NAPA, Calif. — A cluster of devastating wildfires that have killed at least 10 people and destroyed more than 1,500 homes and businesses raged virtually unchecked across the state's treasured wine country for a third day Tuesday.
Tens of thousands of Californians fled their homes, many of them holing up in shelters as chaos amid the fast-spreading blazes prompted more than 100 missing persons reports in neighboring Sonoma County alone.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the string of fires ignited Sunday and Monday, burning more than 73,000 acres by Monday night. The most damaging is the Tubbs Fire, a 27,000-acre inferno responsible for most of the deaths and destruction.
"It's not under control by any means," Gov. Jerry Brown said. "We're on it the best way we know how."
More than 100 people have been injured in the blazes, and authorities say they expect the death, injury and damage tolls to rise. Many neighborhoods swallowed up by the flames have yet to be reached by firefighters or evacuated residents.
Former San Francisco Giants pitcher Noah Lowry runs an outdoor sports store in Santa Rosa. He, his wife and their 2-week-old baby were forced to flee the hard-charging flames.
“I can’t shake hearing people scream in terror as the flames barreled down on us,” Lowry said.
More: Napa, Sonoma wine country charred by devastating wildfires
Monday night about half of this wine country town was dark from power outages caused by the more than a dozen wildfires burning in the area, though MacLiesh's street still had light. "I just keep listening to the radio and waiting to see if we have to go," she said.
She was one of tens of thousands on edge, waiting to see where the fires that have caused devastation across the oak-and vine-dotted hills of the area north of San Francisco.
he wind-whipped fires came up seemingly out of nowhere in the early hours of Monday morning, rousting thousands out of their beds to flee down country roads, away from the swirling smoke and flames that engulfed entire blocks at a time, fueled by the hot, dry Santa Ana winds.
More than 1,500 homes and businesses burned Monday and more were burning overnight, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Millions of Americans have visited the wine country and the hundreds of vineyards and wineries in Napa and Sonoma counties. Driving through the area on Monday was nothing like a vacation, however.
The smell of smoke was heavy even coming up from Sausalito in Marin county. Once in Sonoma, entire hillsides were black from the grass fires that have swept the area, though cows continued to graze on the small patches of unburned grass.
Burned-out structures were clearly visible from the road, some with charred boards still smoking. On the hillsides, scorched and blackened vineyards, worth as much as $400,000 per acre, were interspersed with untouched areas.
In nearby towns including Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park, hundreds of homes were utterly destroyed in the fires that in some areas continued to burn uncontrolled.
Emoticon Emoticon