My Wildfire Story: '5 Minutes Later Would Have Been A Lot Worse'

We asked readers for their wildfire stories. If you were impacted by the fires, or know someone who was, we'd like to hear your story.

Here is one of the responses. It has been edited for length and clarity.

We were staying at the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country Hotel on Sunday night. It was a beautiful evening as we returned to the hotel around 9:30 p.m. Where possible, we avoid using the air conditioner and leave the window open to the extent permitted. Around 2 a.m. my wife Gina, smelling smoke for a while and unable to sleep, woke me. Groggy, I began, like her, to realize something was wrong.

We began to hear commotion in the hallway and (stupidly) started packing our things. By the time we exited the room, an employee was going door to door shouting, "Get out now!" As we reached the exit, we entered a world filled with smoke, ashes and a fire creeping up the hill on the opposite side of the parking lot.

My wife turned to walk up the hill, and I looked for the car. When I turned back, she was gone in the smoke. I ran to the car, threw stuff in and began driving back to her, windows down shouting her name. A couple of moments later, another guest said, "Gina's with us!"

Having found Gina, she got in the car along with another couple that had no car, and we proceeded to exit the hotel grounds. Smoke, ash and embers were all around but in a few moments we were out of the immediate danger.

The next couple of hours were all about finding a safe hotel out of the area. From what we can see now, our section of the hotel appears to have largely survived while other sections are decimated. Either way, not an experience we want to relive.

That said, our "losses" were trivial in the aftermath of what we saw. I wanted to go back to look, but the smarter side of me said stay away. Instead, we spent Monday in the quiet of Muir Woods, piecing together our experience and luck. I really think five minutes later would have been a lot worse. Less than 24 hours later, we were on our way home to Boston.