Windsor home destroyed by fire

Fire destroyed a two-story home off Vinecrest Road in Windsor, on the south east end of Foothill Regional Park, and threatened other homes and oak woodland brush.

The fire, which first was reported at about 5:30 p.m., also torched about 2 acres of grass and brush next to the home, which was located at the end of a long driveway that branches off Vinecrest Road.

S everal structures were threatened by the blaze, and residents from nearby homes were evacuated. When the fire reached a hillside of brush and grass, Cal Fire was called in to keep it from spreading into the woodlands, Cal Fire Capt. Amy Head said.

Head said firefighters responded aggressively and that a strong wind about 13 mph raised the possibility of spot fires cropping up.

“We hit it hard and very aggressively, and firefighters made very good progress quickly,” Head said.

Alanna Mintonye, whose parents lived in the burned home, said someone notified her that the house was on fire, and when she arrived she saw fire on the home’s deck area. Mintonye said she initially thought the fire could be easily put out, but that in less than two minutes it had spread into the house and “windows started popping.”

The 3,200-square-foot house, which Mintonye described as a tongue-and-groove kit home, was built by her father, Rodney Mintonye, and his father beginning in 1974, she said. Her father lived in the home with her mother, Teresa.

“They’re in shock,” Alanna Mintonye said of her parents, who sat silently in lawn chairs beneath oak trees watching firefighters blast water at their charred home a couple of hundred feet away.

At a nearby subdivision, curious neighbors gathered on Vinecrest Circle, taking cellphone videos and pictures of the billowing gray smoke rising from the behind the homes on the north side of the street.

Christian Lee, 16, of Windsor said he was skateboarding in the area with some friends when they saw smoke. They went up the road and saw the home engulfed in orange flames, he said. Teresa Mintonye was walking away from the burning home with two goats, Lee said.

“She was a little scared, but she seemed more intent on getting her farm animals out,” Lee said.

The fire soon spread to some nearby vegetation.

The house was situated away from other homes off a private driveway, but the blaze threatened several nearby structures and the nearby subdivision.

Firefighters positioned themselves between the fire and the other threatened homes, Head, the Cal Fire spokeswoman said.

“Firefighters made a really good stand on two or three additional structures and saved them from any further threat,” she said.

Crews battling the fire included personnel from Healdsburg, Cal Fire, Santa Rosa, Rincon Valley and Geyserville.

Three air tankers and a helicopter pulling water from a nearby pond repeatedly dropped water on the blaze, which was brought under control after about an hour.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.