Fire death toll hits 40

Photo: The Canadian Press

A firefighter looks for flammable items in an evacuated residential area as wildfires continue to burn Saturday.

UPDATE: 9:55 p.m.

The California wildfires raced toward wineries and the historic town of Sonoma on Saturday, chasing hundreds more people from their homes and threatening to roll back firefighters' modest gains against fires that stretched across a 100-mile swath of Northern California.

Propelled by stiff winds, the fires damaged or destroyed several buildings in the middle of the night before crews halted their advance at the edge of Sonoma, where firefighters spent days digging firebreaks to keep flames from reaching the city's historic central plaza built centuries ago when the area was under Spanish rule.

For those living in the huge fire zone, it was another night spent watching, waiting and fearing the worst.

John Saguto said he awoke several hours before dawn at his home east Sonoma to see flames "lapping up" 300 to 500 yards away. He and his neighbours evacuated as firetrucks raced up and down the streets and hot embers flew over their heads.

The fire made "a strong run" into Sonoma and damaged or destroyed additional buildings before firefighters stopped it, said Dave Teter, deputy director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Several homes and other structures near a vineyard east of downtown were in smouldering ruins. Firefighters hosed down embers and knocked down walls that could topple over.

As of Saturday afternoon, Teter said crews did not expect any more losses in that area. But gusts up to 25 mph were forecast for the rest of the day.

Nearly a week after the blazes began, the fires have left 40 people dead and destroyed at least 5,700 homes and businesses, making them the deadliest and most destructive group of wildfires in California history. Some 300 people remain unaccounted for, though officials think they'll locate most of those people alive.

Most of the deceased are believed to have died late on Oct. 8 or early Oct. 9, when the fires exploded and took people by surprise in the dead of night. Most of the victims were elderly, though they ranged in age from 14 to 100.

"It's a horror that no one could have imagined," Gov. Jerry Brown said, after driving past hundreds of "totally destroyed" homes with Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris.

ORIGINAL: 11:45 a.m.

Rising winds fanned the California wildfires again Saturday, forcing hundreds more people to flee from their homes in the state's fabled wine country and testing the efforts of crews who have spent days trying to corral the flames behind firebreaks.

Just a day after firefighters reported making significant progress, the winds kicked up several hours before dawn and pushed flames into the hills on the edge of Sonoma, a town of 11,000. About 400 homes were evacuated as the fires threated Sonoma and a portion of Santa Rosa that included a retirement community that evacuated earlier this week, authorities said.

Dean Vincent Bordigioni, winemaker and proprietor at the Annadel Estate Winery awoke at 3 a.m. with flames erupting on the ridge above his property. "Things went to hell last night," he said. "They've got a good fight going on."

Nearly a week after the blazes began, the fire zone had swollen to an area as long as 100 miles on a side. The flames have left at least 35 people dead and destroyed at least 5,700 homes and businesses, making them the deadliest and most destructive group of wildfires California has ever seen.

On Saturday, an unknown number of additional structures burned down in a rural area, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Judy Guttridge, who was evacuating for the second time this week, said her daughter saw flames advancing over the side of a hill around the same time Bordigioni did and told the family to get out.

"I have good insurance, everything," she said. "All the kids, grandkids, great-grandkids are fine. I'm OK with that."

Firefighters spent much of the last week digging defence lines to keep the flames from spreading. On Friday, they tried to fortify the edge of Sonoma using bulldozers and other heavy equipment.

But if winds push the flames over that barrier, neighbourhoods including some of the town's costliest homes were in the path, along with a historic central plaza built centuries ago when the area was under Spanish rule.

The renewed strength of the winds was "testing the work that we accomplished," Berlant said. The greatest risk was that winds would blow embers across the firebreaks and ignite new blazes.

Winds gusting up to 40 mph were expected to continue throughout the day and into the evening.

Also Friday, a lucky few of the nearly 100,000 people who have fled from their homes got to return, and examples of charity were everywhere, along with a sign that began popping up in more and more places: "The love in the air is thicker than the smoke."