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Winds Die Down, Bring Relief After Weeks of California Wildfires

Associated Press

   WINDSOR, CALIF. - Lynn Darst and her husband were camped out in their
   motor home on the edge of their seats for four days wondering if their
   house would survive yet another wildfire menacing Sonoma County.

   Flames had come close to their neighborhood of spacious homes
   surrounded by vineyards two years ago and danger was closing in again.

   "We were comfortable, but fearful of what the consequences could be,"
   Darst said Thursday, the day after finding her home had been spared
   once again.

   Darst was among the nearly 200,000 residents allowed to return home
   even as the fire burned along with several other blazes in the state.
   They were the lucky ones, at least 140 homes had been destroyed in the
   Sonoma fire.

   The blaze was the largest to burn over a three-week siege of vicious
   gusts that fanned fast-moving wildfires across California and led
   utility companies to cut power to millions to prevent winds from
   blowing branches into electric lines and igniting an inferno.

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