An estimated 3,500 homes and business were destroyed in the fires. Local officials and residents won't know the full extent of the damage until evacuation orders are lifted.
Luke Baier salvaged a block of concrete that he and his brothers left their handprints on as children. There was little else left of his house.
About 8,000 people lived in Coffey Park and a neighboring subdivision.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
"A few hours ago, we had a house," fellow resident Chavette Chaney told the San Francisco Chronicle. She clutched her husband's arm and cried in their blackened driveway.
Lisa Layman, who lived in Coffey Park for more than 20 years, couldn't recognize her home when she returned Tuesday. "It all just looked like junk," Layman told the Times.
Source: New York Times
Satellite images provide a different view. DigitalGlobe, a satellite-imaging company, released some of the first close-up views of the disaster from orbit. Here's Santa Rosa.
The company took these images early this week with its WorldView-3 and GeoEye-1 satellites.
"Some of these are natural color, while others are shown in the Very Near Infrared (VNIR), where burned areas appear gray and black and healthy vegetation is red," DigitalGlobe told Business Insider's Dave Mosher in an emailed statement.
From above, you can make out the erratic nature of the burn. In a cul-de-sac, homes on one side of the street were charred in the flames, but a colorful few appeared to be unscathed.
Police cars came through Coffey Park around 1:30 a.m on Monday., telling people to clear out over the loudspeaker. "We had a half-hour to pack everything," a resident told the New York Times.
Source: New York Times
Two of the largest fires — the Tubbs and Atlas fires — are believed to have begun near Highway 128 in Napa. Strong, dry winds fanned the flames from ridge top to ridge top overnight.
Coffey Park has been described as a "little slice of the American dream," where a vibrant mix of Latinos, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Indians, and white people lived in modest homes.
"It looks like a bomb went off," said one resident. "A nuke bomb," added her husband.
Source: New York Times
