New Wildfires Scorch California Wine Country, Destroying Buildings, Forcing Evacuations

Fierce, hot Diablo winds propelled new wildfires in California wine country overnight and into Monday, forcing thousands to evacuate as many homes and other structures burned.

The hardest hit community was Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, a city of 177,000, where an undetermined number of homes in its northeastern neighborhoods and suburbs went up in flames.

At least three distinct fires — dubbed Shady, Glass and Boysen — were merging into one, scorching large areas of Sonoma and Napa Counties, north of the San Francisco Bay Area.

“The Glass fire burned rapidly Sunday through Napa Valley’s famed Silverado Trail, known for its wineries,” reported the Los Angeles Times. “One building in flames was the distinctive stone structure at the Chateau Boswell Winery … northwest of St. Helena” in western Napa.

Many residents and nursing home patients were hurriedly evacuated ahead of the advancing flames.

No deaths or injuries were reported in these latest fires by Monday afternoon, but the Associated Press reports that so far in 2020 more than 8,100 California wildfires, mostly caused by light have destroyed more than 7,000 buildings and killed 26 people.

Watch more from CBS above.