Kincade Fire forces residents to flee; one couple has moved 6 times in 2 years
Olga Wiens and her sister fled Geyserville, Calif. for safety at an evacuation center. Oct. 24, 2019
HEALDSBURG, Calif. - With a raging wildfire threatening homes and lives, the entire community of Geyserville in the heart of Wine Country evacuated early Thursday morning, forcing people to rush out of bed and grab anything they could as they fled to safety.
It was an all too familiar situtation for Mary Ceglarski-Sherwin and her husband Matt Ceglarski-Sherwin.
They couple has been forced to move from different homes six different times since the Santa Rosa Tubbs Fire in 2017.
"We're hoping that we still have a place to live when we go back," Matt Ceglarski-Sherwin said.
Mary Ceglarski-Sherwin said at 3 a.m. she told her husband "we gotta go, we gotta go; I can feel it changing."
They left their home on River Road in Geyserville, a community of about 900 residents and a popular stop for wine country tourists, to find refuge at an evacuation center, which had power for charging phones and a big parking lot to house livestock. The other evacuation center for residents fleeing the Kincade Fire was set up at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. The fire, which has now scorched 10,000 acres with no containment, has forced some 2,000 residents from their homes, Cal Fire said.
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Fred Giddings and his wife, who live in Alexander Valley near Geyserville, also left their home of 35 years that they built themselves.
"We just took the insurance papers and left,'' Giddings said.
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Olga Wiens and her sister also showed up at the Healdsburg Community Center. She's in her 80s and her sister was visiting her from Canada; she was also visiting during the North Bay wildfires two years ago.
"Thank God I wasn't alone," Wiens said through an air mask. She said that never before had she seen police banging on doors with such urgency to get people to leave. She felt grateful that she got out alive and was able to also carry out her beloved pet.
"This poor bird is 22 years old and can't walk," she said. "I couldn't leave him there."
KTVU's Lisa Fernandez contributed to this report.