Ravaged by fires over the past four years, Sonoma County got a boost for future efforts to mitigate calamities Wednesday when President Joe Biden announced a $37 million FEMA grant to the county for use in wildfire prevention. “It was a sense of relief just washing over me,” Lynda Hopkins, chair of the Sonoma County… Keep Reading
The Glass fire was merciless as it blazed across the Mayacamas Mountains and through Hood Mountain Regional Park last fall, charring 80% of the 2,000-acre park and open space preserve and closing it to the public indefinitely. Though much of the fire-adapted landscape eventually will recover, the Sept. 27 wildfire burned at high enough intensity… Keep Reading
After the major North Bay wildfires in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019, vintners in the region have been increasingly interested in strengthening the fruit-quality clauses and force majeure (calamity) clauses in their grape purchase contracts, while growers want more the contracts to give them more security from rejected fruit blamed on smoke damage, according to… Keep Reading
On a normal day in a normal year, west Petaluma resident Annette Cooperluiz and her retired racehorse, Rocket, wouldn’t be anywhere near Crane Creek Regional Park east of Rohnert Park. Point Reyes National Seashore is her favored spot for rides, Cooperluiz said, but that Marin County destination is on fire and off limits, besieged by… Keep Reading
The operator of two elder care homes in Santa Rosa where staff abandoned frail residents during the 2017 October firestorm has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle an unlawful business practices civil lawsuit filed jointly by the state Attorney General and Sonoma County District Attorney’s offices. Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch and Attorney General… Keep Reading
After the Tubbs Fire in 2017, Anabel Garcia felt on edge every time an ambulance siren blared outside her home in Santa Rosa, California. Sirens reminded her of evacuating during the state’s second-deadliest wildfire, which killed 22 and destroyed 5,000 homes. Flames reached as close as five miles from her family’s house. “It terrified us,” Garcia… Keep Reading
Work has begun on The Fountaingrove Club’s new clubhouse to replace the building destroyed when the Tubbs Fire swept through north Santa Rosa in October 2017. BHM Construction of Napa is the general contractor on the $16.5 million project. At 22,100 square feet, the new two-story building will be on the site of the burned out club.… Keep Reading
Santa Rosa and Sonoma County together have received about a quarter of the funds from a $1 billion deal that PG&E struck last year with local governments in Northern California to settle claims arising from the 2017 and 2018 wildfires. Santa Rosa received just over $95 million of its $117.8 million PG&E settlement share, after… Keep Reading
On the morning of her 34th birthday last July, Katrina Lassen woke up in her new house in Larkfield Estates, a suburban subdivision where all 163 homes had been incinerated by the Tubbs fire in 2017. “It was surreal,” she said. “I just felt at home immediately.” The ranch-style home lost in the blaze was… Keep Reading
Crews gained the upper hand Sunday on the first large wildfire in Northern California in months — the Quail Fire burning in Solano County and near Winters in Yolo County — ahead of a new forecast in which strong winds could once again fuel its momentum. The wildfire, which doubled in size in less than… Keep Reading
