![]() ![]() Some losses can’t be put back together again. We can and should celebrate our resilience, our strength.īut we should also remember those who died and those families and loved ones who cannot track recovery in stages of construction or rebuilding. The number of homes rebuilt, in the businesses reopened and the community restored. Still, we are buoyed by sights and scenes of recovery. We don’t need to look at the burn scars on the hillside to know it. Whether it was our home, or our sense of safety and security, or a loved one. With a private confirmation, with a public comment thanking people for their support, and an announcement: “Our hearts are broken.” They posted photos and addresses on social media.įorty times it ended the same. Our individual and collective grief pales in comparison to the tragedy of losing a loved one.Īnd in a disaster like the one that unfolded here five years ago, the death toll was unclear for so long.Īmid the chaos, family members frantically tried to find loved ones. They were a firefighter - the only one who died fighting the fires - and they were couples, many of whom lived together and died together, after being overcome by flames. Lovecraft novels and a retired professional flutist who loved quilting but loved her dogs more. They were a former roofer who taught her niece how to change the oil in her car and wield a hammer properly, a quilter who loved H.P. They were an engineer who loved travel and photography, a wildlife biologist who was key to the survival of peregrine falcons in Northern California and a retired certified nursing assistant who regularly bought one-pound boxes of See’s candy for strangers. They were sisters, parents, children, grandparents. Sixteen more were killed in Napa and Mendocino counties. Twenty-four people died in Sonoma County in the fires that erupted that October night five years ago. The 911 dispatchers who took call after call from terrified people trying to escape flames and tried to guide them to a safety they were not sure existed.Īnd anniversaries are about honoring those who died. ![]() The fire crews who were faced with, and fought, an inferno heretofore unimaginable. The sheriff’s deputies and police officers who pounded on door after door urging people to flee. The bus drivers who ferried people to safety in the middle of the night amid darkness and flames. If you have a story to share, please email anniversaries, even the grim ones, are not just about remembering, but honoring - honoring the heroism that so many people, professionals and ordinary citizens, showed us that night. ![]() Week 5: What we’ve learned, and how we’ll move forward.įor additional coverage, including podcast episodes and reporting honored with the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news in 2018, go to /fiveyearsafterfirestorms and /podcast. Week 4: Tales of tragedy, tales of heroism. Week 3: Fire took a physical and emotional toll on everyone, especially children. Week 2: Despite a $13.5 billion fund set aside by the courts for fire victims, many have yet to see what they’re owed. Week 1: How living with the reality of fire has changed us and the land we live on. Over the next five weeks, a team of Press Democrat reporters, photographers and editors will revisit those harrowing days and weeks with an eye toward how the disaster impacted our region and how we come to grips with the inevitability of a future bout with catastrophic wildfire. October marks the fifth year since the North Bay firestorm that devastated the parts of Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties, destroying about 6,200 homes and claiming 40 lives.
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