SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) – Even before fire wiped out the home she rented for 17 years, Suzanne Finzell had thought about leaving this city on the edge of the San Francisco Bay Area because of rising prices. A spike in housing and other living costs had driven her friends to Nevada and Oregon.
Now Finzell wonders if that will be her fate too, as the wildfires that charred California wine country send thousands of people who lost their homes scrambling for new places to live in one of the nation’s tightest and most expensive housing markets.
“My generation heads into retirement with no chance of living in the places we grew up,” Finzell, 62, said Tuesday outside a Santa Rosa disaster-assistance center.
Meanwhile, authorities reported more progress against the flames. The deputy chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Wednesday that crews had stopped the movement of all fires.
Firefighters were helped by cooler weather and the lack of wind. Forecasters expect a tenth of an inch of rain in the affected areas on Thursday – not enough to quench any fires outright but still welcome.