After four days of terrorizing Wine Country and surrounding regions, the Northern California wildfires on Thursday became the deadliest in state history, with 31 confirmed fatalities and more expected.
The most destructive of those, the Tubbs fire, killed at least 15 people, and new figures told of its destruction. Santa Rosa lost 2,834 homes and approximately 400,000 square feet of commercial space, and Mayor Chris Coursey expects the numbers to grow.
“We all have suffered a trauma here,” the mayor said. He is said it will take time to recover “from this incident. The city of Santa Rosa has suffered a serious blow.”
Even as fire resources pour in from out of state, Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott expects the fires to continue to burn “erratically” and “have the potential to shift in any direction at any time.”