Tubbs Fire
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The Tubbs Fire was a
wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...
in
Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...
during October 2017. At the time, the Tubbs Fire was the most destructive wildfire in California history, burning parts of Napa, Sonoma, and
Lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
counties, inflicting its greatest losses in the city of
Santa Rosa Santa Rosa is the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish name for Saint Rose. Santa Rosa may also refer to: Places Argentina *Santa Rosa, Mendoza, a city * Santa Rosa, Tinogasta, Catamarca * Santa Rosa, Valle Viejo, Catamarca *Santa Rosa, La Pampa * Sa ...
. Its destructiveness was surpassed only a year later by the Camp Fire of 2018. The Tubbs Fire was one of more than a dozen large fires that broke out in early October 2017, which were simultaneously burning in eight Northern California counties, in what was called the "Northern California firestorm". By the time of its containment on October 31, the fire was estimated to have burned ; at least 22 people were believed to have been killed in Sonoma County by the fire. The fire started near Tubbs Lane in the rural northern part of Calistoga, in Napa County. It destroyed more than 5,643 structures, half of which were homes in Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa's economic loss from the Tubbs Fire was estimated at $1.2 billion (2017 USD), with five percent of the city's housing stock destroyed. The Tubbs Fire also incurred an additional $100 million in fire suppression costs. After an investigation lasting over a year, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (
Cal Fire The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is the fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in the U.S. state of California. It is responsible for fire protection in various areas under state responsibi ...
) determined that the Tubbs Fire was "caused by a private electrical system adjacent to a residential structure" and that there had been no violations of the state's Public Resources Code.


Timeline


October 8

The Tubbs Fire started near Tubbs Lane in Calistoga, around 9:43 p.m. on Sunday, October 8. As it and other North Bay fires began to spread, Sonoma County emergency dispatchers sent fire crews to at least 10 reports of downed power lines and exploding transformers. In northern Santa Rosa, the peak wind gusts at 9:29 p.m. hit 30 mph; an hour later, they were 41 mph. Pushed by strong winds from the northeast, the front of the fire moved more than twelve miles in its first three hours. The
Mark West Springs Mark West Springs is set of springs in eastern Santa Rosa, California that were used as a resort since 1880 and perhaps earlier. Mark West Springs is located on Porter Creek Road in the Mayacamas Mountains. Mark West Creek flows through the com ...
area, north of Santa Rosa in unincorporated Sonoma County, was directly in the path of the fire. Notably, over a thousand animals at the renowned
Safari West Safari West is a private wildlife preserve located 12 miles north of the city of Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, California, United States, owned and operated by Nancy and Peter Lang. The selection of wildlife emphasizes species native to Africa ...
Wildlife Preserve remained unharmed, saved by owner Peter Lang, who, at age of 76, single-handedly fought back the flames for more than 10 hours, using only garden hoses. Sonoma County officials could have sent out an emergency alert to every cellphone in the region on Sunday night as the fire grew, but chose not to, saying such a widespread alarm would have hampered emergency efforts. Instead, location based SMS and email alerts were broadcast – the first of these text messages going out at 10:51 pm, using a system called SoCo Alerts to notify people via cellphone; both are limited to those who sign up for these services. Officials also used a
reverse 911 Reverse 9-1-1 is a public safety communications technology used by public safety organizations in Canada and the United States to communicate with groups of people in a defined geographic area. The system uses a database of telephone numbers and as ...
system that called landlines in certain areas. At 11:58 pm, firefighters called for an evacuation order encompassing the area between the cities of Calistoga and Santa Rosa.


October 9

The Puerto Vallarta restaurant burns on October 9, 2017 Smoldering remains of the Journey's End Mobile Home Park on October 9, 2017 Staircase leading to the west wing buildings of the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country Hotel on November 17, 2017 Overlook view of the damage to the Fountaingrove Inn (foreground) and Journey's End The historic Fountaingrove Round Barn before and after the fire By 1 a.m. on Monday, the fire, spreading quickly to the south and west, had reached the Santa Rosa city limits. The advancing flames entered the city from the north, moving into the Fountaingrove area, then moving down ravines between Mark West Springs Road and Fountaingrove Parkway. At about 1:30 am, Sonoma County officials began to evacuate neighborhoods in and around Santa Rosa. In all, tens of thousands of people were evacuated with very little notice.Fires burn across Sonoma and Napa counties as thousands flee devastating flames
Santa Rosa Press-Democrat ''The Press Democrat'', with the largest circulation in California's North Bay, is a daily newspaper published in Santa Rosa, California. History The newspaper was founded in 1897 by Ernest L. Finley who merged his ''Evening Press'' and Thomas ...
, October 9, 2017
By about 2 am, the fire, carried by near hurricane-level winds, had spread further to the west, crossing
Highway 101 Highway 101 was an American country music band founded in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. The initial lineup consisted of Paulette Carlson (lead vocals), Jack Daniels (guitar), Curtis Stone (bass guitar, vocals), and Scott "Cactus" Moser (drums) ...
. By 4:30 am, the winds had reached their peak speed of more than 60 miles per hour. The fire devastated the Coffey Park neighborhood, where an estimated 1,300 structures, mostly detached homes, were leveled. Meanwhile, east of the highway, the Fountaingrove Inn, the historic Fountaingrove Round Barn nearby, and a large Hilton hotel were destroyed; 116 of the 160 units at the Journey's End Mobile Home Park burned to the ground, while the remainder of the park was later red-tagged due to heavy damage. Other damage along several streets bordering Highway 101 included a
Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...
store and numerous restaurants that burned to the ground. By noon on Monday, two medical centers in Santa Rosa,
Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser P ...
and Sutter Health, had been evacuated. Some Kaiser employees reportedly used their personal vehicles to evacuate some of the 130 patients at that hospital. The destruction on Monday also included the complete loss of a senior living complex, Oakmont of Villa Capri; Hidden Valley Satellite, a primary school; and the Santa Rosa portion of Paradise Ridge Winery. The Cardinal Newman High School campus was badly damaged, as was one end of the Luther Burbank Center for the Performing Arts. Redwood Adventist Academy was also destroyed in the fire. Another large concentration of burned homes was in the
Larkfield-Wikiup Larkfield-Wikiup is a census-designated place unincorporated area in Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 8,884 at the 2010 census, up from 7,479 at the 2000 census. It comprises the Mark West area between Santa Rosa (to th ...
area, about a mile north of the city, where about 500 buildings were destroyed. Of the 2,900 homes destroyed in Santa Rosa, over 200 of them belonged to doctors associated with the area's hospitals, including Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Hospital's Santa Rosa Center, and Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Additionally, the fire destroyed Santa Rosa Community Health's Vista Campus, the largest in its system, which served 24,000 people annually.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building, in San Francisco, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 milli ...
cut off natural gas to 31,000 customers in the Santa Rosa and Windsor areas as a precaution.


October 10

Wind direction turned clockwise from northeasterly to southerly (compare MODIS satellite images). At a town hall meeting on the evening of October 10 in Santa Rosa,
Cal Fire The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is the fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in the U.S. state of California. It is responsible for fire protection in various areas under state responsibi ...
representatives reported that there could be as many as 3,000 structures lost to the Tubbs and
Atlas fire The Atlas Fire was a 2017 wildfire burning in Napa County, California north of the city of Napa, near Napa Soda Springs. It was one of fourteen large fires simultaneously burning in eight Northern California counties, in what was called the " ...
s.


October 11

On Wednesday, October 11, the entire town of Calistoga was evacuated; about 2,000 people were asked to leave. The escape for some was along roads walled by flames. The Lake County Sheriff's Office issued an advisory evacuation notice for residents in the Middletown area, to the north of Calistoga. One active part of the fire was east of the town of Windsor, with the fire burning from Shiloh ridge to Chalk Hill Road and Knights Valley.


October 12

As of 7 a.m. on Thursday, the Tubbs Fire had burned 34,270 acres, and was 10 percent contained. In the city of Santa Rosa, officials said that the fire had destroyed an estimated 2,834 homes, along with about 400,000 square feet of commercial space. As of Thursday morning, efforts continued to be focused on two areas: * Near the northwest corner of Napa County, firefighters were battling the fire around Mount St. Helena, but they started pulling back before noon; the fire had hopped Highway 29, which runs adjacent to the mountain north of the evacuated town of Calistoga. There was no fire activity in the town itself, with the blaze spreading north and east of Calistoga through rugged terrain into Lake County, south of Middletown. By Thursday afternoon, only a few dozen people had refused to evacuate from Calistoga. * In northern Sonoma County, the fire was being monitored in the area to the east of
Healdsburg Healdsburg is a city located in Sonoma County, in California's Wine Country. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 11,254. Owing to its three most important wine-producing regions (the Russian River, Dry Creek, and Alexander Valle ...
and
Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
. Sonoma County ordered Rio Lindo Adventist Academy, a boarding school on the outskirts of Healdsburg near the edge of the Tubbs fire, to prepare to evacuate if necessary. Among the losses reported on Thursday was the destruction of the Santa Rosa hillside home of late ''
Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...
'' creator
Charles Schulz Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz (; November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', featuring what are probably his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. He is wid ...
; his widow, Jean Schulz, escaped unhurt. By Thursday evening, 28,000 customers in the Santa Rosa and Windsor areas still had not had their gas service restored.


October 13–31

On Friday morning, October 13, the fire was 25 percent contained. It remained about two miles outside of Calistoga's city limits. A fire erupted in the hills east of Oakmont late Friday night, prompting the mandatory evacuation of neighborhoods early Saturday morning from Calistoga Road to Adobe Canyon Road, along Highway 12. The zone included several schools and the Oakmont Village retirement neighborhood. Evacuations for the area were lifted by late the following Wednesday. By Saturday morning, October 14, the fire was 44 percent contained. A "small army of firefighters and police" was positioned between where the fire was most active, north of Calistoga, and the city itself. In the Fountaingrove area of Santa Rosa, firefighters and utility crews combed through the ruins left by the fire. Fire officials searched for dangerous hot spots that could re-ignite the blaze, and utility workers began cleaning up the demolished neighborhoods.


Containment progress


Comparison to the Hanly Fire

In 1964, the Hanly Fire, the third largest fire in Sonoma County history, burned 52,700 acres, with striking similarities to the Tubbs Fire. The damage caused by the two fires differed dramatically, however: since 1964, hundreds of expensive homes, a golf course and clubhouse restaurant, office and medical buildings, light industry, lakeside retirement homes, a long row of nursing facilities, and two hotels were built in the Fountaingrove area, which had been almost entirely open land in 1964. The path the Hanly Fire took in 1964 began in Calistoga, then along Porter Creek and Mark West Springs roads into Sonoma County, burning homes along Mark West Springs and Riebli roads, through Wikiup, and to Mendocino Avenue, where it stopped, across the street from Journey's End Mobile Home Park. The fire was propelled by 70 mph winds, close to hurricane strength; it initially went east from Calistoga, but on the third day its direction switched, going south-west from Calistoga to Santa Rosa in only about half a day. The Hanly Fire only destroyed a few dozen homes, as the area it burned was so sparsely settled in 1964. Sonoma County has four "historic wildfire corridors," including the Hanly Fire area. New homes in the fire zones are required to meet building code requirements for fire-resistant materials for siding, roofing and decks, with protected eaves to keep out windblown embers. Those measures made little difference in the Tubbs Fire. For example, despite a 100-foot fire break that ringed much of the Fountaingrove II subdivision, which consisted of 600 upscale homes in the same path as the Hanly Fire, virtually the entire subdivision was destroyed by the Tubbs Fire.


News and social media coverage

The fire was covered extensively and in depth by news outlets from around the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
and beyond. In addition to local coverage,
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
and
Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
were on scene in Sonoma County, focusing primarily on northern Santa Rosa. The majority of communication regarding the fire came from social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook,
Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before the ...
and Nixle. From October 9 through 13, Snapchat ran a geolocation tagging filter to isolate material about the fire, and these posts were featured on the Discover page. By October 11, over 12,000 videos and images had been uploaded to Snapchat. Donald Laird, an instructor at
Santa Rosa Junior College Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) is a public community college in Santa Rosa, California with an additional campus in Petaluma and centers in surrounding Sonoma County. Santa Rosa Junior College was modeled as a feeder school for the University ...
, and Richard Dunn, a local photographer, submitted featured posts. Twitter analytics revealed that the majority of tweets about the Tubbs Fire were posted on October 11. The ''Press Democrat'' staff also won the 2018
Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting The Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting is a Pulitzer Prize awarded for a distinguished example of breaking news, local reporting on news of the moment. It has been awarded since 1953 under several names: *From 1953 to 1963: Pulitzer Priz ...
for "lucid and tenacious coverage of historic wildfires that ravaged the city of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County".


Cause of the fire

Suspicion for the cause of the fire fell on energy company Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), but the company seemed to be cleared of responsibility in this incident after Cal Fire released the results of its investigation on January 24, 2019, upon which news the company's stock price jumped dramatically. However, some private experts disagreed and thought PG&E lines arcing might still have been the cause. On August 14, 2019, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge
Dennis Montali Dennis Montali (born May 20, 1940) is an American attorney and jurist who served as a United States bankruptcy judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California. Early life and education Montali was born in 19 ...
, the federal judge for the PG&E bankruptcy proceedings, presided over a hearing for victims of the Tubbs Fire, and they presented their case for a fast-track state civil trial by jury to resolve if PG&E is at fault for the Tubbs Fire, rather than customer equipment causing the fire as determined by Cal Fire. The judge's ruling on this trial had important ramifications for how Tubbs Fire victims were to be compensated and the schedule for the bankruptcy. On August 16, 2019, the judge ruled that the trial can proceed "on a parallel track" because "it advances the goals of this bankruptcy." A fast-track jury trial in state court could reach a verdict in January or early February. This trial was scheduled to begin January 7, 2020 in San Francisco. PG&E needed to get its bankruptcy plan approved by June 30, 2020 to be included in the fund for fire costs created by the new state law AB 1054. After the judge's ruling, the company's stock price sank by 25%. On December 6, 2019, PG&E proposed to settle the wildfire victim claims for a total of $13.5 billion, which would cover liability for its responsibility originating from the
Camp Fire A campfire is a fire at a campsite that provides light and warmth, and heat for cooking. It can also serve as a beacon, and an insect and predator deterrent. Established campgrounds often provide a stone or steel fire ring for safety. Campfires ...
, Butte Fire, and also a series of wildfires beginning on October 8, 2017, collectively called the 2017 North Bay Fires. (The Tubbs Fire is considered to be one of the 2017 North Bay Fires.) The offer was tendered as part of PG&E's plan to exit bankruptcy. The court case was superseded by the PG&E Restructuring Support Agreement (RSA) of December 9, 2019 and by the bankruptcy reorganization plan, wherein PG&E accepted liability for the Tubbs Fire.


Wildfire victim claims

On July 1, 2020, the PG&E Fire Victim Trust (FVT) was established as part of the reorganization plan of the 2019 bankruptcy of PG&E to administer the claims of the wildfire victims. Also on July 1, PG&E funded the Fire Victim Trust (FVT) with $5.4 billion in cash and 22.19% of stock in the reorganized PG&E, which covers most of the obligations of its settlement for the wildfire victims. PG&E has two more payments totaling $1.35 billion in cash, scheduled to be paid in January 2021 and January 2022, to complete its obligations to the wildfire victims.


See also

*
2017 California wildfires In terms of property damage, 2017 was the most destructive wildfire season on record in California at the time, surpassed by only the 2018 season and the 2020 season, with a total of 9,560 fires burning of land, according to the California Dep ...
*
Joe Rodota Trail The Joe Rodota Trail is a 8.5-mile (13.7 km) paved rail trail in Sonoma County, California that spans from near the intersection of Mill Station Road and Highway 116 in Sebastopol to the area of West 3rd Street and Roberts Avenue in Santa Rosa. T ...
homeless encampment following the Tubbs Fire *
Atlas Fire The Atlas Fire was a 2017 wildfire burning in Napa County, California north of the city of Napa, near Napa Soda Springs. It was one of fourteen large fires simultaneously burning in eight Northern California counties, in what was called the " ...
*
Cedar Fire (2003) The Cedar Fire was a massive, highly-destructive wildfire, which burned of land in San Diego County, California, during October and November 2003. The fire's rapid growth was driven by the Santa Ana wind, causing the fire to spread at a rate o ...
*
Thomas Fire The Thomas Fire was a massive wildfire that affected Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, and one of multiple wildfires that ignited in southern California in December 2017. It burned approximately before being fully contained on January 12 ...
*
Witch Fire The Witch Creek Fire, also known as the Witch Fire and the Witch-Guejito–Poomacha Complex Fire, was the second-largest wildfire of the 2007 California wildfire season, and the largest one of the October 2007 California wildfires. Although the ...
*
List of California wildfires This is a partial and incomplete list of California wildfires. California has dry, windy, and often hot weather conditions from spring through late autumn that can produce moderate to severe wildfires. Pre-1800, when the area was much more for ...


Explanatory notes


References


External links


CAL FIRE Incident Information

NASA Worldview
moderate-resolution satellite image interface
USGS Earth Explorer
Landsat image interface {{California wildfires by deaths 2017 California wildfires History of Santa Rosa, California Wildfires in Napa County, California Wildfires in Sonoma County, California October 2017 events in the United States