The devastation of the fire that tore through Santa Rosa this month is hard to comprehend; entire neighborhoods have simply vanished. As you can see in these aerial shots, the results look consistent with a thorough aerial bombing campaign:
Image by Marcus Yam / L.A. Times
The view from on the ground is equally chilling:
All told nearly 3,000 buildings were destroyed and 34 people were killed.
One elderly couple, 70-year-old John Pascoe and 65-year-old wife Jan, found themselves trapped as the fire swept in. Unable to escape, they survived by spending six hours in a neighbor’s pool, as reported by the L.A. Times:
[The Pascoes] submerged themselves in the blackened, debris-filled water. They had grabbed T-shirts to hold over their faces to protect themselves from embers when they surfaced for air.
They moved to the part of the pool farthest from the house. John was worried about having to tread water, or hanging on to the side, which could be dangerous with all the burning objects flying around. Blessedly, the pool had no deep end. It was about 4 feet deep all the way across.
… [Jan] waited for the house to burn to the ground, for the fire to pass so they could warm themselves on the concrete steps. The wind howled and the sound of explosions filled the air. Propane tanks? Ammunition? They had no idea.
“I just kept going under,” she said. It was the only way to survive. “And I kept saying, ‘How long does it take for a house to burn down?’ We were freezing.”
She had tucked her phone into her shoe at the pool’s edge. When she saw it next, it had melted.
You can read the entire incredible story here.
http://www.core77.com/posts/69702/Improvised-Survival-Solution-Trapped-by-Santa-Rosa-Fire-Elderly-Couple-Submerges-Themselves-in-Neighbors-Pool-for-Six-Hours