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On October 8, 2017, during a night of dry weather and high winds, several fires sparked around the North Bay and began to spread. One of them, on Nuns Canyon Road in Glen Ellen, expanded rapidly, merging with smaller fires to become the largest wildfire of them all.

By the time the Nuns Fire was brought under control, it had burned more than 56,000 acres in Sonoma and Napa counties, damaged or destroyed about a thousand structures, devastated neighborhoods, forced evacuations from the City of Sonoma, and caused the deaths of two people.

We remember that night, and the ensuing days of smoke and worry, very well. Some of us acted heroically to save lives amid the flames. Others of us lost homes and more. Still others did what we could to help the hundreds of evacuees sheltering elsewhere. Everywhere you looked, a sign was posted: “The love in the air is thicker than the smoke.”

In honor of the one-year anniversary of those profound events, Sonoma Ecology Center presents “Wilder Than Wild,” a documentary film on wildfire and its causes, at Sebastiani Theatre on the evening of Oct. 8. We also have walks and activities planned with an eye to the October wildfires, including more Fire Recovery Walks at Sugarloaf. See below for details.