Petaluma's Fire Risk Is Closer Than You Think
Sonoma County's deadliest fires burned within 15 miles of Petaluma. As California's wildfire footprint expands south and west, Petaluma's 60,000 residents face growing risk along the Sonoma Mountain border and grass-covered hillsides that ring the city.
Petaluma has historically considered itself insulated from wildfire — a river town on the western side of Sonoma County, more associated with dairy farms and Victorian architecture than fire danger. That perception is changing fast. The 2017 Wine Country fires burned to within 12 miles of Petaluma's eastern neighborhoods, blanketing the city in smoke for weeks and forcing residents to confront the reality that Sonoma County's fire problem doesn't stop at the ridgeline.
Petaluma sits in a transitional zone between the urbanized Highway 101 corridor and the open grasslands and oak woodlands of western Sonoma County. The city's eastern edge presses against the foothills of Sonoma Mountain, where residential development meets dry grass and oak savanna. To the north and south, rolling hills of annual grass — green in winter, golden-brown and combustible from May through November — surround suburban neighborhoods. This grass-oak interface is a different fire type than the chaparral-driven fires of Southern California, but it moves fast and generates enormous ember loads.