Occidental man, 85, badly burned in fire that destroyed family compound

Two west county house fires in five days have led to the death of a Santa Rosa man and inflicted life-threatening injuries on an Occidental man pulled from his burning home Tuesday evening by his son.

Don Hanni, 85, remained in the intensive care unit at a Sacramento hospital Wednesday after suffering third-degree burns to his face and hands and second-degree burns to much of his body in the flames that engulfed his Occidental Road home and destroyed his son’s adjoining home.

It was about 6:45 p.m. when the son, Robert Hanni, realized his father’s home was burning, said Occidental Fire Chief Ron Lunardi. Their side-?by-side units occupied a combined 3,000 square feet, separated by a parking area.

“He looked across the common area, saw smoke in his dad’s house and went over. Smoke was down to the floor,” the chief said. “He yelled for his father and started going to the other side, scrambling to find him and get him out.”

The son ran in and found his father crouched by a window. Robert Hanni pulled his father out through a sliding glass door, the heat singing his hair in the effort.

Firefighters found the severely injured man and his son outside in the back of the burning home. The older man was given medical aid and taken to an ambulance then to the sheriff’s helicopter, whose crew flew him to UC Davis Medical Center, Lunardi said.

Fire investigations Wednesday determined the fire started near the fireplace in the father’s living room, but the cause remained undetermined.

It was the second grievous structure fire in five days in western Sonoma County.

Last Thursday evening, tamales left too long on a stove too likely caused a mobile home fire west of Santa Rosa that killed the resident, Steven Bennett Palmer, 55, according to Graton fire officials. The blaze quickly spread through the small home. Palmer’s body was found in the burned bedroom.

It was the first fire death in the Graton Fire Protection District since 2007. Lunardi said the already unusually tough week of fires in the region started Sept. 24 when a bedroom fire destroyed an unoccupied mobile home on Coleman Valley Road.

“For whatever reason there’s been a number of (accidental) structure fires in the west county this year, more than usual,” said Graton Fire Chief Bill Bullard. “Ironically we’re experiencing a record low number of vegetation fires.”

Lunardi was the first to the Occidental fire Tuesday night after a flurry of 911 calls about 6:45 p.m. Firefighters found the residences almost completely engulfed in flames. The remote area, size of the structures and amount of fire meant water supply was an issue. Lunardi called for added firefighters and water tenders, getting a two-alarm-?level response with a dozen agencies heading for the rural area west of Highway 116.

While Lunardi ran the firefight, Bullard organized the water shuffle as 11 water tenders together made some 50 trips between the burning home and the Occidental fire station where they refilled, using some 30,000 gallons.

“It was a big house. It was a big fire,” Bullard said. “It was a lot of water.”

Occidental Road in that area is thick with vegetation, trees and a nearby Christmas tree farm, all fuel for a spreading fire and neighbors were worried, Lunardi said. A pickup truck between the homes caught fire and two pine trees near the burning homes were torched as the blaze pushed out into the yard. A small guest cottage also caught fire. Firefighters stopped the fire before the cottage was lost and before it spread to adjoining properties.

It took about 90 minutes to contain the blaze. “It was a tough battle knocking this thing down,” Lunardi said.

Firefighters remained on the property until about 11 p.m. to mop up. Occidental firefighters stayed overnight and a few times had to douse hot spots. The chief took up the watch throughout the day Wednesday in case of further trouble.

Lunardi estimated damage to the cottage to be as much as $10,000 with the loss of the larger property upward of $1.3 million.

That deadly fire last week, within a mobile home at Laguna Road and Cuneo Court, was a more contained and abbreviated firefight. The flames were reported about 5:30 p.m. and when firefighters arrived they found the home in flames. Palmer’s girlfriend arrived and told firefighters he could be inside but flames prevented them from reaching the man, Bullard said. “It was clear it would not have made any difference. No one would have survived the heat that was in there.”

The property owner, who lived in a nearby home, had provided a smoke detector for the rental but authorities couldn’t say whether it was working. Bullard said the resident was known to stop for tamales on his way home from work and then steam them on the stove. In the home’s remains, firefighters found a melted pot on the stove.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com.