There are many stories to tell from the morning of October 9. Tales of tragedy and heroism, lives lost and many more lives saved. I can tell you that working in the City’s emergency operations center to evacuate residents that night was the scariest night of my career. I was in no danger there, but listening to the Santa Rosa Police Officers’ radio traffic about the rescues they were carrying out in Fountaingrove, Skyfarm, Journey’s End Mobile Home Park, Coffey Park, and elsewhere had me convinced that the loss of life that night would be extreme. The heroism on display from police officers, firefighters, sheriff’s deputies, bus drivers, residents, and many others was amazing to witness. I believe it is because of these extraordinary efforts that so many were saved. We want to bring you some of the stories of that night, and this first recounting brings you just a small portion of the events of October 8 and 9.
Officer Andy Adams is a Santa Rosa patrol officer who was working swing shift the night of the fires, and began evacuating people from the area of Skyfarm and St. Andrews Drive at about 11:30 pm. As he tells it, the fire moved so quickly that it engulfed the area where he and Officer Eric St. Germain were driving. As they worked to evacuate residents they found a woman who lived in the 3900 block of St. Andrews Drive, trying to escape the firestorm. They told her to follow them out by driving her car between the two patrol cars. The fire was blowing across the road in their path however, and they had to turn around. The smoke was so thick that it was nearly impossible to see and the woman ran into the curb on one side of the road, and then the other. Officer Adams passed her and led the way out by driving with the reflective centerline markers between his tires. Even then, a burning tree had fallen across the road and almost prevented their escape. The two officers got the woman out of harm’s way, then went back into the fire to rescue more people.
In the 3700 block of Skyfarm Drive, Officer Adams and Officer Dave Pedersen found several people at a house down a long driveway. The first man they encountered there said he couldn’t get out, so they told him to get in Officer Pedersen’s car. The man also said his family was inside but couldn’t get out because the power was out and the garage door wouldn’t open. Officer Adams ran in the house, popped the emergency release on the door and opened it so the family could escape in their own car. The officers continued their work and evacuated residents from the Hopper Lane Apartments and Coffey Park once the fire had jumped Highway 101. At one home on Keoke Court, Officer Adams, Officer St. Germain and others carried a number of wheelchair bound elderly residents to their patrol cars as “fire whirls” or tornados of burning embers blew around them. Near the end of what would have been Officer Adams’ twelve and a half hour shift his radio battery died and he had to go back to the police department for a replacement, where he met up with Sergeant Pehlke.
Sgt. Pehlke was not supposed to work that night, but came in at about 3 am when he got the call about the firestorm. He met Officer Adams at the police department and since Patrol cars were getting scarce they paired up to rescue more people.
Their first call together was to the Varenna Senior Living Apartments. As they drove up Fountaingrove Parkway, the fire had burned many of the buildings in the area and was burning within feet of the road. They had to dodge burning trees that had blown down in the heavy winds and blocked the road. When they got to Varenna they found a woman trying to evacuate her mother from a building that was already on fire. They found dozens of elderly residents in the lobby of the smoke-filled building, and along with other officers checked the building for any other people. The heroic woman they had encountered loaded 4-5 of the residents into her car, while Sgt. Pehlke and Officer Adams were able to get more officers and city buses there to evacuate the rest of the residents.
After completing those rescues they had to help rescue an elderly woman who was trapped in a motel room near the bottom of Fountaingrove Parkway, and then were sent back to Varenna and eventually to an address on Tall Pine Circle. A woman had called 911 to say she had evacuated her house there, but her husband was trapped and that the house was on fire. Sgt. Pehlke and Officer Adams found the whole neighborhood engulfed in flames, with fire a mere three to four feet from their patrol car as they drove in. They got to the house in question and although all the houses around it were burning, it had not yet caught fire. They found the elderly man in his bedroom and walked him to their patrol car as burning embers blew all around them. Sgt. Pehlke saw the man had no clothes, so he ran back into the house and grabbed some clothing as well as several pictures hanging on the walls.
The three fled the house, driving through the blowing embers and fire to deliver the man safely at at the Veteran’s Memorial Building shelter before they drove back into Fountaingrove to conduct more rescues. As they drove up the hill from Brush Creek Road though, they smelled the odor of burning rubber and saw smoke pouring through the air vents on their dashboard. Sgt. Pehlke made a quick U-turn to get out of the fire zone and then saw flames licking up at his feet from the floor of the car. They got to the bottom of the hill and jumped out of the car, quickly grabbing the computer, rifle and shotgun before it was completely engulfed in flames.
Even though their car burned, their work continued and they were quickly back out in a different vehicle to continue the evacuations. The picture shown here is the patrol car they had been driving shortly after they got out. This is the kind of extraordinary work that we saw over and over during the fires of October. We look forward to sharing more of them with you, and invite you to share your stories with us. As Chief Schreeder has said, everyone was a first responder that night, and people looking out for their friends, family, and neighbors showed incredible selflessness and heroism. Their stories should be told as well.
Thank you for reading.
– Craig Schwartz
This post was originally published on November 11, 2017 on the Santa Rosa Police Department Facebook Page.
