Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano told reporters on Tuesday that despite rumors to the contrary, the arsonist recently arrested in a Sonoma park and booked by SCSO, who also happened to be an undocumented immigrant, was not arrested on charges that he started the catastrophic and deadly North Bay fires.

But you wouldn’t know that from the online pages of the right-wing Breitbart, which reported today:

“The U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) issued a detainer request on the Sonoma County Jail for Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, who was arrested Sunday on suspicion of arson in Wine Country fires that have killed at least 40 residents.”

Emphasis added: Nice try, guys.

As Giordano noted: Yes, Gonzalez was a homeless man arrested on felony arson charges and was, said Giordano, a known quantity to SCSO. Gonzalez lit a fire under a bridge to stay warm, he told police. Breitbart wasn’t buying it, given the warm temperatures.

The sheriff cautioned against anyone coming to any conclusion about how the fire was set while it is still under investigation (downed power lines may have been the cause of the multiple fires that erupted while hurricane-force winds blew through the North Bay, but no official causes have been determined).

The Breitbart article links to a Press Democrat report on the arrest, which took place on the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 8, hours before numerous wind-blown infernos forced people from their homes throughout the region.

Reported the PD: “Sheriff’s Deputy John Grohl was called to the scene and extinguished the fire, which was then completely doused by Sonoma Valley Fire Protection District personnel.”

“Completely doused.” Did you catch that, Breitbart boys?

So yes, Gonzalez was arrested on arson charges. But no, he was not arrested on arson charges “in Wine Country fires that have killed at least 40 residents,” despite what Breitbart is pimping to its collapsing subscriber base of white nationalist mouth-breathers.

Santa Rosa Police Chief Hank Schreeder says his first planned recreational activity once the ash settles—“is, honestly, to get some sleep.” He’s not alone among the sleep-deprived first responders of Sonoma County this week, as the go-go juice du jour has been coffee and lots of it, provided on the arm to first responders by Peet’s throughout the crisis.

Schreeder regularly attends SRPD-sponsored Coffee with a Cop events, which are designed to foster community and communication between cops and the citizens they are sworn to protect. And wouldn’t you know it but National Coffee with a Cop Day was just a few short days ago on Oct. 4. Seems like a thousand cups ago.

The chief was one of numerous law enforcement officials on hand for the 1 p.m. press conference today at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, where he reported that SRPD had made 18 arrests over the past week that involved some form of fire-related burglary, theft or looting. His department has also been involved in the missing-persons search along with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and there are currently 26 persons on the SRPD list who remain unaccounted for. The bleary eyes are abounding in the second week of the wildfire disaster, but so to is a gleaming-eye sense of cautious optimism that the flames may be extinguished by the weekend..

Schreeder has been consistent in his repeated praise for the vast and ongoing assistance that has come from outside law enforcement agencies—but he’s not so keen on other forces coming in from the outside to commit crimes once the fires are out. Asked about a potential post-fire spike in crime in Santa Rosa, he said last week SRPD had concerns about “people [who] come from outside areas” to commit crimes, as residents grieve and sift through the ashes and try to fully absorb what the hell just happened to their city.

On Sunday morning Oct 15, as patients flooded into Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, medical staff struggled not only to keep pace with the influx but also with the anxiety that they, too, would lose their homes. More than 130 doctors and nurses lost their homes in the blaze. As evacuation orders are lifted and people return to their homes or what is left of them, this number is expected to rise.

Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital has seen 1,200 patients this week, compared to a typical weekly average of 700. SRMH was the largest trauma center in the three counties affected by the North Bay fires and took in patients from Kaiser and Sutter Hospitals, which were closed. Sutter opened today. Oct. 17 and Kaiser has partially reopened.

Cambria Reese, a registered nurse who was working the night shift when fire broke out, discovered that her home and her parents’ home near Larkfield were in danger.

“Thankfully a neighbor contacted them and got them out,” Reese said. “I eventually reached them after they evacuated, but there certainly was a time of uncertainty.”

Reese spent a few nerve-racking hours waiting for contact from her family. In the meanwhile, she focused on her work and relied on her faith to get her through.

“We started having patients who were listening to the news and getting anxious who had family members evacuated as well,” Reese said. “I just tried to be there and stay calm for them.”

Reese was one of many working to care for victims with the knowledge that they, too, were affected by the fire.

“A lot of the people working on the nighttime shift were unable to get to their homes and couldn’t go for their pets and valuables,” says Todd Salnas, President of St Joseph Health Sonoma County.

Like the rest of the community, healthcare providers at SRMH will now struggle to house its employees.

“We’ve had a housing issue that has been well documented in this area for a long time,” Salnas said. “We’re looking at a short-term way so people can have a roof over their heads so they can carry out their duties here at the hospital as well as taking care of their families.”

To cope, SRMH has been running two additional shifts a day to handle the influx of patients.

“We started to get burn victims at 2pm,” said Dr. Brian Schmidt, Medical Director of Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. “There were a lot of patients in the hall and there were five major burn victims in the first four hours.”

The burn victims were transferred to UC Davis and Saint Francis.
“We had a gentleman who was found in his pool, burned on his head and his hands,” Schmidt said. “He lost his wife. One of our radiologists was trying to save his dog, which got caught in the terrible fire on both sides of the driveway. He risked his life trying to save his dog, but he became one of the victims around 7 or 8am.”

Despite the tragedy wrought by the fire, SRMH welcomed 36 babies as closures of Kaiser and Sutter Hospitals brought mothers to deliver their babies at SRMH.

“This was three times more than normal of our normal expected birth rate,” said Chief Nursing Officer Vicki White. “This is going to be a great story for them when they get older.”

The long-term adverse health effects of smoke and particle inhalation will take time to determine. As flu season approaches compromised, immune systems may be compromised as well.

However, first responders, who have inhaled fumes from melting paint, wood and metal face a significant health risk. Until the smoke risk has cleared, doctors still recommend wearing N95-rated masks.

When the fires started, Shotsie and Kristine Gorman split Sonoma County and left behind their Tarot Art and Tattoo Gallery in the city of Sonoma last week—headed for the relatively cleaner atmo of San Francisco.

Evacuation orders are now falling fast and Shotsie says he’s returning to the shop on Wednesday this week and will be inking “Sonoma Strong” tattoos from noon til closing—with proceeds to go toward relief efforts.

“There have been Sonoma Strong images and signs everywhere here!,” says Shotsie, who will tattoo any version of the instantly iconic slogan and send along proceeds to a gofundme site set up to buy supplies for fire victims:

https://www.gofundme.com/fire-victim-fund-for-supplies