Multiple wine country wildfires cause residents to pack up and flee

KTVU Staff - As multiple fires raged across wine country, residents began on Monday to flee for safety, packing up their belongings, pets and medicine and run for their lives.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties, among others, as firefighters raced to quell the flames, which had damaged an unknown number of structures and caused an unknown number of injuries.

EVACUATIONS, ROAD AND SCHOOL CLOSURES

The biggest fire of them all was the Tubbs Fire in Napa County, where schools and roads were closed. By Monday morning, it had exploded from 200 acres to  35,000 acres, according to Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jonathan Cox. The fire spread from Highway 128 in Calistoga throughout the region, all the way to Santa Rosa.

Ron Dodds showed up early Monday to get his uncle.  "People are running red lights, there is chaos ensuing," he said. "It's a scary time.  It looks like Armageddon."

At Journey's End Mobile Park on Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa, one man named Fred told KTVU said incredulously, "I've never seen anything like this but on television."