His area fire is called Redwood Complex fire near Ukiah. It was a sudden firestorm.
He had to drive thru fire to escape. No evac calls, just a neighbor came and told him to get out. He's in shock. Grateful to be alive.

So sorry for your friend's loss.

Even though they now have planes to drop fire fighting chemicals the visibility is so bad they have grounded all aircraft.

If the tweet from local reports I saw earlier today are still true, there is ZERO containment.