Flames damage large northeastern Santa Rosa home

Flames consumed a section of a large home in Santa Rosa's northeastern hills early Monday evening, but firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze amid the region's rainiest day to date of the wet season.

Shortly before 6 p.m., Santa Rosa firefighters responded to a reported structure fire on Stonecrest Court in the Lomitas Heights neighborhood, where they found the back of a 3,600-square-foot single family home partly engulfed in flames, according to Battalion Chief Mark Basque. The blaze was controlled within about a half hour despite access challenges posed by the home's U-shaped layout built onto a hillside, Basque said.

The fire destroyed three rooms of the house and caused about $250,000 in damage. The cause is still under investigation, but is likely to be determined an accident possibly related to electrical wiring the fire investigator is examining, Basque said.

Two occupants of the home evacuated before firefighters arrived. No one was injured.

Neighbors reported embers from the fire, but the wet weather quickly doused them before the fire could spread, according to Basque.

The large blaze caused some concern in light of the Tubbs fire that burned not too far from the home in October.

“Everybody is still very sensitive to what they experienced three months ago,” Basque said. “People up the block were running up to where I was set up asking if they needed to evacuate. While it's understandable given what all those people went through, it wasn't necessary in this case.”

You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at 707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @thejdmorris.