It was 11:19 p.m. on Oct. 8, and a panicked caller to Sonoma County’s 911 dispatch center was incredulous the operator wasn’t aware her world had exploded in flames.
“What’s on fire?” the 911 dispatcher asked.
Everything, the caller said. The trees, the houses, anything standing on Mountain Home Ranch Road in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains. Propane tanks were exploding. The neighborhood needed a fire engine “an hour ago,” she said.
“How big is the fire? Huge,” she said. “Acres. Hundreds of acres. Nobody’s been warned about this.” People would die, she feared.
Less than two hours earlier, a wildfire had erupted off Tubbs Lane outside Calistoga. Hot, dry Diablo winds drove the fire west, up and over the mountains that border Sonoma County and down into a landscape of ranches and rural subdivisions on the eastern outskirts of Santa Rosa.