California wildfire evacuees return home to find devastation

SANTA ROSA (AP) — Nikki and Kevin Conant returned to their home in California's wine country Wednesday to find only the charred remains of their home and wine-barrel repurposing business.

“It was like a part of me is gone, burnt up in the fire. Everything we built here, everything we made here is gone," Nikki Conant said.

The couple, both 52, were preparing to evacuate Sunday when they saw an orange glow in the hills near their Santa Rosa rental home. Within 45 minutes, they could hear the trees crackling and propane tanks exploding as the blaze reached their community. They jumped in their car, and for what seemed like an eternity they were in bumper to bumper traffic.

“I thought we were going to burn alive. I really did. It was horrible,” Nikki Conant said.

Nikki sobbed when she spotted her burned chicken coop —her twelve beloved chickens all died in the fire. The couple repurposed old wine barrels into custom-made art and furniture, and all their tools were gone.

The Conants are among more than about 70,000 people under evacuation orders in the wine region north of San Francisco where the Glass Fire has incinerated at least 80 homes along with winery installations and other buildings.

Some residents say they are getting fed up with the annual evacuations and fire fears and are thinking of leaving California. But despite their harrowing experience, the Conants said they plan to remain in the area.

Their landlord already told them the home will be rebuilt and offered them to stay a trailer on the land while the house is finished, Nikki Conant said.

“This is home,” she said. “I was born and raised here, my family is here. I don’t have the heart to just give up and leave the area.”

Flames on Wednesday continued to tear through the region's rolling...