NATION
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 9A
At least 10 dead as fires burn in California wine country
By JEFF CHIU
and ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press
SANTA ROSA, Calif.
— Wildfires whipped by
powerful
winds
swept
through California wine
country Monday, killing at
least 10 people, destroying
1,500 homes and businesses
and sending thousands fleeing
as flames raged unchecked
through high-end resorts,
grocery stores and tree-lined
neighborhoods.
As he fled through the
ember-strewn streets of his
neighborhood in Santa Rosa,
Jeff Okrepkie knew it was
probably the last time he
would see his home of the
past five years standing.
His worst fears were
confirmed Monday morning,
when a friend sent him a
photo of what was left: a
smoldering heap of burnt
metal and debris.
“We live in the valley,
where it’s concrete and strip
malls and hotels and super-
markets,” Okrepkie said.
“The last thing you think is
a forest fire is going to come
and wipe us out.”
At least 10 people died and
two were seriously injured
in the blazes that started on
Sunday, fire officials said.
The flames were burning
“at explosive rates” because
of 50 mph winds, said Ken
Pimlott, director of the Cali-
fornia Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection.
Fourteen
large
fires
were burning, spread over a
200-mile region north of San
Francisco from Napa in the
south to Redding in the north.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a
state of emergency in Napa,
Sonoma and Yuba counties.
It was unusual to have so
many fires take off at the same
time, fire officials said, though
October has generally been
the most destructive time of
year for California wildfires.
The ferocity of the flames
forced authorities to focus
primarily on getting people
out safely, even if it meant
abandoning structures to the
fire. The fire area covered
more than 100 square miles
over eight counties.
AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
Napa County firefighter Jason Sheumann sprays water on a home as he battles flames from a wildfire Monday,
in Napa, Calif. Wildfires whipped by powerful winds swept through Northern California sending residents on a
headlong flight to safety through smoke and flames as homes burned.
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
Michael Short/San Francisco Chronicle via AP
The fire-ravaged Signorello Estate winery is seen
through a window Monday in Napa, Calif.
Smoke rises as a wildfire burns near Kenzo Estate in
Napa, Calif., Monday.
Elsewhere in the state, a
fire churning through canyons
in hilly neighborhoods of
Orange County burned
multiple homes and forced
residents of about 1,000
homes to evacuate.
Some of the largest blazes
were in Napa and Sonoma
counties, home to dozens of
The inferno blackened
miles along one of the main
gateways into wine country,
State Highway 12 into
Sonoma County. Wooden
fence posts and guard rails
burned fiercely. Thick smoke
roiled from one winery, JR
Cohn.
The fires also damaged the
wineries that attract tourists
from around the world. They
sent smoke as far south as
San Francisco, about 60 miles
(96 kilometers) away. What
caused the blazes was not
known.
Fires also burned in Yuba,
Butte and Nevada counties —
all north of the state capital.
Silverado Resort in Napa and
a Hilton hotel in Santa Rosa,
the largest city in the fire area,
with a population of about
175,000.
Kim Hoe, a 33-year-old
tech worker from Penang,
Malaysia, was staying at
the Hilton Sonoma Wine
Country, which was gutted
by flames. He said the power
went out around 1 a.m., and
he and his colleagues started
packing up when someone
knocked on the door and told
them to run.
“We just had to run and
run. It was full of smoke. We
could barely breathe. It was
dangerous,” Hoe said.
They returned in the
morning to find the hotel had
been destroyed along with
most of their possessions. Hoe
was relieved he had taken his
passport and a few essential
items.
Santa Rosa lost a Kmart,
restaurants and an unknown
number of businesses and
homes. The blaze shut down
schools and forced more
than 200 patients at two city
hospitals to evacuate.
Firefighters rushed to a
state home for the severely
disabled when flames reached
one side of the center’s
sprawling campus in the
historic Sonoma County town
of Glen Ellen. Emergency
workers leapt from their
cars to aid in the evacuation.
Crews got the more than 200
patients from the threatened
buildings, one firefighter said,
as flames closed within a few
dozen feet.
Residents throughout the
area described a headlong
flight to safety through smoke
and flames.
Mike Turpen, 38, was
at a bar in Glen Ellen early
Monday when a stranger
wearing a smoke mask ran
in and yelled that there was
a fire. Turpen raced home
through flames in his Ford
F-250.
“It was like Armageddon
was on,” Turpen said. “Every
branch of every tree was on
fire.”
He woke later to find all
his neighbors’ homes on fire,
but stayed behind to try to
defend his own rental home.
By late morning, Turpen,
wearing shorts, a kerchief
mask and goggles, was the
last man standing for miles
along one abandoned road.
His yard and all those around
him were burned, smoking
and still flaming in a few
spots. But his home was still
standing.
Trump’s list of immigration demands threaten DACA deal
WASHINGTON (AP) —
President Donald Trump’s
long list of immigration
demands has landed with
a thud among lawmakers
hopeful for a deal to protect
hundreds of thousands of
young immigrants from
deportation.
The list of demands
released late Sunday includes
funding for a southern border
wall and a crackdown on
so-called sanctuary cities
— items that are cheered by
the president’s most loyal
supporters, but are non-starters
among Democrats and could
divide Republicans, who will
have to come together on any
deal.
The demands have left
pro-immigration
activists
alarmed. And some are
scratching their heads, given
that the president appeared to
sign off on a more palatable
deal with Democrats just
weeks ago.
“To stall the progress that
Democrats and Republicans
have been fostering in giving
permanent relief to more than
800,000 DREAMers is sabo-
tage,” said U.S. Rep. Raúl
Grijalva, an Arizona Demo-
crat and frequent Trump critic.
House and Senate leaders
on both sides of the aisle
have said they want to find a
legislative solution to extend
protections first granted under
former President Barack
Obama’s Deferred Action
for
Childhood Arrivals
program, or DACA. Trump
announced last month that he
was phasing out DACA, but
gave Congress six months to
act before recipients’ work
permits begin to expire.
Trump suggested at the
time that he was eager for a
deal, telling reporters, “I have
a love for these people and
hopefully now Congress will
be able to help them and do it
properly.”
Days later, he appeared
to reach the broad outlines
of an agreement with the
House and Senate’s top
Democrats, Nancy Pelosi and
Chuck Schumer, in which the
president would be open to
extended DACA protections
in exchange for a package of
border security measures.
While Trump made clear
that he still expected funding
for his border wall, he said
repeatedly that the funding
could come later, in separate
legislation.
In a joint statement Sunday
night, Pelosi and Schumer
said Trump could not “be
serious about” the plan the
White House had unveiled,
which includes not only the
wall, but dozens of other
controversial
measures,
including a crackdown on
unaccompanied immigrant
minors and a complete over-
haul of the legal immigration
system.
Some of those who hope
to see DACA protections
extended said they remain
optimistic the president will
show flexibility, treating the
priorities as a policy wish-list
and starting point for negotia-
tion.
Others see the demands as
part of a plot orchestrated by
Trump’s chief policy adviser,
Stephen Miller, an immigra-
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
In this Oct. 7 photo, President Donald Trump speaks to
reporters before leaving the White House in Washing-
ton for a brief stop at Andrews Air Force Base in Md.,
on his way to Greensboro, N.C.
tion hardliner, to derail any
chance of a DACA deal.
“I don’t think President
Trump wants to be the pres-
ident who deports 700,000
young people,” said Ali
Noorani, executive director
of the National Immigration
Forum, who described the list
as a “big torpedo” to bipar-
tisan negotiations already
under way.
“I think the president’s staff
have led him into a corner,”
Noorani said, predicting
the president would “not be
happy when he realizes it.”
But one person familiar
with the president’s thinking
said the list was intended to
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make clear that Trump is no
longer interested in forging
a DACA deal, the same
message sent by a White
House official’s insistence
Sunday that any path to citi-
zenship for DACA recipients
was off the table.
After backing an estab-
lishment Senate candidate
who lost by 10 points in an
Alabama special election
last month, the president is
working to please his base
supporters, signing a new
religious liberty executive
order and broadcasting his
intention to decertify the Iran
nuclear deal.
“The president has made
clear he wants Congress to act
and pass responsible immi-
gration reform in conjunction
with any legislation related to
DACA, which will include
legal authorities to close
border security loopholes,
restoring interior enforce-
ment, and reforming the legal
immigration system,” said
White House spokeswoman
Kelly Love.
Presidential
counselor
Kellyanne Conway told Fox
News the president was “open
to a deal” on DACA but only
“along with all these other
critical functions.”
“You know for years, this
country, including Capitol
Hill and the swamp, they’ve
always asked: what more
can we do for the illegal
immigrant, what’s fair to
the illegal immigrant? This
president is asking: what’s fair
to America? What’s fair to the
American worker? What’s fair
to the American community?”
she said.
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