Bodega Bay firefighters recall early hours against the Tubbs Fire
Lou Stoerzinger was in Two Rock when he got the call about the Tubbs Fire. The Bodega Bay fire captain listened as some of the county’s most senior chiefs described the situation.
“They said that Calistoga to Santa Rosa needed to be evacuated immediately,” Stoerzinger said.
Their voices were direct, but shaken.
“Usually these guys are as cool as the other side of the pillow,” Stoerzinger said. “They don’t get shaken. But you could hear the stress in their voices.”
They had good reason: The Tubbs Fire roared at an unprecedented rate, fueled by 60- and 70-mph wind gusts. In less than 24 hours the fire spanned more than 50 square miles, screaming through Mark West Springs, Larkfield and Wikiup and Fountaingrove before scorching its way close to Sutter and Kaiser hospitals. It jumped Highway 101, threatening the Piner Road and Fulton area of northwest Santa Rosa, eating up Coffey Park in its path.
Stoerzinger stood outside the Bodega Bay Fire Protection District station Friday afternoon with Ryan Hamilton, a full-time firefighter and paramedic, Josh Menzies, a full-time firefighter and Lynda Hopkins, Sonoma County’s Fifth District Supervisor. Hopkins pulled into the station Friday afternoon during her daily route checking west county evacuation centers, volunteer organizations and fire stations.
“These guys are just amazing,” Hopkins said, admitting she’s got a soft spot in her heart for the crew.
Hamilton, carrying a Sonoma County-branded bag, was on his way out of the station when Hopkins arrived. As they embraced, Stoerzinger and Menzies walked into the parking lot to say, “Hi” to the supervisor. The casual check-in quickly morphed into an impromptu recall of the effort, struggles, triumphs and tragedies the men experienced while fighting the early roar of the Tubbs Fire. As they talked, Bodega Bay’s famous wind blew the cool coastal air with such innocence it was hard to comprehend how destructive the wind, with its hurricane-force gales, was just four days before.
“It was more like a tornado of fire,” Hopkins said. “People don’t realize that.”
The winds that fed Tubbs Fire have been clocked as high as 79 mph, toppling over trees that fell onto power lines, according to a PG&E press release.
“The battle chiefs described it as a cloud coming over the area,” Menzies said. “A cloud of fire that consumed everything.”
When Stoerzinger arrived in Santa Rosa, there was a wall of fire, he said.
“It was six lanes across 101,” he said. “I had to use the force to find Mendocino Avenue.”
As he got off the highway, he saw the Fountaingrove Round Barn burst into flames.
“That’s where my wife and I got married,” he said.
Everything was on fire. They got their orders and went to work on Coffey Lane, trying row by row to stop the fire to no avail.
“We’d fall back a street and make a stand again,” Stoerzinger said. “Do it again.”
They were successful, however, in many areas.
“It’s amazing what we were able to save,” Stoerzinger said.
He told Hopkins when he was with his in-laws Thursday at Spud Point, a Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputy talked to him about the scene. Stoerzinger told the deputy he and his crew couldn’t save much but that they were able to save the corner of San Miguel and Gold Leaf.
“We were lucky there was a hydrant there,” Stoerzinger said. They hooked up to a hydrant, despite water pressure being low due to an overworked system, and began to fight back.
The deputy excused himself from their conversation, but returned moments later with his girlfriend.
“He said, ‘Hey, I want you to meet the man who saved your house,’” Stoerzinger said.
“We felt like we had made a difference. Of course, then we look across the SMART tracks and see everything’s on fire there.”
As one of the only fire departments with an ambulance, the Bodega Bay medic crew went into the evacuated zone, answering calls about injured people.
“We got a call about someone who had crashed trying to get out,” Stoerzinger said. They went into the hot area, looking for the car.
“We found an SUV that was smashed by a tree,” he said. “There was fire and wind and downed power lines whipping everywhere.”
They ran into a California Highway Patrol officer who had found the person. They booked it out.
The heat took a toll on the equipment.
“It was so hot,” Menzies said. “We went down Old Redwood Highway and fire was blowing everywhere — 40 mph winds with zero visibility. The wheel seal that holds the axles popped off and cracked.”
Menzies, who has two young boys, said the severity and intensity of the event didn’t hit him until a day later.
“When things calmed down, I checked on a family and on a house by the cemetery. They asked, ‘Are you ok?’ and it was in that moment that I realized how horrific it was. It just hits you. I’ve worked with Cal Fire and I’ve never seen a fire act like that. And it’s so different when its your home town.”
Menzies grew up in Santa Rosa, going to high school with former Fifth District Supervisor Efren Carillo.
Indicative, again, of the close-knit community that Sonoma County is, Menzies encountered Carrillo after the firestorm began to subside.
“I got a call for a structure fire,” he said. “It was a gas leak fire so I go there and there’s a guy there. It’s Efren and he’s at his parents’ house.”
They shared a big hug, taking their surroundings and the events of the last 24 hours in.
“The sheer number of people affected — everybody knows someone who has been affected. It’s completely insane,” Menzies said.
