alone (includes 5636 structures) with a combined nearly 9,000 structures in total destroyed across the state in October 2017.

“I am lost, but I know EXACTLY where I am” (standing among the ruins)

The Tubbs Fire jumped the 101 freeway north of town in several places and destroyed significant parts of both neighborhoods and businesses around Cleveland and Piner Aves. A number of hotels were also destroyed including America’s Best Value Inn, Flamingo Inn and the Hilton Fountaingrove. Restaurants were destroyed including an Applebees, Arby’s, McDonalds and Cricklewood Restaurant, Mountain Mike’s Pizza, Puerto Vallarta Mexican Restaurant, Sweet T’s and Willi’s Wine Bar. Two shopping centers severely damaged or completely destroyed included the 114,000 square foot K-Mart and Fountaingrove Village.

This fire also completely destroyed hundreds of homes in the Fountaingrove neighborhoods – cul-de-sac after cul-de-sac were obliterated. The Fountaingrove golf course country club building was in ruins. One of Santa Rosa’s iconic and most visible historical buildings was 100% destroyed, the Fountaingrove Red Barn (hopefully the city will rebuild this ASAP). Paradise Ridge Winery (also in Fountaingrove) was burned to the ground.

And by no means were the destroyed parts of Santa Rosa the only destruction – numerous fires caused considerable damage in other parts of Sonoma County including Glen Ellen, Kenwood and significant damage in neighboring Napa County including widespread damage to Atlas Peak, near Calistoga, Carneros, and Mt. Veeder. At one point there were some 14 individual fires burning in the Napa and Sonoma regions.

A number of Sonoma and Napa wineries were destroyed or sustained significant damage. Some of these Napa wineries include:
Atlas Peak/Soda Canyon: Vin Roc and White Rock (both have caves fortunately which were mostly protected from the fire) and Patland Estate (home), Roy Estate and Sill Winery. Jarvis (not the cave) also sustained serious property damage. A number of vintner’s homes were also destroyed in this part of Napa.

Calistoga: Helena View Johnston in Calistoga (perhaps the first Napa winery in the fires to be burnt to the ground – and the first call we received about fire damage around 1230am) and a building at Storybook Winery.

Mt. Veeder: Wing Canyon (winery & home destroyed) Sky Vineyards (home destroyed, winery partially damaged), Mayacamas, Paras Vineyard and Pulido-Walker.

Stags Leap District: Hagafen (minor damage) and Signorello Estate (winery and hospitality center completely burned down) and some buildings at Stags’ Leap Winery.

This fire was not unprecedented – although it certainly was in terms of homes & businesses burned and the economic damage. In 1964 the Hanley Fire burned all the way from the slopes of Mt. St. Helena in the Napa Valley to the outskirts of Santa Rosa. If you know where to look on certain properties in the swath of that fire, you can still see the burn marks on Redwood Trees (some 50+ years later).

Our photos below cover first hand the destruction in parts of Santa Rosa (Fountaingrove & Coffee Park area) from during the actual fire fighting on the front lines, to the immediate morning and next day aftermath to several weeks after the fires (when the smoke finally cleared out of the skies).

LA Times article with father of author

TUBBS FIRE SANTA ROSA OVERVIEW


 

THE FIRE

Overlooking Home Depot
End of Terra Linda Drive
Right in the middle of the flames
Attacking with water truck

Hosing down the hot spots
Garage burned house saved
Apartment ablaze next to Home Depot
Wall of flames quickly approaching Lomitas Heights neighborhood

Lake Park Drive
Fountaingrove flames
Trying to put out hot spots with a broom and a bucket of water
Fires raging in Fountaingrove

Northern Santa Rosa burning at 2am (mostly Coffee Park)
Smoke and flames getting close
Flames continue to creep close despite our best firefighting efforts
Another home goes up in flames – around 7am

 

FOUNTAINGROVE NEIGHBORHOOD

What is left of Fountaingrove Village (Sweet T’s Restaurant)
What is left of Fountaingrove Golf Course Club House
Lone golfer reflected by glow of nearby flames
Hundreds of homes destroyed in Fountaingrove neighborhood

Pulling into driveway in hills of Fountaingrove
Burned out vehicle
Only the bikes left
Part of Fountaingrove Village shopping center

Bella Vista neighborhood almost total destruction
Welcome, not at all…
One home left in this culdesac
Metal dripped and solidified from car

The trail to nowhere. A sad view. Home of the Fountaingrove Red Barn
Nectar Restaurant & Lounge, Hilton
Whats left of the Hilton in Fountaingrove
Bella Vista neighborhood

Yet another car torched
Utter destruction
Yet another neighborhood gone
Whats left of someones once beautiful home

Common sites like this, car torched, house torched
Power lines down on Parker Hill Road
Just total devastation
Homes destroyed in all directions

Utter destruction in all directions
Melted paint on a car
Whats left of the Fountaingrove Firestation #5
The garage of the Fountaingrove Firestation









 

AERIAL, FIRE DAMAGE




 

AERIAL, FOUNTAINGROVE




 

HOTELS/MOTELS DESTROYED

America’s Best Value Inn & Suites
Outside the America’s Best Value Inn & Suites
Room 101, America’s Best Value Inn & Suites
Corridor next to rooms, America’s Best Value Inn & Suites

America’s Best Value Inn & Suites devastation
Edge of Lobby, America’s Best Value Inn
Fire alarm, America’s Best Value Inn & Suites
Inside lobby, America’s Best Value Inn & Suites

America’s Best Value Inn
Burned out car in the Wine Country Inn & Suites
Looking down on the Fountaingrove Inn
The spa & pool at the Fountaingrove Inn

Stone walls still standing, Fountaingrove Inn
Fountaingrove Inn almost total destruction
Steel beams still standing, Fountaingrove Inn
Closeup pool, Fountaingrove Inn

Fountaingrove Inn
Vehicle burned, Fountaingrove Inn
Looking down the hallway, Fountaingrove Inn
Steps leading nowhere, Hilton Sonoma County

Electrical room, Hilton Sonoma County
Destruction, Hilton Sonoma County
Total destruction, Hilton Sonoma County
The Hilton Flag was slightly charred

What a mess, Hilton Sonoma County
No Smoking sign, Hilton Sonoma County
Air conditioning units, Hilton Sonoma County
Looking through wall ‘window’, Fountaingrove Inn

 

MOSTLY CLEVELAND AVE BUSINESSES

Mountain Mike’s Pizza gone
The fountain and the sign, all thats left
Gas station almost total destruction
Arby’s drive through

Applebees in front of Kohls
U Loot, We Shoot – Sean means business
All thats left of gas station on corner of Hopper Ave & the 101 Freeway exit
Total devastation of Applebees in front of Kohls

885, the address of burned out Applebys Restaurant
Drive through Arby’s? No
Place order here, Arby’s Restaurant
Arby’s Restaurant

The bathroom at Arby’s Restaurant
On Fire. Really? The irony of the name of this store surrounded by burned out buildings is dramatically ironic
Edge of Coffee Park neighborhood
Another building, totally destroyed

Former gun store
Total loss near corner of Piner & Range
Wine Country Bride building
Burned out vehicle along Cleveland Ave

Burned out tire
Trader Joe’s burned out sign
Total loss, Puerta Vallarta Mexican Restaurant
Inside the Puerta Vallarta Restaurant

114,000 Square Foot Kmart a total loss
Burned Palms in front of Kmart
Mountain Mikes Pizza
Like an apocalypse

So many destroyed homes in the vicinity of Coffee Lane
Devastation
More devastation
Next to Cleveland Ave, this building sustained damage

Truck parked next to Cleveland Ave
Puerta Vallarta Mexican Restaurant
KMart total building loss
Burning electrical line pole

In the immediate aftermath, Cleveland Ave
Trader Joes burned out sign
Mountain Mike’s Pizza delivery vehicles escaped
Outside of Kmart – Santa Rosa will never have another Kmart store again

Inside Kmart
No Parking, Fire Lane – Kmart
Wok left in the destruction
Open sign fell to the ground after the fire

 

COFFEE PARK

From the ashes we will rise
Burned out car, burned out trees
Two prominent streets, Hopper & Coffee Lane
Toasted lemons still hanging

Burned garbage can with burned garbage
Coffee Strong
Steel survives fire
“Tell your heart to beat again”

A white picket fence survives
Burned out garage with car still in garage
Melted metal from vehicle
“Too late, we found our gold stash and then some”

Bleeding part of a car
Total destruction in all directions
Burned out car & wheelchair
Car was being worked on before the fire

The Salvation Army helping out
What a mess
Chaos of the destruction
Looking for lost cats

Burned basketball hoop
Children’s bicycles, note the burned tires
At the edge of the vineyards
We stand strong

Perhaps a sense of humor
Destruction everywhere
Block after block as far as you can see
Cars still parked in the driveway

Amazingly most of this car’s exterior did not burn
Massive destruction
A metal structure skeleton survives
Visually, 1/2 of this old truck burned

Car after car burned out
A burned Chevrolet sign
Destruction as far as the eye can see
Burned out horse trailer

A burned out truck
A POV photo through two burned cars
A burned out motor boat
Destruction at sunset

No surviving homes in all directions
More burned cars
Clearing trees at the edge of the burned areas
Charred cactus

 

CARDINAL NEWMAN HIGH SCHOOL

Front of the school
The fire burned the field
Burned the batting cages
Dead palm trees

Near the lockers
Significant damage
The heart of campus
Main entrance

Burned but not gone, Cardinal Newman sign
Cars across from campus
Significant damage here
Pool behind campus

 

JOURNEYS END TRAILER PARK



 

MARK WEST SPRINGS NEIGHBORHOODS

Mark West Estates, we found lots of arrowheads here over the years
Chimney remains
Wheelchair escaped the fire
Only the chimneys standing

Burned out cars
Total destruction, block after block
Whats left of fish pond
Row after row of houses gone

USPS postal box
Entire neighborhoods burned in several hours
This fire came all the way from near Calistoga
City blocks destroyed

 

HIDDEN VALLEY



 

CLOVERLEAF RANCH



 

BEFORE (all of these structures burned down)

Fountaingrove Golf & Athletic Club
Fountaingrove Golf Course
America’s Best Value Inn & Suites sign
America’s Best Value Inn & Suites

Fountaingrove Inn Hotel
Fountaingrove Inn Hotel
Hilton Fountaingrove
Hilton Fountaingrove

Sweet T’s Restaurant, Fountaingrove
Courtyard, Sweet T’s
Paradise Ridge Winery
Red Barn, Fountaingrove

 

VIDEOS
Fighting Fire on Front Lines, Fountaingrove Neighborhood

Aerial View, Fountaingrove Village

Aerial View, Fountaingrove Cul-De-Sacs

Aerial View Fountaingrove Golf Course Clubhouse

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Comments

  1. Penny Sadler says

    November 5, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    Hi Dave, I drove through Mark West last night and Fountain Grove a couple of days ago. I have been driving through Knights Valley to work. It is all just shocking. And the more trees they cut down the more is revealed. Still, there’s more beauty than not.

  2. Dave says

    November 5, 2017 at 10:17 pm

    Hi Penny – yes the scope of the damage is astounding. Also check out Atlas Peak and Trinity Road/Cavedale and Annadel. Last night we enjoyed Ode to Joy from Paradise Ridge (whose winery in Fountaingrove burned down) and honey from my hives which also burned down next to the 128 (right next to where you drive to work every day).

  3. Dave says

    December 18, 2017 at 2:34 am

    I flew over Santa Barbara County yesterday – checking out the Thomas Fire above Montecito – crazy how this fire continues to burn in mid December. Saw flames so close to San Ysidro Ranch. Uggg.

  4. Alan says

    May 25, 2022 at 3:56 pm

    Years before the fire, I flew out of LAX to Maui and saw that whole area, the place I ‘grew up, home of S.B., Ojai, Goleta, Carpinteria. I love it like home, but don’t plan on seeing again except in flight southeast far away.

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