“Lynne Anderson Powell died while fleeing the Tubbs Fire that tore through her Santa Rosa neighborhood early last Monday. She was 72,” writes Otis R. Taylor Jr. in Monday’s (10/16) San Francisco Chronicle. “She is survived by her husband, George. Ms. Powell had been the principal flutist for the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra for 17 years. Every morning, the Powells walked their four working border collies … near their home on Blue Ridge Trail in Santa Rosa…. [Last] Sunday … around 1 a.m. … when [George] looked at the window … there was a wall of fire rolling toward their house. ‘I said, “Lynne, get out,” ’George Powell recalled. She jumped up and grabbed her dog, who always slept next to her, and scooped up a laptop on the way to her car. She was supposed to turn right on Mark West Springs Road, because that was the escape route they had made. She left about 10 minutes before he did, because George Powell wasn’t going to leave without his three dogs…. Lynne Powell never made it to Mark West Springs Road. Apparently blinded by smoke and flames, she drove off the side of the road…. Funeral arrangements are not yet set.”
Posted October 16, 2017
